About Us - Ella Kanda Canopy Kitchen

How It Started

A Kitchen Perched in the Sri Lankan Sky

Ella Kanda Canopy Kitchen was born out of a dream to merge authentic Sri Lankan family recipes with the unmatched beauty of Mathara's high forests.

Founded in 2022 by native hosts and chefs, we wanted to step away from traditional ground-level restaurants. We constructed a spacious, open-air wooden deck suspended 15 meters high among the branches of native Jackfruit and Kumbuk trees in the hills of Ellakanda.

Our cooking school emphasizes authentic, generations-old recipes, utilizing traditional clay pots, hand-hewn firewood hearths, and stone spice grinders. Cooking in the canopy isn't just about the visual beauty; it brings you directly into the fresh mountain air, where bird calls, rustling leaves, and natural forest scents elevate every bite.

4+

Years of Treetop
Cooking

Our Philosophy

Rooted in Sustainable Practices

We respect the environment that hosts us. Every aspect of our Canopy Kitchen is optimized to preserve the pristine nature of Ellakanda.

Farm-to-Treetop

90% of our ingredients are harvested from our own organic valley gardens or sourced from small, independent organic farms in the Mathara valley.

Pure Mountain Water

We use only clean, filtered mountain spring water for washing, cooking, and brewing our organic herbal infusions.

Zero Waste Kitchen

All food scraps and organic peelings are composted to nourish our gardens. Cooking ash is used as natural soil minerals.

Meet the Family

Your Canopy Culinary Guides

Chef Tharindu

Head Instructor & Founder

Born and raised in Mathara, Tharindu has over 15 years of experience sharing traditional Sri Lankan cooking secrets. His passion is explaining the chemical harmony of spices.

Amma Priyanthi

Traditional Curry Specialist

Tharindu's mother, Priyanthi, oversees the recipe authenticity. She represents the ancestral touch, bringing recipes passed down for five generations directly to the tree decks.