After confirming were both on board with chicken liver pate (with hazelnut craquelin and spiced cherry), we order some dishes to share: the intriguing sounding sweetcorn madeleines with crab, the huge, single raviolo with chicken and shitake and a salad of heirloom tomatoes, macadamias and ricotta.

Frederic's grass-fed porterhouse steak.Credit:Joe Armao

Jayasinha cant choose between the glazed lamb scotch and the grass-fed porterhouse steak. So he orders both. Seriously. He declines the side serve of fries, though.

The steak is only a small serving, he says. Im quite comfortable having two plates in front of me.

And not just at home. Jayasinha tries to perform a gig as often as possible, and eats out almost every night. Ive given up trying to decide between which pasta I want, he says, explaining that he routinely orders two.

But he's not a monster: Ill have two separate forks. I dont want to mix the sauces.

Jayasinha taking photos for social media.Credit:Joe Armao

He shares these double pasta meals on social media, and fans now send him photos of when theyve done the same thing.

It does confuse wait staff, he says. He has left his two meals for a bathroom break only to return and find the table has been cleared away: So my main motivation for being in a relationship is to find someone to watch over my food.

Im just amazed he can eat so much and maintain his weight. The double-pasta days, he explains, are his cheat days, from the strict diet he followed while losing the weight.

I would have six days eating no carbs and sugars and then on the seventh day, you can eat anything. That was the day Id go and find a pasta place. Hes unfazed by what other diners think (our waiter is bemused at his double main-course order).

We share some mineral water; Jayasinha no longer drinks, something that must be tricky for someone whose career takes place in bars and licensed venues, late at night.

The chicken and shitake raviolo at Frederic.Credit:Joe Armao

Absolutely, I miss it. I would say, daily. I could probably have just a couple tonight, and ... a couple tomorrow and the next night, but somewhere in the future, that couple would become three, and the three would become 10-plus. Its easier for me to say zero, than to open that up, he says. As difficult as it is to be sober, it was difficult to deal with getting that drunk.

Our first dishes arrive, and after a mouthful of pate, Jayasinha holds up his hand. Ive just gotta take a moment; I need to process this, he says. Ive been trying to do more of this take a bite then leave my cutlery on the table until I finish the mouthful.

Jayasinha in 2016, before his dramatic weight loss.Credit:Wayne Taylor

Hes previously shared his weight-loss journey in his stand-up and now, after a couple of years of therapy and healthier living, hes finally comfortable with himself after years of self-loathing.

But now at this place where Im so comfortable, Im not sure I want to share it with anyone else.

His new show, Victorious Lion, (the name is the literal translation of his Sri Lankan surname) is a meditation on his newfound peace with himself.

It picks up where Ive not fixed myself completely, but Im comfortable with my mental health, and questioning, can I bring someone else into that picture? Its a new world for me, feeling self-confident and assured,'' he says.

It doesn't feel fair that someone might be interested in me now, when I actually needed them in my 20s.

Really, though, hes happy alone for the time being.

I come home and Ive got a bed to myself and I stretch out. I can go to the supermarket and get prosciutto and I dont have to share it, he says.

You can eat it naked, straight from the packet?

Thats it. At the supermarket, too.

Conversation with Jayasinha is relaxed; hes as interested in my views as giving his own, there are no "showbizzy" pretensions.

Jayasinha, far right, in ABC TV's Utopia.Credit:Hwa Goh

Im not that funny all the time, he says. I hate small talk. I like to ask about dark things, or what inspired people to get into their jobs. Im actually earnest.

When we meet, hes just back from a successful run at Adelaide Fringe Festival, and is preparing for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Since then, of course, the world has changed and the festival has been cancelled.

By email last week, Jayasinha says that like everyone in the industry, hes trying to figure out ''where to from now''.

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It's a day-by-day challenge. Some days are a win where I've managed to eat healthily and do some physical activity but also tick off some work tasks, he says. Then there are other days where I've not changed out of PJs and I ate 1.5 litres of gelato at various points. But I've been prioritising finding a routine that works for me, and a big must-do each day is making a few calls to family and friends.

Hes also installed the video-sharing app Tik Tok, but is yet to upload anything, and has invested in a guitar, a keyboard and an electronic drum kit, despite having no musical skills.

This is in addition to the juggling balls I bought.

Jayasinha has been steadily making a name as a comic for the past decade, after moving to Australia from Sri Lanka in 2004 to study accountancy, a career that might be considered the antithesis of comedy.

It's a day-by-day challenge. Some days are a win where I've managed to eat healthily and do some physical activity ... Then there are other days where I've not changed out of PJs and I ate 1.5 litres of gelato.

He graduated and landed a job with one of the big firms, before moving to a smaller company where he worked for several years.

But crunching numbers was never his passion.

To begin with, the comedy was something on the side after he tried out at an open mic gig. He was instantly hooked, even though he bombed.

That was why I knew I had to do it because I loved it so much despite being shit at it, he says.

He was though, a funny kid: if he could make his brother laugh, his brother would go into their mums handbag and pay him 10 rupees.

If it was a really good joke hed give me 20, Jayasinha says. People would have described me as being funny, but there was always someone funnier than me.

As his stand-up career grew, little by little he shaved off his days in the office until for about six months, he was working as an accountant just one day a week.

Eventually, my boss was like, do you really need this job?.

While he doesnt miss the work (and declines to do my taxes), he misses his former colleagues; he still goes to the office Christmas parties.

And my ex-boss is my current accountant. Its a nice circle.

By the time our (three) main courses have been cleared, weve talked food weaknesses (Jayasinha cant resist good bread and butter), his tight-knit family, (he visits his parents in Sri Lanka three times a year), the divisiveness of comedy (In comedy, if you dont like what I find funny, then I cant believe that person thinks thats comedy. People get very passionate about it.), his new approach to exercise (I try and look at it as a celebration of what your body can do rather than a punishment for what you ate.) and his love of The Age crossword and sudoku. Im impressed hes a regular reader until he reveals he just steals that one page from cafes.

But Im paying for the coffee that ends up paying for the paper!

Completing the crossword, he says, is his one daily consistency.

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In my job, there are a lot of variables. The mood of the crowd can change the show; if they've come in from the rain, from a hot day, if theyve been waiting for too long in the line, theyre drunk or tired, he says. But theres only 26 letters that can fit into that grid, and only nine digits for sudoku that have to go somewhere.

Like most of his socially distanced comedy peers, Jayasinha hopes he can get his material out to fans in other ways; his podcast Fitbet, originally set up with fellow comic Ben Lomas as a bet to see who could get their weight down to under 100kg first (for $1000), will continue; the pair will record over Skype.

And disappointed fans hoping to see Jayasinha at this years comedy festival can at least enjoy his TV special, streaming later this month.

In the meantime, perhaps its time for Jayasinha to tackle cooking?

Im still playing around with my old uni day staples of rice and cans of tuna, he says. But I think perhaps fine dining deliveries are the way to go.

Live: Dilruk Jayasinha, filmed at the Malthouse, available on Amazon Prime from April 24.

THE BILL PLEASE

Receipt for lunch at Frederic in Cremorne.

Frederic, 9-11 Cremorne St, Cremorne. 9089 7224. (Temporarily closed; usual hours: Mon-Fri 11.30am-11pm; Sat 5pm-11pm; Sun 11.30am-3pm.)

Kylie Northover is Spectrum Deputy Editor at The Age

Read the original here:

Food was never the problem for Utopia comedian Dilruk Jayasinha - Sydney Morning Herald