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Ranga: first cast, I stick a huge rainbow. There is an old timer, about 50 yards upstream of me.

And he's like, did you just catch a rainbow out of blah, blah, blah? yeah. He's like, I have been fishing this hole for 30 years and I've never seen someone pull a fish out of the side channel.

He's like, good job, young man.

Paddy: Was that like the trophy, the good job, young

Ranga: oh yeah, dude.

Paddy: the silver back, you know? Did

Ranga: Yeah. I mean, yeah, dude. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, nothing better in fly fishing than an old white dude telling me that I did it right. You know what I mean? you have my blessing, son, you know.

Paddy: is, that is the, that is the soundbite of all soundbites, dude.

PADDY INTRO VO:

I  was 8 years old when my dad changed my life forever. In the summer of 1992, on my family’s first Western road trip, we were strolling around Utah’s Snowbird Ski Resort when I stepped on a storm drain grate. The grate [00:01:00] gave way and fell into the dark abyss of the drain; I fell, too, barely catching my fingers on the lip of asphalt, screaming for help. Was this to be the end of lil ole PaddyO? No, because my dad grabbed the back of my shorts and yanked me to safety with the giant tug of a rescue wedgie. To this day, I refuse to walk on grates of any kind. I see wedgies in a whole new light, too.

That was not the first, nor the last, time my dad was there when the ground crumbled underneath me. I'm not really sure what my life would be like without my dad. But I hope it would be as filled with perspective, laughter, and gratitude as that of avid fly fisher and professional chef Ranga Perera.

MUSIC

Ranga was born in Sri Lanka in the 1980s. He remembers good times, [00:02:00] like fishing and beach parties with his family and friends. It was also an incredibly dangerous time in Sri Lanka. A violent civil war broke out in 1983, one that would last until 2009 and eventually claim the lives of an estimated 100,000 people. For safety, Ranga's parents moved the family to California in 1991. But less than a year after emigrating, Ranga's father had a massive heart attack and tragically passed away at the age of 39, an event that haunted Ranga until his own massive heart attack that nearly killed him in 2017.

He has every right to be bitter and angry. But Ranga is the opposite and leans into the two passions that have shaped the last quarter century of his life: fly fishing and cooking. When he’s not feeding flies to the giant fishies in Montana’s legendary rivers, he’s feeding clients as one of the region’s [00:03:00] most sought-after private chefs, and each activity has a surprising influence on the other.

I thought this would be an emotional conversation about dealing with tragedy, but it’s one of the most joy-filled chats I’ve ever had. Ranga lets what was taken from him and what he’s endured float past him, focusing instead on all the good that still fills his life and the possibilities just around the bend. I found it remarkable, and I think you will too.

MUSIC

Paddy: How we start is burnt toast. What's your last humbling, hilarious moment outside?

Ranga: That I did or some I was involved in

Paddy: Hey, there's no rules here. You can definitely say like, this is what I witnessed of my friend,

Ranga: that's exactly what this story's gonna

be. And It happened on Sunday, the day that I got to fish after four months. So super fired up. I'm late getting over there 'cause I'm just dragging butt I'm putting on my waiters and I'm looking at my homie.

I'm like, dude, it feels [00:04:00] so good to just like, get the gear on, and he's like, all right, bro, , let's roll. We've only got like an hour, right? Like this is in between like me getting there, his kids being like, when are we eating? Why can't we go fishing? Get in the car and he drives a big, you know, typical fly fisherman rig. He's got a Toyota Tundra. Ooh. He is also equally excited. And he throws the rig into reverse and he just like swings out. He completely forgets that my rig is right around the corner in his blind spot

and I'm like, oh, he's not slowing down. I'm like, Tony. And right then, bam smashes into the front of my rig he just looks at me. He is like. Oh shit. He did crack the bumper. But somehow missed like, you know how these new rigs, they have like the Gucci sensors and everything somehow missed the sensor, missed a bunch of other stuff. He felt like such an asshole. And

I'm like, , it's fine. , dude, it is Sunday. This is not getting fixed right [00:05:00] now. Like, let's deal with this later. And then there's a whole string of bad luck on the river.

So I've got a pocket knife I reached into my pocket to do something and the blade is completely open in

Paddy: Oh my God.

Ranga: right?

That could have been really bad. Then I lose my fly. All this other stuff happens. And Tony just looks at me. He's like, dude, we are really having a run. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're taking a breath and we're doing this. Next cast is the only fish I caught, caught a really nice fish.

Paddy: This is what happens when you take four months off. You have to like, bust off all the rust and the bad luck juju.

Ranga: Yeah, man. But we got back after fishing he just walked straight to the car. He is like, I'm so sorry. I was like, you're going to fix it. I'm not fixing it. You have to fix it.

His wife doesn't know yet. She's about to know when this podcast gets released.

Hahahaha! All right, let's get into it.

Paddy: MUSIC

I want you to tell me if these people would change and how they would change if they were to fish.

Donald Trump?[00:06:00]

Ranga: I knew you were gonna go there. No way. No way. He lacks patience and he'd be like, why aren't the fish coming over here to bite my hook? It's the greatest fly ever, you know?

Paddy: Dude, I did not know that you had such a good Trump impression.. Oh my God.

That's it. Thanks for coming everybody. That's the show.

Ranga: oh my God,

Paddy: Okay. Putin.

Ranga: yes. I think he would change. I think there's a chance because he's very calculated, he doesn't give a F about what's going on around him. If he was able to change at his focus from world domination to dominating a big fish somewhere in Russia where no one else can fish. Yeah, I think so.

Paddy: If the fish aren't biting, then the KGB will make them,

Ranga: exactly.

Paddy: Taylor Swift?

Ranga: She would be singing the entire time she would get into it,

custom waiters with frills for sure. No question about it.

Paddy: Cher.

Ranga: [00:07:00] The image in my head right now is just ridiculous. It's her in that jumpsuit, just, yeah, exactly. Just watching her fly. Just drift down, I believe you know. Oh man. I'm sweating over here. This is ridiculous.

Paddy: this is so great.

PAUSE PAUSE PAUSE

So, like you, I fly fish, which means I am really good at standing in rivers and screaming the F word. And the knots that I make with a fly line are the most intricate weaves ever created. If they didn't make me so angry, they would be the most beautiful friendship bracelets of all time.

So, explain to me why this very, very frustrating sport is your thing.

Ranga: So first of all, fly fishing I think is for nerds. I just don't know anyone that wasn't like a total nerd as a kid. And usually there was Legos model building, something like that involved in their childhood, crazy science experiment kits, [00:08:00] magic kits, things that you could like really, really get nuanced about. , but I think that's also the appeal of it it is deceptively simple, it's like golf, like. It, it's not about effort. It's about focus and finesse. And so what you're doing is you're unraveling your mind in that process.

It's not really your body, it's your mind. Like you're talking about wind knots. Like, dude, trust me, I get nasty ones still.

Paddy: Oh, I'm not alone?

Ranga: In the zone, no, no. It's part of it, dude. Oh, and if you're having a bad day, it's, it's not, I, I, I'll just stop. I'll be like, okay, time to just take off the glasses. I take off my hat.

I'm like, guys, I'm going for a walk. I'll be right back. 'cause clearly my head's not in the game. Once you're in flow, it is one of the most poetic and beautiful things. You feel it, you feel it in your cast, you feel it in your presentation.

You feel it in the way that you're fighting the fish. Once it's on the hook, it's just fluid. Time slows down as opposed to speeding [00:09:00] up. And that's what I like about it, is it's the mental side of it.

It's not my body,

Paddy: What are your recommendations then for like dropping that frustration? Do I just need to be like more athletic because I do have kind of a well-known love-hate relationship with fly fishing

Ranga: Yeah. Yeah. Well, good. It sounds like you fish.

Paddy: I do, but that's the thing. It's like I am absolute like dog poopy at it but I also love it. , I have landed some fish and that feeling is so indescribable as compared to the other things that I do in the out of doors. So how do I get more of that

Ranga: I think it depends on the personality type, but for me, I'm not out there to compete. Yes, obviously I want to catch a fish, but that's not the sole reason that I'm out there. , getting a fish to your hand or to the net more appropriately is the bonus.

For me, the river is an opportunity to slow down. It's the suiting up despite, you know, if you hit a car behind you or not. It's, it's, it's the walk to the [00:10:00] water. I do this every time, man, before my first cast, I close my eyes and I listened to the water and I just.

Take three to five breaths because life is chaos, man. You've got a, a nugget now that requires a lot of attention. You got bills to pay and everything else. And this is a moment of zen. This is supposed to feed you. Have you read Siddhartha by Herman Hess? It's a storytelling of how Buddha, who was a prince, became the Buddha. , he spends time on a river with , a ferryman , and the Ferryman, talks about the thousand voices of the water. Over years of hanging out with this ferryman. He then starts to hear, it's not just one jumble noise, it becomes distinct voices within the river. And I read this when I was like 19 or 20 years old. You know, I was in college and I hadn't fished at that point. And there it just stood out.

And so once I started fishing, that's what I'm doing. I'm listening to a [00:11:00] thousand Voices of the river. And when you can plug into that, I guarantee your fishing is gonna go to the next level. And I find for myself, if I'm fishing like poop, it's because I'm not listening to the thousand voices. It's I'm in my head.

I'm like, oh, what's wrong with me? Wrong? Are you idiot? Hold your back cast.

Paddy: dude.

Ranga: all that stuff, right?

Paddy: that guy in your head too. Oh,

Ranga: Oh, we a hundred percent. Yeah. His name's Paddy.

Paddy: yeah, exactly. What a jerk, that guy,

Ranga: Damn Catholic guilt.

Paddy: no doubt, dude. Yeah. I mean, that's how I wake up every morning. Hey, remember, you're bad.

Uh, I feel like you and I have a lot of similarities.

Like we have like these very quick twitch brains that are almost like constantly doing something, constantly running. there's like the applications are running in the background. Right. And, I feel like that is the thing about fly fishing that attracts me so much is like the calming of [00:12:00] that.

Ranga: Yep.

Paddy: Is it your form of meditation?

Ranga: Yeah, I mean, I,, I'm a daily meditator as well it's a tool to bring me. To the present moment , when I'm fishing poorly, it's because I'm thinking about something that happened or something that's about to happen, like some people can break it down mentally. Okay, there's 300 fish in this pool and here are the seven lanes and here are the depths. That's not how I fish. I, I fish from the soul man. And the only way that I can do that is to get present. Take a moment, take a beat, take a breath.

PAUSE PAUSE

This happened years ago in Yellowstone Park. There were all these old timers that come out every time in the fall. They've been doing it for 30 years and they're all fishing the same pool. And I kept looking at a spot in the complete opposite direction. There was something that was just drawing my attention and I'm like, I'm gonna walk over there And I changed flies and did all this thing. first cast, I stick a huge rainbow. There is an old timer, about 50 yards upstream of me.

He just [00:13:00] happened to be looking downstream. I see him, he gets out of the river, walks down, and he's like, did you just catch a rainbow out of blah, blah, blah? He's like, yeah. He's like, I have been fishing this hole for 30 years and I've never seen someone pull a fish out of the side channel.

He's like, good job, young man.

Paddy: Was that like the trophy, the good job, young

Ranga: oh yeah, dude.

Paddy: the silver back, you know? Did

Ranga: Yeah. I mean, yeah, dude. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, nothing better in fly fishing than an old white dude telling me that I did it right. You know what I mean? But, but you know, you have my blessing, son, you know.

Paddy: is, that is the, that is the soundbite of all soundbites, dude. Hey, thanks for coming out, everybody.

Ranga: that's twice. Now you said that. Let's go for the third. But that's the thing, right? It's like that could only happen if I followed my instinct. I'm like, everyone's working this pool. I'm not trying to be different. I'm just following this gut [00:14:00] feeling, and the only way that I can trust that feeling is to give it credence and credibility,

I look at it as a, opportunity to play in a way that you don't have to get your head into it. It's almost like, you know, it sounds silly, but almost like a inner child thing. It's like you're just messing around with blocks. Like there's no purpose to it, right?

Like, your kid's gonna do this soon enough. Like they're gonna start drawing and they're gonna be like, dad, look what I did. And you're like, amorphous blue shape with sparkles on it. Right? But they're so stoked because they got to create this thing and just flow with it,

Paddy: fly fishing is the erector set of the outdoors.

Ranga: a hundred percent. Or in my case, Lego, you know,

PAUSE PAUSE PAUSE

Paddy: You take a lot of life lessons from fly fishing

Ranga: I do, I do.

Paddy: There are a lot of like funny cliches. About fly fishing. I mean, there's funny cliches about every kind of character in the outdoors and the, fly fish bro is one of them. Also, like the zen like [00:15:00] philosophizer of the water is one of them. Do you relate to the like elite level Montana fly fish bro, cliche or do you relate to it more as like, this is just a thing that my friends and I do and luckily I take these lessons and apply it to my life?

Ranga: Ooh. I would say more of a hybrid model, because there is, like, the bros are good. They get after it, they're frothing for it, they're chomping at the bit for it, right? Like, and I do, I get excited, you know, like, yeah, we can talk about me being zenned out, but like, I am excited.

Don't get me wrong.

Paddy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Ranga: how I wanna focus that energy and harness that energy you know, if we're talking about the force in, in Star Wars, it's like, what do you want to use the force for good or evil? And like, how do you want to utilize it? You wanna just move starships around, or you want to like, do some cool shit and change the world, you know, like, what, what do you want to do here?

MUSIC FADES UP HERE

Paddy: Do you think that you relate to fly fishing as a [00:16:00] Montana guy because you've lived there for almost two decades now? Or do you relate to it more as a Sri Lankan immigrant?

Ranga: Oh, that's a great que. Wow. That's getting me thinking here.

Paddy: That's what we're here for.

Ranga: I like it. Insightful question. Insightful. I would say when I first started, it was more to be that Montana vibe. I mean, I loved it. Day one. Right. I really, really loved it. I think with any art form, no matter who you are, and I, would relate this to cooking, is you have to learn the fundamentals.

And when you're learning the fundamentals, you look to your heroes and they're a certain way and they dress a certain way and they talk a certain way and they, there's the vernacular, right? There's the verbiage that goes with it and everything. And then along the way you get to a level of proficiency where then you start to figure out, this doesn't work for me, but this does.

I want to explore this thing more. And you find your own style. And I would say in [00:17:00] finding my own style, it is rooted in, the Rocky Mountains, because this is where I learned how to fish, but. I'm originally from an island. What appealed to me about getting into waiters was tromping around crystal clear water, looking at rocks and checking stuff out, and reminded me of tide pooling as a kid,

and so now I'm in this place where I'm able to combine , the fundamentals and the technical aspect of what I learned in the Rockies, but with that childhood joy of exploration and everything else that I remember as a kid in Sri Lanka.

Paddy: Well let's talk about that. 'cause that seems really interesting to me. You know, like what are the similarities between your time in the outdoors in Montana now, and the memories you have of being a kid in Sri Lanka?

Ranga: , I also spent time in the Middle East in Oman as a really young kid. My dad was working there, but like stunning beaches, like to this day, I haven't been back in 37 years and I still remember distinct spots from my [00:18:00] in Oman.

And my memories of being in both places was how much of our social life and our loved ones were with us. In or around the water. So in Oman, it was my dad and his crazy, insane friends hiking over a cliff. And we would hike in coolers and food and tents and all this stuff. And he had this like little tiny cove that no one knew about because it was really inaccessible. And we would drop in, start a big fire, and we would hang out for two or three days. There's all this food and we could swim whenever we wanted to and it was the same thing in Sri Lanka, especially on the ocean. we would go as a family and we would take picnic lunches with us and we'd go for a day on the beach, which looked a lot different than the day on the beach here.

You know, it's not just like bikinis and everything else. Like that was foreign. It was more spending time together. I fish solo pretty often. 'cause [00:19:00] sometimes I need to. But the people that I'm on the river with fishing are the people that are the most important to me in my world. They're my closest friends.

And, the people whose tutelage and wisdom I gained from, they're, you know, a lot of them historically have been older than me. They were my mentors. So there was all these lessons that they were teaching me along the way. And I think that for me was also an important factor, but. In general, the tie in for me was being in an exploratory learning state and also a joyous state with people I love.

That was what carried over from my time in Srilanka and Oman to here.

MUSIC IN THE CLEAR FOR A BEAT

PADDYO VO:

Coming up after the break, Ranga opens up about how his father's death and his own heart attack changed the way he looks at life.

MIDROLL MIDROLL MIDROLL MIDROLL MIDROLL

Paddy: You and your family come to America in the nineties, to California, and you end up going to uc, Berkeley to [00:20:00] study poli sci. You've said previously that you felt you were kind of a mess. What was wrong? What was missing?

Ranga: yeah. I think there was a lot going on. So one was, As the eldest son of a family who, you know, we lost my dad to a heart attack within a year of moving to the states in 91. , I felt this burden , and I was lucky that my mom wasn't like the traditional stereotypical eastern parent of go, you gotta do this.

Like, she's like, just find what makes you happy. I just want you to be a good person. I'm like, okay, cool. I don't need to be a doctor. Like, okay, thanks mom. You know, like, that's cool. So I was lucky in that way, but I felt that pressure. I had a younger brother, but I self-imposed pressure of my parents sacrifice so much to get us here and my dad died and we had the option of going back to Sri Lanka and being much more comfortable in Sri Lanka, but my mom's like, no way.

My husband and I agreed on this. This was the dream for the boys we're staying. And so after my dad died, I took [00:21:00] on a lot of that pressure. And when I got to college, I now understand that I had crippling anxiety and probably depression. There were all these unprocessed traumas, basically is the best way I can put it, of watching my dad literally collapse in front of me and die and everything that that meant. That ripple effect that occurred from that monumental moment. This isn't even considering living through a civil war in Sri Lanka and being held at gunpoint and all this other stuff that had happened before I got to the States, which is why we got here in the first place. And so when I got to college, I was untethered.

And I think that's a function of age, right? I was 17 when I started college, and you know, who the hell really knows what they're doing at 17? And I'll be honest also, like I didn't drink. , I didn't smoke pot, I didn't do anything. And I'm like, oh, here it is.

The dare briefcases here in front of me. Like, let's go. , . You know, and, and there's no one, around me. There's no one to [00:22:00] monitor me.

And I just went berserk and I exploded in so many different directions and with that, I'm the first person in our family to go to college, so I'm figuring this out on my own. So I don't have a support structure.

Paddy: Yeah,

Ranga: And looking back, I would've done it a little differently.

You know, I, I would've probably been seeing a therapist. I would've reached out to more of the community around me. I was lucky that. I did have some people just kind of towards the end be like, whoa, dude, you need to reel this back in. And it wasn't that I was

Paddy: that family who did that or was that, friends? Because it sounds like to me what you're describing is, you know, kind of like getting shot out of a cannon and it's recklessness. Camouflaged as freedom.

Ranga: Yes. That I would absolutely say that freedom meant being reckless.

All of a sudden there's no guardrails. I knew my family was, worried, my mentor, uh, Rick, he was the guy that got me to Montana, got me into fly fishing. , he's Obi-Wan and he was like, dude, you gotta, you gotta get [00:23:00] outta here.

And I was, dude, I was so unhealthy.

And I just somehow graduated. and if I stayed, it would've cost me, it would've cost me my life in one way, shape, or form. Getting to Montana was what switched everything

being out here in the outdoors and getting on the river and everything else, , I feel like my life is a canon explosion again, but with guardrails I see it as just like a shot in towards the stars. Like my life has gotten infinitely better. It was the best thing I ever did for myself was moving out to Montana.

Paddy: You ended up in Montana in kind of a circuitous way, right it's the early two thousands. You've graduated you get a job, you're feeling kind of lost in your early twenties. And then Rick, your mentor, invites you on your first ever fly fishing trip to Montana. What happened on that trip that inspired you to move there just a few months later?

Ranga: Oh, man. Electrical current. It was like seeing in black and white and then all of a sudden someone hit a switch and you're [00:24:00] seeing life in technicolor.

I'm 22 at this point, I'm bar backing here and I've got a day job here , and, Rick calls me up and he, he's already presented Montana as an option. I laughed at him like I pointed out my skin.

I was like, dude, no way, man. It's Montana. Like there's no way they're gonna be okay with someone like me. You know, the irony is he is half Japanese, half Mexican, so he is just like, it's not what you think Ranga. I'm like, whatever. I just totally dismissed them. So he calls me out of the blue and he's like, Hey man, we're doing our annual guys trip out to rock Creek, outside Missoula,

why don't you join us? And he's like, I got it all. You're covered. I was like, okay, like I have no money if, if you're paying for it, I'm in. And so we're driving through the night, , there's no streetlights anywhere.

I'm like, God, I've never seen a place as dark as this. Like this is insanity. And we pull into the cabin, I pass out and I wake up the next morning it's like mid-September I walk outside my jaw just drops. We're like six feet from the creek.

There's [00:25:00] cliffs and mountains, there's big horn sheep, there's deer, there's trees. But what I remember the most, I'm a very smell and taste oriented person from cooking. I have a super sensitive nose., the smell. Of the water and the air, I was like, I've never smelled anything like this before in my life. At this point in my life, I had never really slept outside and every night I would drag my sleeping bag. Out to the deck and I would sleep right next to the creek we got out fishing and I sucked at it. But I'm just having so much fun

and then I catch my first fish, which is a cutthroat trout and. That was it, man. And I saw a bald eagle that day, and we had this sick, like river lunch where they made like black bean salmon on the river. And I'm like, what is this? Got back, couldn't stop talking about it.

Literally started having dreams about the place. . And I told my girlfriend at the time and she's like, yeah, it's beautiful. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. You don't understand [00:26:00] telling my mom. And she's like, yeah, I know.

I hear it's beau. Well, she was like, where's Montana? That was my mom's response. And, uh, what's a Montana? You know? And, uh, so, um, yeah man, so I was literally haunted by just this, . This magnetic pull back out. And so I called Rick up and I'm like, I wanna spend a summer out there. I don't know what I'm doing with my life.

He's like, I think that's a great idea. He's like, apply for a job. I'll be your reference. Uh, here's the deal, blah, blah, blah. Got a job. I was definitely the only kid from California.

I knew nothing. I still remember driving my Saturn SL one four door green sedan just packed with whatever. I'd never seen snow fall out of the sky until that drive to the ranch.

Paddy: Unreal.

Ranga: And I pull up, I'm a little early and this dude walks out and six blue healers are like, I'm like.

And I, I put my hands up, dude. I'm not kidding. I'm like, my name is Ranga. I'm supposed to [00:27:00] work here. 'cause I'm like, you know, it's this dude, like this crazy cowboy with leather cuffs on. He laughs. The first two or three weeks I was super nervous, flashlight everywhere. , and then after a while I got comfortable with the silence. Every day after the shift, , I had this little spot on the creek called meditation rock.

It was like curved, like a seat. And I would watch moose walk around and I'm like, this is it, man. And what was supposed to be a summer job turned into 20 years later.

Paddy: I feel so much kinship your story. 'cause the same thing happened to me, but with skiing and with, Colorado, and I think similarly to you, like when I moved out there, I was like, I am adopting all of these things.

Like I am so green, I am so like wet behind the ears, rookie status, but I want to be the guy, the Colorado guy. , when you moved to Montana just a couple months after this very fateful fly fishing trip, like you did that, right? , you start fly fishing more and more. Spending more time outside. You work on a [00:28:00] frigging dude ranch for crying out loud. And then you get a gig chefing for members at the very fancy Yellowstone club

So how exactly has fly fishing informed your cooking? from like, be

Ranga: These are great questions.

Yeah, I think there's a couple of things going on there. With fishing, , my friend that smashed my bumper, he said, dude, it was so obvious from the beginning that you had the soul of a fisherman. There was something that resonated for you. And it was very clear when we first met that you didn't have the skillset, but there was a magnetic draw for you. And it was the same thing with cooking. I had several mentors, but one in particular, Chuck Schomer at the time. He was the only James Beard chef in all of Montana.

I was working with him at the Yellowstone Club, and I still remember him taking me to a side and he's like, Ranga, you understand flavor. That is not teachable.

What you don't have is technique. I can teach you technique. you have what it takes. You don't know how to do it, [00:29:00] but because you have the love, the passion, and this innate ability, we can show you the tools. And so as I'm going through phishing.

I'm also in the culinary world. I'm kind of like getting yelled at by classic French trained chefs they're like, oh, you cannot do that. That is too much flavor . And you know, you're just like, dude, shut up. Like, I know it's going to work, my family background in Sri Lanka, my, my.

Dad's side of the family, they have a very high-end tea company, . So I grew up in the tasting rooms where there's like a hundred samples of tea laid out, and you look at the.

Dry leaf, the leaf that was brewed, so it's wet. And then what we call the steep tea, which is the liquor. I knew how to quantify flavor. as I'm adding more tools and learning techniques, , all of a sudden. I found my stride and my stride really kicked into, into high gear where I'd been working in kitchens, working in kitchens, and I realized this is not the money maker.

And so in 2008, on the [00:30:00] weekends I would do a popup dinner

First 10 people that would get back to me on a email list got a spot at the table and we're only doing one dinner, , we're doing that menu for two nights. There's no multiple rotations or seatings.

So it's super limited. It's the club you can't get into. It's chill is all hell.

So from oh eight to 2012, there were no pop-up dinners here. Underground dinners weren't a thing, and all of a sudden, you know, other people started doing it, but they were trying to make money. I was doing it strictly for creativity and learning. And then from there I started gaining a reputation of like, oh man, there's this crazy Sri Lankan dude living in Bozeman that does sick dinners. I then quit all my other jobs and started focusing on the cooking. And then from there, got some clients at the Yellowstone Club to cook privately. And here I am 14 years later,

Paddy: As you're growing with lessons of patience from fly fishing, you're growing with this creativity in cooking, and those [00:31:00] two are, are intertwined

Is that also translating to more of calm and serenity in your personal life?

Ranga: , the success of both on small and big levels gave me more and more confidence.

To just listen to my inner voice and stop listening to the external voices. To trust that inner knowing, that inner guide, , we live in a very distracting world. But if you can silence it all and listen to yourself, you've got the answer.

Paddy: how is it helping in the continued processing of the loss of your father?

Ranga: Okay. So with, with my father, I mean, there's a lot of layers, right? There's a lot of layers. in parallel to the fishing and the cooking, I'm also now in therapy and I've done workshops and I've journaled and I've cried and I've yelled and I've screamed.

But along the way there was a discovery of I'm chasing my father's legacy, his ghost, his approval.

Paddy: Mm.

Ranga: And in that [00:32:00] building of the confidence, I realized that I'm my own person, that my dad influenced me, that there are great characteristics that I have from him. But he's him and I'm me. I am not my dad. And the last part of that was the heart attack. My dad died at 38 of a massive heart attack.

And that was the biggest fear I had in my entire life. It wasn't public speaking, it wasn't fear of failure, it wasn't any of that. It was will I die of a heart attack?

Paddy: Oh my God.

Ranga: And I had mine at 36. I. And once that happened, , I'm like, the worst possible thing that I have been the most scared of has occurred.

Paddy: Yeah.

Ranga: I have come out of it. I better for it. , it has forced me to deal with so much stuff, mental health especially that I was avoiding.

Paddy: yeah,

Ranga: it's done. You are free. You are not in the shadow of [00:33:00] your father in any way anymore.

That was the healing,

Paddy: that is a remarkable thing to take away because this was a massive heart attack. Like you almost died. Like, I don't

Ranga: I, I was dead.

Paddy: as like, ugh, like this is, I just had like a chill heart attack. Like I don't think that's a thing, but, like the cutoff point for resuscitation is like four minutes in the hospital and they were like, well, let's go a little bit

Ranga: 30 extra

Paddy: yeah. And then, and you were literally brought back to life.

Ranga: Yeah.

Paddy: When you actually get discharged from the hospital, are you like, okay, here is the new way that Ranga does life because this was the flag in the ground moment there is everything that is like precedes this and now everything that moves forward from this.

Ranga: No more fear . And the biggest thing for me was no more avoidance. If there's something going on, don't shovel it. Deal with it. Right. Because even, even my heart health, I knew I needed to get checked and I didn't. And so I was like, no more burying stuff under the rug. You got credit card [00:34:00] debt, deal with it. You've got , a conversation you need to have with a friend. bring it up. No more pretending,

Paddy: when your dad died, you were very young, and you have said that it almost felt like you did not have a childhood. After that moment,

Ranga: yes.

Paddy: after the heart attack, did you feel like you were able to reconnect and have the childhood that you wanted? Did fishing and cooking get reignited

did it feel like, I'm looking at it in a new way. I'm experiencing it like with child's eyes now.

Ranga: I don't think it was like this instantaneous moment there. It was still a progression, but in giving myself that freedom to deal with this dredge and this sludge and these little boulders that I carry that add up and in the releasing of, those over time and very extensive therapy, I feel that I am, very much grown up in some ways, but I feel like.

my daily attitude is much more childlike. It's much more joyous. And looking at [00:35:00] things through the balance of experience and also being just curious enough to want to continue to engage, because that's what kids do. They're

Paddy: yeah. Oh yeah.

Ranga: right?

Paddy: So how has this new perspective on looking at life through the eyes of a child shifted or transformed your time outside?

Ranga: oh, way more gratitude.

Paddy: Mm-hmm.

Ranga: Way more stoked to just be outside. I know I'm eventually gonna fish and I know I'm gonna catch a fish and everything else, but I take more time outs now. I'm just so excited to just be there. And it's the same thing with cooking.

Like I, I've been working my butt off these last couple of months, but then I remind myself what an amazing thing it is to be able to create good food. before the heart attack, what drove me with food was creating the perfect bite. I wanted to just, wow, you make you stop, make you moan and groan and roll your eyes [00:36:00] and reach for a cigarette after, you know, whatever it was, you know?

Paddy: These tacos have really curled my toes.

Ranga: Yeah, exactly. Wow. What a slaw. You know? ,

PAUSE PAUSE MUSIC FADES UP

I love making great food. But what drives me because life is short and precious, is people connecting over a meal.

I think we have a lot of difficult moments because we think we're alone, but we're not.

Paddy: Yeah.

Ranga: I think we need to be selective in who we have in our world, but we all have great people in our world, so let's foster and grow that. And I think food is one of the best and easiest ways to do that. Number two, close Second, Getting outside with the people who mean the most to you.

When I think about fishing, I also think about the annual trips that I have with my mentor, Rick. Every June for the last 22 years, we fish Rock Creek during the salmon fly hatch. Some years it's garbage. Sometimes it's awesome, but [00:37:00] it's every single year I know I'm gonna see him, and I'm gonna see Glen, who I drove with for the first time.

To Montana in 2003. And so there's this revisiting of roots and this connection that I think is special. My buddy Jeremy, every year we go to the Bob Marshall. . Some days I'm like, I just need to get on the river. But when I think about fishing, I'm thinking about my homies.

I'm thinking about how great it's gonna be to just like laugh and just be idiots and you know, smash into the bumper and laugh about it. You know, like, you know what I mean? Like it, because it's like, it puts things into perspective, man. Our time with ourselves is precious, but our time with others is really, really, really finite.

Friendships change, relationships shift. Parents pass away, like all this stuff, right? And so it's like. Get outside and go do something with these people, man. Create some memories. And for me, being able to do that outside and over food, hopefully both is the perfect, perfect recipe of happiness in life.

PAUSE PAUSE [00:38:00] MUSIC IN THE CLEAR

Paddy: It is now time for the final ramble. What is one piece of gear that you cannot live without?

Ranga: Fishing or cooking?

Paddy: Yes.

Ranga: Oh man. I mean, my knife. Stitch is the knife's name

Paddy: your nice name is seriously called Stitch.

Ranga: Yeah, a hundred percent.

Yeah.

Paddy: This next question is going to be very difficult for you. What is the best outdoor snack?

Ranga: Oh, that's brutal.

Paddy: I know. I'm so excited for this answer.

Ranga: In my case it would be justin's cashew butter cups, chocolate cups.

Paddy: Oh, those are so good. Good call. Okay. What is your hottest outdoor hot take?

Ranga: I think it's show people your secrets.

Paddy: Ooh. No, Fisher says that

Ranga: Maybe not the super secret spot, but like, show them what you're doing,

Paddy: Well, not all your secrets, but like, these secrets

Ranga: show your secrets

Paddy: Mm.

Ranga: accordingly, but show them. What are you holding onto it for? Dude? Someone's going to discover it. No one's putting a flag on it, dude.

Like, [00:39:00] trust me, you're not the only one

Paddy: It's not your secret, bro. Everybody already knows, bro.

Ranga: Yeah, Share it with someone.

Paddy: Dude. Thank you for this. I so

Ranga: Oh my God, my cheeks hurt from laughing, man. This is great.

Paddy: I hate doing ab workouts. That's why I chitchat with people, so I can just laugh.

Ranga: I'm gonna go ahead and adopt that philosophy. I like that.

Paddy: dude. Crunches and planks are for nerds. You should just talk to somebody.

MUSIC IN THE CLEAT

OUTRO VO:

Ranga Perrera is a Professional Chef and self described Fly fishing junkie. The Stio ambassador has spent the last quarter century cookin up grub and rippin lips in the Rocky Mountains near Bozeman, Montana. You can watch him a-workin' a fry pan and a rod as the host of the web-series “Flavor on the Fly” and you can follow all his tasty adventures on Instagram at Chef Ranga Dot P.

Oh, and by the way, lovely audience [00:40:00] members, if you like what you're hearing, have an idea for a guest, and / or want to send us a photo of you listening to the show out in the wild, we've got a fancy electronic maliling system set up for ya. Email us guest nominations and your thoughts to �����ԹϺ��� Podcast At �����ԹϺ��� Inc Dot Com. This show is for you and your auditory enjoyment afterall.

The �����ԹϺ��� Podcast is hosted and produced by me, Paddy O'Connell. But you can call me PaddyO. Storytelling support provided by Micah "the feelings cactus" Abrams. Music and Sound Design by Robbie Carver. And booking and research by Maren Larsen.

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