Cocktail bar Coley has an impressive repertoire of sharing plates, courtesy of Joel Kirk

Kirk grew up cooking for himself and his brothers, as his parents both worked full time, so when it came to deciding what to pursue career-wise, the decision seemed straightforward. “I gravitated towards service and hospitality, what I knew best, and my parents were more than supportive—the only qualm they had was that they wouldn’t see me enough,” he chuckles.

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After culinary school, the young chef cut his chops around hotels and restaurants in Kuala Lumpur, from Nathalie Gourmet Studio to Lafite at Shangri-La, before working in Singapore. He staged at Noma for three months, during vegetable season in June, before returning to Kuala Lumpur and joining Sitka when the restaurant was still located in Plaza Batai.

“The team there was doing something that intrigued me—modern Asian, nothing too fancy, just solid cooking with interesting flavour combinations,” he smiles. He stayed on for three years before deciding to delve into the world of consulting, catering, and kitchen management.

Kirk’s first consulting stint was with Bol, before he was approached to manage the kitchen at Coley. “I run the kitchen with my own team at my own cost, with Coley taking a percentage of sales,” he says. The same modus operandi applies to his newest project at Lex’s Patio Pantry at Kapas Condominium. By night, Kirk and his colleague Brandon Tan, who he met while consulting at Bol, turn the neighbourhood grocer into Harmony House, offering up piping plates of comforting Cantonese fare.

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“[Tan] has an interest in home cooked Chinese food, which we uplift here with our own twists,” he says. Similar to Coley’s kitchen in terms of space constraints, the two work with what they can, serving dishes such as ginger scallion fish, mapo tofu, and fried rice to Bangsar’s community.

With so much experience under his belt, Kirk hopes to share what he knows with his growing team of passionate chefs. “Finance, HR, social media, menu engineering, working with suppliers—these are skills that are not taught in culinary school, but learned from experience,” he says. “I want to provide a space to teach and a platform for young chefs to strive.”

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