These Chefs Thrive on Passion and Creativity

At Sushi Hibiki’s sushi counter, Tokyo native Makoto Saito Sam is in his element, brandishing each seafood serving with an infectious energy that’s hard to resist. As restaurant owner and chef, Saito believes a good sushi chef must not only be skilled but also able to build rapport with his customers. He picked up this very important tip from his first job at a sushi restaurant where he observed his sushi master making the effort to learn about the preferences and moods of his regular diners.

“My sushi master told me, anybody can learn the skill to make sushi after one or two years. But observation skills? Even ten years is not enough,” says the affable chef who sharpened his craft at this restaurant for 20 years since he was 15.

See also: A Date With Five Sushi Chefs at The Sushi Summit Kuala Lumpur

Specialising in the classic Edo-style technique of preparing sushi, his work has taken him across several cities spanning Sydney, Rome, Tel Aviv then finally Kuala Lumpur where he’s been for the past six years.

Apart from ensuring his customers are comfortable and well taken care of, Saito believes in keeping his food simple and authentic; it’s all down to the expert handling of the ingredients from the fish to the rice and the seasoning that drives up the umami factor—and keeps customers coming back for more.

Most recently, as the co-founder of the Sushi Summit Kuala Lumpur, he organised a collaborative sushi fest at APW Bangsar that brought together a band of master sushi chefs of varying expertise to celebrate the art of sushi in its purest form.

With Michelin-starred Robuchon au Dôme in Macau, Narisawa in Tokyo, Sixpenny in Sydney, and Kikubari in Kuala Lumpur listed on her résumé, Jun Wong heads into a new culinary adventure at soon-to-open Else Hotel as head chef of Yellow Fin Horse restaurant. “I’m really excited because there’s so much talent and substance that the local industry has to offer, and I felt that there’s potential for me and Else Hotel to contribute more value to the community by bringing anticipative hospitality, where we take pride in providing an authentic experience, be it with food or our hospitality, all the while caring about the people we work with. It’s the right timing to move forward in this direction,” says Wong, who enjoys the high octane, fast-paced, adrenaline-driven environment of a professional kitchen, not to mention the sense of achievement knowing that diners enjoyed her food.

With this new posting, Wong—who said she would have been an architect if she wasn’t a chef—is learning to look at the overall dining experience as a whole instead of just focusing on the food. “It’s a whole different perspective,” she adds.

So what can diners expect at Yellow Fin Horse? Picture basic cooking over open fire as well as being ingredient-driven and seafood-centric. Wong explains, “We aim to practice restraint in seemingly simple and surprising compositions that borrow depth and flavour from primitive preparation methods like fermentation and open-fire cooking. Think simple sophistication paired with an imaginative selection of wines, intimate service and setting.”

Throwback: Highlights From Off Menu Kuala Lumpur 2021

Since high school, Daniel Yap knew what he wanted to do as a career, which is to be a chef. Realising his childhood dream of going to Italy, he went to study at Alma, the International School of Italian Cuisine where he got immersed in culinary culture and history. For his internship, he found himself in a restaurant called Piccolo Lago in Piedmont, a region northwest of Italy bordering France and Switzerland. There in the quiet provincial town, he discovered a love for regional Italian cuisine. If he has to name a favourite dish from this restaurant, it would be Carbonara ‘Al Koque’. “The ingredients used in this dish are so simple yet bold in flavour,” he says. “It’s a classic yolk pasta called tajarin which is simply cooked in butter sauce, served with prosciutto chip, milk meringue and a gin-based egg yolk sauce in an egg shell cup to represent the ‘carbonara.’”

His time in Italy largely served as his inspiration for Gooddam, the restaurant he co-founded with former KDU classmate Miki Lie in 2018, where he hopes to educate Malaysians that Italian food is more than just spaghetti, olive oil and tomatoes.

As head chef, Yap loves his creative freedom in the kitchen, where dishes are elevated to an art form as he takes inspiration from his surroundings. He takes pride and delight in creating seasonal course menus that allows him to bring his diners on a gastronomical journey of Italy while incorporating local produce.

See also: Chef Wan Creates a Malaysian Menu for Qatar Airways' Business Class

For Japanese-American chef and sushi master Jeff Okada Ramsey, food is about sharing, community and bridging cultures. “This is the way I like to eat. When I’m at home, what I do is nibble on olives, sliced deli meat, have some small Japanese dishes, drink wine and sake, and just enjoy it. This is what I try to show to the community here in KL and the reception has been great.”

Since he liked working with his hands, it was his mother who sowed the idea for him to become a chef. “I thought, after I graduate high school I will go to college and study international business so I can go travel, but then she’s like, ‘No, you can learn a skill that’s valuable, and then you can go anywhere in the world with it.’ She said to me, sushi is going to be more and more popular in the future so why don’t you be a sushi chef? I thought it was an amazing idea and I thank her for planting that seed. And once I got started, it was like an itch.”

Ramsey’s culinary journey took him across the world, honing his skills and expertise under renowned chefs Masayoshi Kazato and José Andrés, after which he was handpicked to run The Molecular Bar Restaurant in Tokyo which received a Michelin star. He came back to open Babe and Japas in Kuala Lumpur, as well as Kintsugi in Bangkok which was featured in the Michelin Guide. Fans will be happy to know he’s in the midst of opening Kintsugi in The Gardens Mall very soon, so stay tuned! 

When you dine at Eat and Cook, leave expectations at the door and allow space for new experiences, but look out for a twist of nostalgia. As an example, one of their starters from their Chapter 4 menu will have you thinking of a Malaysian breakfast favourite: half-boiled eggs with kaya toast, only there’s no toast in sight. “We try to think out of the box and at the same time highlight our roots, our flavours, our seasonal ingredients and also our memories,” says Lee Zhe Xi when thinking up the myriad dishes for their set menu which can go up to 17 courses!

Always keen to enhance their culinary repertoire, Lee and his co-founder Soh Yong Zhi would source for ingredients from every corner of the homeland to be the stars of their menu. They would also gather their friends and visit each of their hometowns to try out the local food their friends grew up with and get a sense of the local culture. Lee says, “Our menu always depends on how I feel, what I’ve been exposed to during those few months and what I’ve discovered. When I ‘unlocked’ certain things, I’ll put it in the menu and let our customers enjoy what I’ve been trying.”

Inspired by the philosophy of omakase as they reinvent and reimagine Malaysian cuisine in ways it has never been done before, Eat and Cook’s adventurous approach to dining has made it one of the fast rising eateries in the country.

See also: Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2022: Eat & Cook Bags One to Watch Award

Nathalie Arbefeuille’s passion for cooking began at a young age—she was able to prepare a complete dinner for her family at age 12! Although she initially worked in advertising back in Paris, her unending zest for food prompted her to pursue a new life-long career when she and her husband came to Asia and she started giving cooking lessons and orchestrating lavish dinners for diplomats in Bangkok. Her resolve to be a chef solidified when she trained under Anne-Sophie Pic at her Michelin-starred Maison Pic.

After moving to Kuala Lumpur, she began developing Nathalie Gourmet Studio in 2007, offering catering and cooking classes before opening her restaurant later on, which she had to close down during the pandemic. As one of the most sought-after caterers in town, this was really her main bread and butter, which she says “offers incredible possibilities for creativity.”

A perfectionist to a tee, the self-taught chef adds, “Each project is unique and ephemeral. Nothing is left to chance and everything must be thought out down to the millimetre. I step out of my comfort zone almost every day, and I learn every day.”

If you ever had the pleasure of sampling her duck confit, square doughnuts and decadent vanilla crème anglaise and caramel meringue desserts during her ephemeral brunches, know that she learned to make these from her two grandmothers who “cooked divinely well and helped develop my gourmet palate.” Not to mention that the smells from cooking those foods immediately brings her back to her childhood.

Collaborating with many brands including helming Dior’s first and only pop-up café in Kuala Lumpur, creating a one-of-a-kind gourmet dish for Tatler Malaysia’s inaugural Off-Menu event, and most recently hosting an intimate dining weekend at The Datai Langkawi for its Chef Series, on top of managing his three restaurants, Raymond Tham has been a very busy man of late.

His latest pride and joy, Burnt & Co at Artisan’s Playground, features an open-flame kitchen utilising a Josper Grill along with a Basque-style grill, which Tham says was inspired by Asador Etxebarri, the Spanish restaurant famed for being masters of the flame-grill. Using sustainably sourced mangrove woods and charcoal for the fire, Burnt & Co is all about enjoying good food, wine and company at a more affordable price point. 

Tham’s always known he’s going to be a chef, since the age of seven. While his mother didn’t wish this line of work for him because she thought it’s hard work and long hours (which is true), she taught him to cook so he could care for himself while studying abroad.

Commenting on the local culinary scene, he says, “When we started Skillet seven years ago, there were not many independent restaurants at the time. But I can see that we have actually come so far. Since we’ve reopened, we have tourists coming in and comparing us with some of the restaurants overseas, and the feedback they’ve given us is very good. While that has been encouraging, we still have lots of room to grow.”

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

The Best Char Kuey Teow in Malaysia, According to Chefs

5 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Sushi

Gordon Ramsay Shares Details of His First Restaurant in Malaysia