About

I came to this work late enough to know what I was choosing, and quietly enough to keep choosing it. I cook. I think alongside the people who grow what I cook with. I try to listen first.

What I do, before it is cuisine, is keep something older than myself. A chef is the keeper of a heritage larger than his own career; most of my work now is in service of one.

France has been generous. The country that taught me my craft has twice named me a chevalier — of the Coteaux de Champagne in November 2014, of the Mérite Agricole in 2024. I carry these honours as obligation, not ornament.

Trained in French technique in Paris and Lyon, in the Lyonnaise bouchon tradition, and in the precision of Japanese yōshoku — and mastered in contemporary and modernist cuisine across twelve years of Malaysian fine dining. Classical was the foundation, never the destination.

I do not stand alone. The proper acknowledgement of the masters who shaped this work — my beloved grandmother first, then the masters who shaped the hand, then the chefs and producers across Paris, Lyon, Japan, and the homecoming to Malaysia — is held on the Mentors page. To name them is the only proper way to begin any account of the work.

Most of what I do is conversation. Between French Modernist craft and Japanese restraint. Between the indigenous terroir of Sarawak and the houses that have asked me to think alongside them — Krug, Hennessy, Gaggenau, The Macallan, Mortlach, BMW, Mepra, The Plan. Between memory and what the table is asked to carry next.

Through Serumpun Sarawak, I work alongside the Sarawak State Government, the Sarawak Tourism Board, and UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy — Kuching, in service of the indigenous communities of Borneo whose knowledge is older and deeper than my own. From this study, the French-Borneo cuisine platform I am developing now takes its substance.

I live in Kuala Lumpur and work around the world. I am still learning. The work, when I am fortunate, keeps teaching me.