Discover Rarity

JW for Johnnie Walker. JW for James Won. The Maison's brief and my own initials carried the same letters, and the menu found its name in the same word the Maison had given it: Discover Rarity. Between 29 November 2019 and 31 March 2020, at Enfin in Menara Hap Seng, I cooked Borneo French cuisine against Blue Label — a guided tasting in the Bothy, the Scottish mountain shelter reimagined as an intimate room. This was my start. The spark of curiosity that sent me into the Borneo jungle to find what its people had been preserving for centuries.

Blue Label is more often poured in the masculine voice — heavy, smoke-led, the after-dinner pour at the end of a long evening. The Maison’s Discover Rarity brief allowed me to read it differently. Blue Label is, in honest terms, the rare of the rare: a blend built from single-malt stocks aged across the Maison’s reserves, kept at the centre of the bottle rather than the surface. Blue Label keeps what is otherwise hidden inside the foundation. I wanted my table to do the same.

For the menu, I turned to indigenous Malaysian sourcing — with Borneo at the centre. Tropical sturgeon caviar from T’lur in Tanjung Malim, Perak. Bario heirloom rice from the Kelabit highlands of Sarawak, sourced through Langit Collective. Semai single-origin cocoa from the indigenous Semai community in Pahang and Perak. Job’s Tears (Dale Kerukub) from Sarawak. House-fermented Bario wine sauce — again Sarawak. The Borneo threads on the menu — the Bario rice, the Bario wine, the Job’s Tears — were the ones that pulled hardest. They pointed at a deeper pharmacopeia: generations of indigenous knowledge about which roots, grains, ferments, fruits and rices have kept the forest’s people healthy. The work asked for layered umami and amami — savoury and sweet held in the same breath.

This was my start. The first menu where I let Borneo lead the table. What it opened, I have walked through ever since.

The Bothy

In the Scottish Highlands, a bothy is a basic mountain shelter — a stone hut a walker finds at dusk after a day on the hill. It is small. It is simple. It carries warmth without ceremony.

I asked the room at Enfin to read like that. Ten covers at most, a guided pour, a kitchen working at slow pace. The whisky was poured neat or with ice water for the palate cleanse; the courses arrived in their own time. The format suited the bottle — not a centrepiece for display, but a guest the room had walked to meet.

The Discover Rarity menu

The amuse opens. The entrée carries the salinity. The fish course brings heat and brightness. The main holds the depth. The dessert reads the floral and chocolate notes that close the blend.

iAmuse — Triumphant Triothree openings, side by side

Aloe vera nigiri, Borneo heirloom rice, tropical sturgeon caviar · Like The Egg, Parmesan tofu white and sea-urchin yolk, mandarin curry · Cress Pot, scallop chip, hazelnut, Szechuan pepper.

iiEntréesalinity, structure

Malaysian Tropical Amur sturgeon caviar by T’lur, daikon and kombu dashi purée, lemon butter, wild celery oil.

iiiFish courseheat, brightness, lift

Roasted Hokkaido scallop, yam bean purée, pickled turnip, jalapeno granita, wasabi and yuzu dressing, chive and dill oil, black garlic oil.

ivPlat principaldepth, ferment, char

Fish truffle meunière, house-fermented Bario wine sauce, charred leeks, seasonal truffles.

vDessertfloral close, chocolate

Semai single-origin cocoa from Pahang and Perak, Job’s Tears (Dale Kerukub) from Sarawak, Johnnie Walker Blue Label savoiardi, coconut crème tuile, pea-flower dust.

Sourcing — the Malaysian biodiversity behind the menu

The work below the line was Malaysian. Months of sourcing through the relationships I had been building since the earliest Enfin years.

• Borneo Heirloom Rice — Adan, Keladi and Rumie varieties, sourced through Langit Collective, the Malaysian social enterprise that works with smallholder farmers in East Malaysia.
• Tropical Sturgeon Caviar — harvested from sturgeon raised in the freshwater highlands of Tanjung Malim, Perak. The local label was T’lur.
• Semai Single-Origin Cocoa — from the indigenous Semai community in Pahang and Perak. The cocoa carries a lighter sweetness that read against the blend’s smoky finish without colliding with it.
• Job’s Tears (Dale Kerukub) — from Sarawak. The grain is rare on Malaysian fine-dining menus; it carries an earthier finish than rice and held the dessert through to the close.

A Highland blend, met by Malaysian biodiversity at the table. That was the architecture.

What it opened — the Borneo quest

The Bothy ran from late November 2019 to the end of March 2020. Tatler Asia, Prestige, Robb Report, Tim Chew, Kameatwithme, Luxurious Magazine and Sin Chew (March 2020) all carried the menu on the public record.

What it left was deeper than a press chapter. Discover Rarity opened a Pandora I have walked through ever since — the quest of what keeps Borneo people strong and alive today. Each ingredient on the menu was a thread. The caviar pointed me to Tanjung Malim. The rice and the Bario wine pointed me to the Kelabit highlands. The cocoa pointed me to the Semai. Job’s Tears pointed me to Sarawak. The threads led further than a single menu could carry. The work I would later begin in earnest — Serumpun Sarawak, the French Borneo cuisine discipline, the wider Sarawak conservation chapter that holds my work today — began with the questions this Bothy raised.

Walk forward into Serumpun Sarawak · The French Borneo cuisine discipline