A composer, not a creator

Reconnecting with our roots will be the main answer for preservation and conservation: keeping the connection between us and the past. It is the same for food, language, art and music. Each will grow, and each will have its deviations and extensions, but it all stems from one root.

I know this movement can exist and grow, because it is not only my story. I wanted a place where the people who come on board take on the care of it and make it stronger. Not disciples, but successors, so that the movement keeps growing.

Food plays a huge part in that connection. It is our main memory. When I cook, I am recalling a particular flavour, texture and aroma. My grandmother is my number one mentor. I still remember hurrying home from school, eager to know what snack she had made me. Nothing can substitute for that, and it is why food is so genuine and so innocent. You can use it to say what you truly mean.

My philosophy is not to get lost in my own thoughts and decide that my voice is finished. Cooking is a living art, and we are dealing with organic matter. No apple is the same today as yesterday. It has ripened further, it came from different soil, at a different time, and it tastes different. Recognising those shades of grey gives you precision and definition, and it acknowledges how that ingredient came to be.

So I do not feel I have created anything new. I am a composer. I am lucky to have the curiosity to bring people, ingredients, knowledge, culture and colour together on one plate, and to keep it simple and elegant, so that you recognise it, and are not afraid to touch it, taste it and interact with it.

Watch the conversations on the Serumpun Sarawak Instagram channel