The cuisine moved

At Seaside Studio CASO

In August 2025, Serumpun Sarawak debuted internationally at Seaside Studio CASO in Osaka, in conjunction with Sarawak Week at World Expo Osaka. The four-day showcase ran from 5 to 8 August 2025 — the platform’s first sustained presentation outside Malaysian soil, and its first stage where the work was read against an audience drawn from across Asia and beyond.

The Expo programme referenced the cuisine as Borneo French Cuisine. The work itself read as French Borneo — a synthesis of contemporary French rigour, brought to life through Modernist techniques, with the indigenous knowledge of Borneo’s communities, held in conversation rather than compromise. Both names point to the same plate.

The menu — six courses and an opening

Each course was anchored to one of Sarawak’s ecological settings and read through the platform’s discipline.

Amuse-Bouche — Of Sea, Forest, and Friendship

Dabai and avocado feather, dusted with Bario Merah, the opening flight begins. Photograph by Bonnie Yap.

Job’s Tear and tekuyung pasang river snail, the cattail of riverbank memory. Photograph by Bonnie Yap.

Tiger prawn pearl with yuzu, Sarawak white peppercorn, and silken tofu. Photograph by Bonnie Yap.

A trio of bite-sized creations. Dabai and avocado feather tuile dusted with Bario Merah red rice; Job’s Tear and tekuyung pasang river-snail cattail; tiger prawn pearl with yuzu, Sarawak white peppercorn, and silken tofu. The opening gesture between Sarawak and Japan.

Course I — River

Empurau confit in Enkabang oil, in collagen broth drawn from its own bones. Photograph by Bonnie Yap.

Empurau, Enkabang nut, and Liberica blossoms. The Emperor of River Fish confit in Enkabang nut oil, finished with a crust of sago and hill rice, in a collagen broth drawn from the fish’s own bones and scales. Snail glace, ulam oil, Sarawak black peppercorn.

Course II — Forest

Bichotan-roasted chicken glazed with Gula Apong, Bario cinnamon, and Ipah Kayuh. Photograph by Bonnie Yap.

Bichotan-roasted free-range chicken, glazed with Gula Apong, Bario cinnamon, and Ipah Kayuh — the wild leaf indigenous communities use to amplify umami. Slow-cooked cassava leaf and tempoyak crème, the soft pungency of fermented durian held to a level the room could read.

Course III — Mountain

Aged venison in Litsea cubeba crust, on three-coloured Bario rice risotto. Photograph by Bonnie Yap.

Aged venison crusted in Litsea cubeba and Bario salt, resting on a terroir of three-coloured Bario rice risotto infused with Manok Pansuh broth. Tepus (wild ginger), upa pantu (heart of palm), pickled wild eggplant, bracken and midin fern tips. A Liberica coffee and tuak glaze. The Kelabit highlands held against an Italian technique.

Course IV — Coast

Swordfish umai cured in green mango and lime; weaver-ant coconut soufflé alongside. Photograph by Bonnie Yap.

Swordfish umai ceviche cured in green mango, lime, shallots, and chilli pickles, set against a kesum (weaver-ant) coconut soufflé and a black squid-ink tebaloi cracker. The ulat sagu — sago worm — offered as an optional element, not as a dare but as a dialogue.

Course V — Sea

Sarawak tiger prawn wrapped in daun bungkang, hearth-roasted, in Buah Kulim bisque. Photograph by Bonnie Yap.

Sarawak deep-sea tiger prawn marinated in ginger torch and wrapped in daun bungkang leaf, hearth-roasted. Smoked yam gnocchi, prawn-tomalley and Buah Kulim bisque. The longhouse hearth held in the technique of a French velouté.

Course VI — Harmony

Black rice kuih, matcha warabi mochi, coconut sorbet, soy-caramel sablé, pandan cream. Photograph by Bonnie Yap.

Black rice kuih tai tai, pounded and pressed overnight in the Peranakan tradition. Matcha warabi mochi made from bracken-flour. Coconut sorbet, soy-caramel sablé, pandan cream. A close that bid Osaka farewell and welcomed Mulu in the same gesture.

Sarawak travelled with us

Hyper-localism in Osaka was not the localism of place. Our kitchen sat on Japanese ground, but the cuisine held its discipline to Sarawak. The villagers of Betong assisted in collecting Tekuyung, Midin, Job’s Tear, and sago worms — ingredients the work was committed to carrying across, rather than substituting for convenience.

When foraging and gathering were not sufficient, the work turned to Sarawak’s local markets — the Tamu Saratok among them — where ingredients passed through the hands that had held them since they came in from the rivers and the forests. The supply chain was as short as the work permitted, and as honest as the cuisine asked for.

When the tsunami alert came mid-chapter, planes were grounded; the team was locked down in the boarding houses for safety; ingredients in transit did not survive the extra downtime. Japanese substitutes were used through those services — the only honest pivot the circumstances allowed. The discipline knows when to bend so the work can continue.

Mulu and Kuching mattered for this. They were where the world was invited to experience the authenticity of what Borneo French cuisine should be — when the terroir blesses us with its bounties and offerings, without compromising its vitality and fertility. Osaka had bent under the tsunami; Mulu and Kuching held the discipline at full standing.

The narration on stage

Professor Gerard Bodeker, the platform’s scientific advisor, narrated each course on stage. The framing was deliberate — culinary anthropology, not theatrical commentary. Where a community’s knowledge sat behind a dish, that knowledge was named. Where an ingredient carried a medicinal lineage, that lineage was placed on a clear scientific footing the room could hold.

The narration honoured the discipline the work proceeds from: that knowledge transmitted through elders, foragers, and household kitchens deserves the same scholarly weight a French sauce or a Japanese kaiseki technique already commands.

The state authorisation

The Osaka showcase was conducted under formal veterinary authorisation from the State of Sarawak. The Sarawak Tourism Board served as the registered exporter; Atlas Collective Sdn. Bhd. as the importer of record. Frozen state-certified ingredients — Empurau, Tekuyung pasang, Midin, Paku fern — were shipped across two regulated legs under the Veterinary Public Health Ordinance 1999 of Sarawak [Cap. 32], Section 84(b), in alignment with the International Aquatic Animal Health Code published by the International Office of Epizootic, an agency of the World Health Organization.

The certification stipulated, on the form itself, that the goods were destined for the Serumpun cultural programme held in Osaka, Japan. The regulatory record is a small detail. It is also the kind of detail a properly held cultural-diplomacy mission accumulates.

What the stage proved

The platform passed the test the founding year required of it: that the two complete traditions could be held in conversation at full strength without compromise to either, at international standing, with a scientific authority giving the medicinal claims their proper weight.

The cuisine moved. The discipline held. Mulu was waiting on the other side.

See the chapter

The recorded story of the Osaka chapter lives on the Serumpun Sarawak Instagram channel. The chapter film captures the work from preparation through to the stage; the Stories highlight gathers the daily record across the four-day showcase.

Watch the chapter film → Osaka, August 2025 — Stories highlight →

Film and highlights by Atlas Collective.