In the Land of the Hornbills

In October 2025, Serumpun Sarawak went back to the rainforest. Two months earlier we had been in Osaka, in the industrial setting of Seaside Studio CASO. The third chapter took place in Gunung Mulu National Park: Sarawak’s UNESCO World Heritage rainforest, home to the longest cave system in Southeast Asia and ancestral land to several of the indigenous communities whose cooking Serumpun honours.

The choice of place made the argument. Osaka had asked whether this cuisine could hold its ground on an international stage. Mulu asked something more important: could the cuisine go back to the land that grew it, with no venue, stage or city in between? The chapter was the answer.

Palate Asia published the work on 23 October 2025 as In The Land Of The Hornbills: Experiencing Serumpun Sarawak In Mulu. It is the main piece of Mulu coverage and one of the most careful pieces written about Serumpun.

Mulu, the setting

Gunung Mulu National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed for its biodiversity, its limestone karst and the cultural heritage of the Penan, Berawan, Tring and other indigenous communities whose ancestral land it still is. Bringing Serumpun here was a matter of honesty. The cuisine we honour, Iban, Bidayuh, Orang Ulu, Penan and the rest of the thirty-four, is rainforest cooking. In the founding year, taking it back to Mulu was the most truthful thing I could do with it.

The hornbill, Sarawak’s state emblem and a bird that matters deeply to the people of the Bornean rainforest, gave the chapter its title. Sarawak is known across the region as the Land of the Hornbills, and when Palate Asia used the phrase for its headline, the reader knew where they were before the first paragraph.

We are nature, nature is us

The Mulu chapter ran from 2 to 4 October 2025 at Mulu Marriott Resort & Spa, on the edge of the national park. The theme was We Are Nature, Nature Is Us: Everything is Everything. It let us cook with conservation in mind without turning the link between conservation and cuisine into a slogan. I worked alongside indigenous-community partners, The Tuyang Initiative, CHASS, Earthlings Coffee Workshop, Dayak Lore and Penan artisans, and their presence kept the chapter to the protocols the rainforest and its people expect.

Serumpun Sarawak’s return to Mulu is symbolic — it brings the world home to Sarawak’s living heritage. Sharzede Datu Haji Salleh Askor, Chief Executive Officer, Sarawak Tourism Board

The discipline the rainforest asked for

Mulu can be reached only by plane or by river. There is no road. The monsoon decided a great deal: each morning began with the question of whether the plane could land, and we changed the menu before service to fit what the day allowed. Cooking hyper-locally in Mulu was simply the working condition. We chose Mulu Marriott partly because ninety-five per cent of its staff come from the Baram region, so the chapter was carried by people who already knew the ground.

When the Baram river ran high, we could not forage for Tekuyung, the river snails that have fed Baram communities for generations. We looked for alternatives on the land and along the riverbanks, and the crocodiles reminded us who set the terms. We changed course, the dish changed with us, and the work held.

The Tuak for the Mulu chapter was brewed by the villagers next door to Mulu Marriott: the true Baram brew, poured for our guests by the people who have kept the recipe for generations. We were lucky to be received as guests of their craft.

Because Mulu is a World Heritage Site, we worked closely with the Forestry and Park Department at every step: on field expeditions, on access, and on how we gathered knowledge from the indigenous communities. Inside the site we could forage only on land designated by the hotel, and only what the forest had already let fall: fallen flora, seeds, leaves and bark. That limit was the discipline, and the discipline was the cooking.

Our guide was Ismail, chief elder of the Penan people, a generous teacher whose English let the rainforest’s knowledge travel. From him we learned indigenous methods of curing and fermentation, the survival foraging the Penan turn to when hunting is scarce, how to read a forest to find your way, the first aid that medicinal plants provide, and the healing properties of edible herbs and fruit. Several of those teachings went forward into the Osaka dishes, so the chapter carried knowledge far older than itself.

Osaka and Mulu

The contrast between Osaka (August 2025) and Mulu (October 2025) holds the whole arc together, so it is worth stating plainly.

In Osaka, the cuisine was presented in a Japanese industrial venue during the World Expo, in a city that is very sure of its own food. In Mulu, it was presented in the Sarawak rainforest, beside the limestone caves and under the canopy, among the communities whose ancestral land this is. The two were two months apart and served the same cuisine. Each setting made the other mean more.

Osaka was the international debut and Mulu was the homecoming. The arc works only because we attempted both in the same year.

What carried forward

After Mulu, the work moved towards its last chapter: the Kuching Finale in April 2026, which brought the movement back to Sarawak’s capital, the city behind its UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy designation. If Osaka was the debut and Mulu the homecoming, Kuching is the return to the city at the centre of Sarawak’s cultural and administrative life, in the year that closes the founding cycle.

Mulu does not take anything from the Kuching chapter. It makes it more complicated, and better for it.

See the chapter

The filmed story of the Mulu chapter, from the rainforest setting to the indigenous partners and the service inside Gunung Mulu National Park, is on the Serumpun Sarawak channel.

Mulu, October 2025: Stories highlights →

Highlights by Atlas Collective.

Questions answered

Why did Serumpun Sarawak go to Mulu?

The cuisine Serumpun honours is rainforest cooking. After the international debut in Osaka in August 2025, Mulu took it back to the land that grew it, with no venue, stage or city in between. Osaka was the debut; Mulu was the homecoming.

Who took part in the Mulu chapter?

James Won worked alongside indigenous-community partners: The Tuyang Initiative, CHASS, Earthlings Coffee Workshop, Dayak Lore and Penan artisans. Ismail, chief elder of the Penan, was the guide. Ninety-five per cent of Mulu Marriott’s staff come from the Baram region.

How did the chapter respect a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

Every step was agreed with the Forestry and Park Department: field expeditions, access, and how knowledge was gathered from the communities. Foraging was limited to land the hotel designated, and only to what the forest had already let fall: fallen flora, seeds, leaves and bark.

Where can I read about or watch the Mulu chapter?

Palate Asia published In The Land Of The Hornbills: Experiencing Serumpun Sarawak In Mulu on 23 October 2025. The filmed story is in the Serumpun Sarawak Instagram highlights, by Atlas Collective. To share conservation work in Borneo, write to connect@chefjameswon.com.