Doing what one likes
Published on: Sunday, August 04, 2024
By: Kan Yaw Chong
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Bronze verdict from World Association of Chefs judges. Right pic, Kalina and her winning baby lobster dish.
An interesting case is Dato Kalina Wong Ka Yee. “I started cooking as a hobby, cooking only at home since I was 16-17,” she told Daily Express.
“I just like cooking at home every day for the family, just the way I expressed myself, when I didn’t have any experience working as a chef,” she noted.
That like led to an action. In 2023, she decided to take up the challenge of entering the Malaysia Culinary World Cup Competition held at the World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur, organised by the Culinary Association Malaysia, billed as the largest cooking competition in the world.
“I took the challenge in 2023 to join the Guinness World Records cooking competition in KL, and won two silvers, three bronze in five categories – Malaysian gastronomy ikan asam pedas (silver), Modern hot kitchen main course –fish (silver), Malaysia gastronomy – Ikan sungei (bronze), Indian cuisine – Indian curry (bronze), Chinese cuisine – fish ( bronze) ,” she said.
“After this surprise string of medals at a Guinness World Record cooking competition, I decided to turn this hobby into a career, so I first opened a stall in Sembulan – Yummy Soup Ikan, at Sembulan Grace Point food court, during Puasa time where I found my food was well accepted,” she recalled. “Then July 2-4 this year (2024), I decided to join the 3rd Global Culinary Challenge Malaysia July and won two bronze and one diploma medals.”
“I won bronze in Rendang Chicken, Main Course Chicken, and diploma in Main Course Seafood (baby lobster),” she said.
“But the two bronze and one diploma medals matter to me more because it is judged by the World Association of Chefs Society recognised by the world,” she said.
“It means a lot to me because I used traditional local ingredients of Sabah such as Tuhau – a popular food among the Kadazan-Dusun community. For example, for Rendang chicken, I used Bambangan – a well-liked wild mango by our natives.
“It’s a great challenge for me but now that it’s proven traditional Sabah food can actually be taken to the world so I gained some confidence on the food for Sabah which can make it to the world market,” Kalina asserted.
She cherished the prestige attached to the Global Culinary Challenge.
“The total number of participants is about 400 and they came from all over the world, like Macau, Syria, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Morocco, Japan – a very big event and they all came from professional backgrounds while I am new starter,” she said.
“So I believe that if our government can support local cooks, they can achieve better results and we can start to introduce our foods and let the world know Sabah exists,” Kalina proposed.
What kind of support she would like the State Government give local chefs?
“Encourage chefs in Sabah to participate more especially in international cooking competitions, particularly in promoting Sabah’s traditional foods, how you can modernise something, for example, the Main course chicken, just like western, what I did was like the bambangan, I made it into sauce – chicken chops with bambangan sauce, grilled prawns with bambangan sauce and used it to cook the chicken.
“In other words, we can be innovative with our local Sabah ingredients. This is how you can go into the challenge because if you use the traditional ingredients, there are rules and regulations. For example, if you do a Main course chicken, you have to have a colour combination in the plate, so there’s the vegetable, starch, rice, potato and the plating. When you choose to innovative, you are not limited by the traditional requirements. This is how we can attract others to accept, with likes – positive responses.”
More examples still, she cited mango chicken. “This dish is actually everywhere, so I take the mango chicken but I use the bambangan – a traditional and more aromatic wild mango that the indigenous Sabahans enjoy instead of using the usual mangoes, like using bambangan and honey.”
“The judges of the World Association of Chefs who were not Malaysians, but come from all over the world, accepted it as a dish, is a world endorsement especially because I believe the fruit can only be found in Borneo, as the world association of chefs are not Malaysian, they come from all over the world.
“All of them got to try the bambangan and then they asked me more about Sabah so I took the opportunity to talk about Malaysia so that they don’t only know Malaysia KL but Malaysia Borneo and that I am Malaysian Borneo,” Kalina asserted her Bornean elements.
On what they asked her on the bambangan, Kalina said: “They asked me how does the fruit look like, its taste because I make everything on the spot – the last cooking.
So they see the fruit and the process, I blend the bambangan and cook, then they asked how is bambangan normally put into a dish so I talked about traditional Kadazandusun food, how they cook it with ikan masin, how it is pickled so now we can also taste bambangan as a sauce – a very wide ranging use like chicken and seafood, both I used bambangan.
“I took up the challenge of cooking rendang chicken by using wild ginger Tuhau. I used Tuhau the wild ginger of Sabah to replace the usual ginger, it is more aromatic, the taste is very good, I got very high mark for taste. It’s only that I have to learn more on plating – the process of arranging and decorating food to enhance its presentation, which I am not every good at, so I Iost a lot of marks in plating, in presentation so now I have started to learn plating to prepare for next year’s challenge,” Kalina elaborated.
Reflecting on what had transpired, she exhibited an element of patriotic ambition.
“I consider it a great achievement as it shows Sabah’s taste is acceptable by the world.” Being a member of the Sabah Federation of Industries (FSI), she aspired: “I hope we can do something substantial in the F&B industry.”
This writer once asked a food judge in Hong Kong what she looked for in a winning dish, said: “The distinctive taste of all the ingredients must be detectable.”
Small wonder the judging criteria Kalina faced allotted half the total marks to taste: Taste 50pc; Correct Professional Preparation 20pc; Hygiene and Food Waste 10pc, Service 5pc; Mise – EN-place & hygiene 5pc.
So can there be a popular Taste of Sabah with plenty of likes to introduce traditional Sabah foods to the world?
Remembering mum’s words to upgrade should she win, Kalina says it’s time to take an upgrade challenge, to add menu, since she indeed won, not just selling sup ikan at shop in Penampang.
In the meantime, she maintains a tacit belief: “Traditional Sabah food can go to the world, it is accepted even by orang putih.”
Richard YS Lim, FSI President once said:
“FSI always encourage youths to do their best and is supportive of the young entrepreneurs, especially Sabahans to venture into their dreams.”
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