The first cookbook to showcase the culinary secrets of the Melaka Chetti

Chetti Melaka food is one of the last unknown Malaysian cuisines but with the introduction of the community’s first cookbook, it has finally been articulated and defined. — Photos: The Melaka Chetti Kitchen

In the heart of Melaka, amidst the dense conurbation and urbanisation, lies a tiny little village called Kampung Chetti. This village is the ancestral home of the Melaka Chetties – the original Peranakans (which means “child of the land”) of Malaysia.

The Chetties trace their roots over 500 years ago when Indian traders arrived in Melaka from the Coromandel Coast and married local women. The resulting match-ups resulted in a hybrid Hindu community who speak a kind of bazaar Malay and whose cultures and customs are derived of their ancestry, their surroundings and their evolution in the land they have called home for hundreds of years.