Teh (left) and Wu (second from left) put together the first chef’s table dinner – designed to shine a spotlight on chefs like Ung (second from right) and Ng (right) who have no permanent job – at Evoke. — Photos: ABIRAMI DURAI/The Star
On a warm Saturday evening, three chefs came together for a collaboration dinner at a restaurant called Evoke Gastrobar, hidden within a condominium in Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur.
While a collaboration dinner itself isn’t out of the ordinary in the culinary world, what’s unusual is that two of these three chefs don’t currently have a permanent job.
And that’s the reason they were invited to do the dinner.
“There are a lot of jobless chefs in the market right now. And many of them don’t want the burden of starting their own restaurants because they need a lot of capital.
“So what I want to offer them is basically the opportunity to do chef’s table dinners on the side,” says Celina Wu, the owner of Evoke Gastrobar.
Wu and co-founder Ryan Teh launched the first of their chef’s table dinners in June in a bid to support culinary figures in the industry who are going through a hard time or are currently jobless.
Wu also hopes to shine a spotlight on younger chefs who often have to be in the background or play second fiddle to the executive chef and don’t really get a chance to have their moment in the sun.
The chef’s table dinners help unemployed or underemployed chefs show diners what they are capable of.
Julia Ung, a chef who participated in Evoke’s first chef’s table dinner, says the initiative is a very good one for people who don’t have a full-time job and want to flex their creative muscles.
“My partner and I have been basically freelancers for the past two years and we’ve been doing collaborations, private catering and events as well.
“We have been approached by other independent chefs to do collaborations before, but because we didn’t have a restaurant space, that was what was lacking.
“And I’m pretty sure there are a lot of chefs who are kind of in our situation where they don’t have a fixed proper full-time job and they’re trying to build their own little brand for themselves,” says Ung.
Ung and her partner Ng Hun Yan are the duo behind Jung + Co, which runs industry supper clubs and pop-ups. The two are relatively well-known but don’t work full-time anywhere.
Ung participated in the first of Wu and Teh's chef's table dinners and thinks it is a good initiative for freelance or unemployed chefs with no permanent restaurant space.
Wu said she first came up with the idea of doing these dinners when she started her own restaurant and realised how difficult it was to come up with new food concepts or ideas on the fly.
So she thought, ‘What if I give other chefs the opportunity to do this in my own restaurant?’
“When we started out in the business, we tried out a lot of things for the first time and had a lot of crash-and-burn ideas. So we were thinking things could have been different if we had a space to try out our ideas first on paying customers.
“So that’s why we started the chef’s table series to help industry friends (by giving them) a platform to give it a try or to start off something without breaking the bank too much. They just need to buy their own ingredients and test it out,” says Wu.
Wu also wants to expand her original idea to help freelance chefs who might have larger catering gigs but no space to cook or host an event.
“The opportunities are endless. For example, if a chef suddenly secures a 30-person catering opportunity and wants to use our space, we are happy to rent it to them for a small fee.
“It’s more about helping each other out. I have this space, you need this space, so why not?” says Wu.
Wu says the chef’s table dinners also ensure that customers get to try something new and exciting at her restaurant.
More ambitiously, she is also keen to lend her space to chefs who may be contemplating diving into the food delivery business.
“Our core revenue here is actually food delivery. We do 90% food delivery and 10% dine-in. So I am happy to help others who want to do this too. I can start a brand for them and get them on food delivery platforms and they are free to use our kitchen.
“And this way, they can commit to as many days as they want for food delivery and have another income stream open to them while waiting for a job opportunity,” says Wu.
As for the chef’s table dinners, Wu has hosted two collaboration dinners so far (a third one is planned for Sept 20 and 27) and hopes to increase the frequency of these events in the future.
Wu’s restaurant kitchen and dine-in space that can be utilised for the curated chef’s table dinners.
To select the chefs for these dinners, Wu says she either features chefs that she already knows need the opportunity or she finds them on industry-driven social media pages where many chefs are looking for jobs.
“The industry is so competitive and there is so much oversaturation that you’ll find plenty of chefs asking for jobs on social media platforms,” says Wu.
While she takes a small commission from these dinners, money isn’t foremost on her mind.
“Aside from helping friends, we want to support local talents and give them an opportunity to make a name for themselves. It also gives my restaurant variety because people can come and try out different food here during these dinners,” says Wu.
