cooking over the weekend
November 10, 2009 by thetrainer
Filed under Fitness Kitchen, Lifestyle, behind-the-scene, general
no, I didn’t cook.
I attended a cooking demo last Friday in conjunction of Malaysian Asean Heritage Trail 2009 at concourse level Lot 10. It was organized by the Tourism Ministry, in collaboration with the leading chef; Chef Wan, and supported by other well known local chefs like Chef Zam, Chef Rizq (son of Chef Wan), Chef Shukri, Chef Florence, Chef Zaidah, Chef Sabri and also Asean chefs from Indonesia and Thailand
Sadly, for a 11-day ‘main’ event like this, the turnout wasn’t that great. There was very little (or probably none) publicity on the event itself. As for me, I just happened to be there when I walked from the Monorail Station to Pavilion for a business meeting. I wish I knew it earlier coz as a Fitness Chef who just started out, there’s a lot for me to learn especially the way chefs interact and talk, while cooking. I blogged about how hard it was for me to do in my recent show over at Astro Awani here.
Chef Shukri Ismail is from Langkawi. He has set up the first French Restaurant; The Rive Gauce in KL (1987). He also set up Cook-with-Shuk cooking Program in Langkawi. During our honeymoon, we've also dined at one his restaurants in Langkawi known as The Lighthouse, located at end of Pantai Cenang. A truly magical 'lighthouse' with a selection of Mediterranean food.
chef helpers distributing the food samplers to audience
One of Chef Shukri's Rendang daging (he cooked several rendangs that day) ... delish!
I like the simple stage, and the kitchen cabinet by Signature Kitchen
Chef Wan was crowned the world's Best Celebrity Television Chef at the World Gourmand Cookbook Media Awards 2009 in Paris in July, where he beat 250 other celebrity chefs, including Anthony Bourdain and Jamie Oliver.
Chef Zam is currently the Head of Special Projects at KDU College's School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culinary Arts, Selangor, Malaysia. He has a Master of Arts degree in Hospitality Management from Thames Valley University in London. He is also the one and only celebrity chef in Malaysia with a Post-Graduate qualification to date.
I had the chance to discuss with Chef Wan on goverment-organised events like this, where thousands or millions are spent but with very little promotions are given to it. Unfortunately, I am facing that all the time, especially the ones that come directly under Tourism (and Sports) Ministries. Too often, I only got to know about the events too late. The publicity/coverage on media (with buntings etc) only came out like 3-4 days before the event. A good example was the International Water Festival that is held in Putrajaya on annual basis. I love kayaking and will try to compete in races. How can I train for my races when I only got to know about it several days before? Even the people from event hotline were clueless of what was going on. Despite of the ‘International’ status that was given to the event, most of the kayakers that turned up were from IPTAs (higher learning institutions) and as expected, I was the only outsider.
p/s – I guess it’s about time for them to buckle up as these are tax-payers money y’know.
I like cooking….
john – I’ve read your blog and you were in the Maggi cooking competition, right? Cool
hey, btw there is kayak comp coming up soon, 4-6 dec featuring mini marathon 10k in kayak TK kot..its called Monsoon cup, kat ganu deh… tp clash with solomon trail run i think =)
fong – alamak. solomon clash with singapore marathon gak …