AR. SHYUAN KUEE, Principal Architect of Kuee Architect
Ar. Shyan Kuee is inspired by Andre Chiang from Raw Taipei. She cooks Western-style cuisine and her pantry staples include vegetables and fruits. Her kitchen is well-equipped with pots, pans, a stove and an oven.
She indulges in creating beautiful things in life. Being an Architect has allowed her to do so but the creative process could be long. Cooking and plating food is usually completed in an hour, whereas some building projects take years. She could have been a chef if not an Architect.
Ts. Bashira Mohd Bahar cited mom and Ili Sulaiman as her culinary influences for delivering hearty Malaysian dishes that look less intimidating to follow suit. Her cooking style is food that feels like home, like a hug from your family. Her specialty dish is Roti Jala which she used to take orders to put her through her Master of Architecture in UiTM. Her pantry is stocked with purely Malaysian ingredients like santan, alongside garam masala and cinnamon powder, two spices that does wonders to the taste and gravy thickness of a dish.
She has a double-burner stove, so that she can multitask and cook multiple dishes at the same time. Besides that, her pestle and mortar, slicer and grinder are equally important to prep all the ingredients faster as preparation time usually takes much longer than the actual cooking.
Davina’s mentor is her mother who instilled the culinary passion in her. In terms of celebrity chefs, Gordon Ramsay is her inspiration. The passion he has for cooking and the honest, non-pretentious dishes he puts up are magnificent.
Davina cooks a lot of Indian food and the first dish that she learnt to cook is chicken curry, which has remained her specialty up till today. She also frequently experiments with both Chinese and Malay cuisines. In her pantry, you will find onions, garlic and chilies; as well as rice, noodles, protein and condiments, whilst keeping a herb/vegetable garden. She keeps her kitchen tools simple with the pestle and mortar or a blender, chopping boards, a chef’s knife and a wok.
Desmond Ling Cheng Chun is inspired by Ferran Adrià, Wolfgang Puck and Mateo Zoelonka. He cooks a mixture of French, Italian and Japanese cuisines because he used to work in similar kitchens back in his university days. His pantry staples are thyme, dill, sage, rosemary, French butter, sea salt and olive oil.
There are several kitchen appliances and tools that he always uses when cooking; a culinary tweezer gifted by his girlfriend, an assortment of cooking knives, an Anova sous-vide precise cooker that he always uses for steak, lamb, fish and sometimes onsen egg; and a heavily used cast iron pan.
Dr Najah binti Md Alwi’s culinary hero is her papa who basically forced her to help him feed and prep food for her six other younger siblings as she was growing up. When young Dr Najah was trained to cook predominantly Malay dishes, but she eventually gravitated towards Italian food like lasagna and pizza. She loves making use of her hands to make food, which has turned into an activity to bond with her younger siblings too. In the last three years since returning from the UK, sourdough bread from wild yeast, homemade yoghurt and homemade ricotta has been her signature since it’s not easy to obtain them whenever she is in the kampong.
Her pantry is stocked full of ingredients like three types of olive oil (light, coldpressed and extra virgin), balsamic vinegar, lemon, fresh milk, and various herbs and spices. Her kitchen is well-equipped with assorted knives, an air fryer, a food processor, pasta roller, ice cream maker, Kitchenaid stand mixer, sous-vide cooking device, Le Creuset Dutch oven, Microplane graters, etc.
Wong Kwok Keng is inspired by Marco Pierre White, dubbed the godfather of modern cooking who is the youngest chef to be awarded 3 Michelin stars. His disciples include Gordon Ramsay, Curtis Stone, Mario Batali, and Heston Blumenthal.
Kwok Keng’s cooking style aims to bring out the most from ingredients which often includes underrated ingredients – and let it shine. Handmade pasta, poultry, meat and fish are some of the main selections he works with. His speciality dish is chicken ballotine. He keeps his pantry stock simple with salt, pepper, herbs and spices – versatile flavour enhancers that should be available in every kitchen. His important kitchen appliance is undoubtedly a razor-sharp chef’s knife.
Ar. Ong Wee Yeak’s culinary mentor is his supermom. Through cooking, she showed him how to value those moments when it feels like he is just waiting for something. For example, he can do some simple sketches or think of building design ideas when the cake is in the oven. His cooking style is cooking whatever he finds in his fridge. His specialty dishes are Chocolate Burnt Cheese Cupcake, Orange Aglio Olio Spaghetti with Honey Roasted Chicken, Spicy Red Chili Oil Lala, etc.
In his pantry, you will often find flour for his cupcake cravings, legumes and beans for protein boosters, and herbs and spices to tickle his tastebuds. He equips his kitchen with a smart Air Fryer, hand mixer, deep frying pan, blender, etc.
Ar. Umi Kalthom Mat Daud has quite a few culinary influences including Ksenia Penkina (Glazing Queen and Pastry Chef) her mentor in mousse cakes and glazing techniques Sature Chocolate (Chocolatier) who inspired her in chocolate artworks and the packaging that she developed for her Chocolate Bonbons, Amaury Guichon (Chocolate Sculptor), who motivated her in exploring the array of creativity that chocolate offers and Tortik Annushka (Cake Designer) whom she values for his clean-cut style, which ties in with her architectural style.
She specialises in Architectural Food Design (Clean and Shiny), Gastronomy (Art and Science of Good Food), and Celebratory Dish – Chocolate Bonbons, Truffles and Bars, Pastry and Mirror Glazing Cakes.
In her pantry, you will find chocolate and cacao (sourced from local Malaysian cocoa suppliers and a single source in Africa), cocoa Butter (packed with anti-oxidant and used to take the Chocolate Bonbons shells glossier and added for tempering chocolate for better workability), 35% Whipping Cream (to create Bonbon fillings and creamy mousse) and fresh and frozen fruit and berries (to create fresh tasting Bonbon fillings and fruity compote for mousse cakes).
In her professional kitchen, Ar. Umi has a microwave for melting and tempering chocolates, a sou-svide device, a spray gun and airbrush with an air compressor for chocolate and cake artwork, a standmixer for creating blends for cakes, an oven and range cooker, heat gun and a smoking gun. www.thommd.com
