Foodie Canteen Foodie Canteen
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Foodie Canteen is a weekly show featuring conversations with leaders and content creators in the Food and Beverage space. Each week brings on inspiring voices that tackle topics surrounding life, food and business. New episodes every Friday.
Email hellofoodiecanteen@gmail.com for your story to be featured!
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Sabah: Mastering The ‘People Business’ with Roy Chiew
Roy Chiew is the co-founder of Adelphi Collective, an F&B group based in Sabah. In this week’s podcast, he talks about bringing the food industry forward in Kota Kinabalu with experimental cuisines, closing down Adelphi & Co., the food culture in Sabah, building a team of leaders and more.
“You might start a business without too much certainty, but as long your team has what it takes to fix the problem, you’re all set.” - Roy Chiew
Timestamps:
00:00 - Guest introduction
03:07 - Born & raised in Tawau
05:25 - What you must eat when visiting Sabah
08:54 - “Good enough to graduate”
15:51 - Making decisions and living with it
20:02 - Managing my family business and starting F&B restaurants
21:17 - My “Enlightening Food Trip” to Australia
27:40 - Running the "people business"
32:33 - Bringing KK's food industry forward with Adelphi & Co.
43:22 - Having what it takes to improve along the way
47:10 - How do you know it’s time to close a chapter?
54:35 - Sabah’s food culture
59:22 - Entrepreneurs in Sabah
1:02:10 - My beliefs in life and business
1:05:07 - Advice for people starting their business
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Business enquiries or collaborations - hellofoodiecanteen@gmail.com. -
Penang: Bringing Street Food Into A Restaurant Setting
Laksa is one of the must-try street food in Penang, Malaysia. Christine Ooi found a gap in the market as the mother of two boys who finds it hard to enjoy a bowl of Laksa by the street. Thus the birth of Laksalicious, where she takes iconic street food, Assam Laksa and Nyonya Lemak Laksa and serves them in a comfortable restaurant setting. During the podcast, she shares her thoughts on Penang’s hawker culture and how they use a 40-year-old Laksa recipe from housewives in Perak to share this street food goodness.
“We are happy with just one outlet. As a mother of two boys, I like to spend more time with my family.” - Christine Ooi
Timestamps:
00:00 - Guest Introduction
00:50 - Growing up around fishing villages
02:15 - Must-try food in Penang
04:32 - Penang’s hawker culture
06:33 - Lessons I’ve learned starting Moustache House Cafe
09:06 - When do you know it’s time to close down the business?
10:46 - Starting Laksalicious
12:15 - Taking street food into a restaurant setting
13:27 - Branding Laksalicious
15:13 - Sourcing our Laksa from Perak
19:00 - Different types of laksa in Malaysia
20:00 - The most important ingredient in a bowl of laksa
20:55 - Coping with the pandemic as a small business
22:53 - Being content with one outlet after 7 years
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Business enquiries or collaborations - hellofoodiecanteen@gmail.com. -
Johor: Stepping Into Your ‘Genius Zone’ with MasterChef Diana Chan
Born in Sitiawan, raised in Johor, Diana Chan is a Malaysian entrepreneur currently residing in Melbourne, Australia. Having worked as a senior analyst at Deloitte, her life took a turn when she won MasterChef Australia 2017 which then led to her travelling around the world for various cooking appearances. In this episode, she shares what it’s like cooking on national TV, stepping into your ‘genius zone’ and tips on becoming a highly effective communicator.
“Winning MasterChef Australia is a bonus. What you do with it, how you maintain and grow from that is entirely up to you.” - Diana Chan
Timestamps:
00:00 - Life post lockdown
02:04 - Who’s Diana Chan?
02:49 - Growing up in Johor, Malaysia
04:49 - My ambitions as a child
06:32 - Migrating to Melbourne, Australia
07:12- First job out of university
08:55 - How did I get into MasterChef Australia?
10:18 - It all started with peeling taugeh (beansprouts) in the kitchen
11:30 - How I picked up my cooking skills
12:42 - The pressure to perform on national TV
15:51 - Quitting my job at Deloitte and travelling the world
17:11 - Opportunities that came with the new title
18:28 - Accounting to entrepreneurship
19:27 - Stepping into your zone of genius
23:14 - Maintaining longevity and branding yourself
24:08 - Dinner party hacks
26:39 - How to communicate in a way that people gravitate towards you
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Business enquiries or collaborations - hellofoodiecanteen@gmail.com. -
Sarawak: Foraging Indigenous Ingredients For Casual Dining
John Lim is one of the few executive chefs in Sarawak that goes foraging in the forest for native ingredients and experiments with them in Roots, a casual-dining restaurant in Kuching, known for their creative and remarkable dishes. In this episode, Chef John teaches us how to make the perfect paella and shares the story of how his bond with the Bidayuh and Iban tribes through his foraging trips inspired his cooking.
“I do not want to cook just for the sake of cooking, but I want to cook because I want to understand [the culture] a little bit more.” - John Lim
Timestamps:
00:00 - Guest Introduction
01:08 - Life in Sarawak
02:37 - Local foods you should try in Sarawak
04:44 - Experiences & lessons in big cities
07:28 - Being an executive chef for Food Journal
08:13 - Foraging trips to the forest
11:45 - Never-before-seen ingredients from foraging trips
13:49 - Exploring native ingredients & throwing backyard dinner parties with the Bidayuh and Iban groups
16:28 - Using humble ingredients and the tri-flavours cooking method at Roots
20:07 - Eggplant is UH-MAZING
22:46 - How to make the perfect paella
27:35 - His cooking philosophy
27:51 - Sustainability in cooking: Check your rubbish bin
31:40 - Is a chef’s life glamorous?
34:55 - Challenges as an executive chef managing 5 restaurants
36:09 - The growing market for fine dining in Sarawak
37:50 - Most important skill for a chef: journaling
40:10 - Our Saturday night creativity project
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Business enquiries or collaborations - hellofoodiecanteen@gmail.com. -
Melaka: Leaving Mamee To Build Korean Craze For Gen Z
Vuitton Pang is widely known as the 3rd generation successor of Mamee Double-Decker snack empire - the addictive barbecue snack with a blue furry monster most Malaysians grew up with. In this episode, Vuitton brought us back to the early days when he’d go knocking on doors as the “Mamee Boy” in Australia, opens up about handling family expectations and shares a thing or two about the local convenience store scene and what is it really like bringing a huge franchise like emart24 into Malaysia.
“A lot of people think we are so lucky to have this safety net. But along with the privilege comes great expectations.” - Vuitton Pang
Timestamps:
00:00 - Guest Introduction
01:18 - Growing up in Melaka and attending public schools
04:00 - “Gems will not stay hidden for too long in Melaka.”
05:18 - My first exposure to business
06:23 - On handling family expectations
08:55 - Melaka to Melbourne
09:36 - “Mamee Boy” knocking on doors in Victoria to working for OSK Investment Bank
11:00 - Bringing emart24 to the Malaysians
12:12 - Transitioning from Food Manufacturing to Retail
13:40 - How to find the perfect location for your business
14:55 - Creating loyalty among Millennials & Gen Zs
17:38 - A day in the life of Vuitton Pang
19:02 - Local convenience store scene in Malaysia
20:51 - Changing Malaysians’ shopping habits at conveniences store with innovation
22:28 - Gone were the Apollo chocolate wafer days?
24:10 - Values I’ve learned from the Mamee days
26:00 - Bringing a franchise into Malaysia
27:13 - emart24 to launch 300 stores in 5 years - What are the challenges?
28:36 - Advice for listeners who are looking to bring in brands from other countries
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Business enquiries or collaborations - hellofoodiecanteen@gmail.com. -
Kedah: Transforming Prison Cells Into Alor Setar’s Hottest Heritage Cafe
Jackie Loo is the founder of Caffé Diem, one of the first homegrown third-wave cafes in Alor Setar, Kedah. Labelling himself as the jack of all trades and master of none, Jackie is no stranger to coffee for having spent most of his childhood roaming around his grandfather’s Hainanese kopitiam. In this podcast, he shared the time he connected with a regular customer that later became his business partner and how they both transformed a drug addict haven into a community space shared by all.
“Sometimes you have an idea, but to make things happen, you need people who share the same vision as you. ” - Jackie Loo
Timestamps:
00:00 - Guest Introduction
00:45 - Life in Alor Setar is QUALITY
02:10 - Must-try food in town
03:14 - Growing up in a working-class family that runs a Hainanese coffee shop
05:50 - I’m a jack of all trades, master of none.
07:30 - The business, science and communications era
09:17 - Birth of Caffé Diem
13:36 - How he met his partner and expanded from a 10-table cafe into a 120-year-old heritage building
19:35 - The renovation story
27:24 - Growing cafe scene in Alor Setar
28:33 - How illegally chopping down an old tree led to the revitalization of Lorong Penjara Lama
33:13 - “At a certain point of time, we have to leave Alor Setar.”
36:07 - Coffee Influencer
38:17 - “Everything is a matter of perspective, no challenges can’t be resolved.”
40:55 - Advice for people who want to start a cafe
Watch on YouTube.
Read our articles.
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Business enquiries or collaborations - hellofoodiecanteen@gmail.com.