THE inaugural Kita Food Festival came to a close last Sunday with a barbecue featuring 12 of the best Malaysia-based chefs at Tiffin at the Yard, Sentul Depot.
The festival, envisioned by chef Darren Teoh of restaurant Dewakan, Adrian Yap of event and brand marketing company Freeform and culinary platform Tiffin, and Leisa Tyler of farm collective Weeds & More, aimed to highlight and nurture the gastronomic culture of Malaysia, bringing together chefs, producers and culinary experts for a series of food and beverage events and masterclasses designed to encourage skills-sharing and build community.
Kicking off with a series of collaborative dinners in Penang on December 3 and 4 at Restaurant Au Jardin, Gēn and ChinaHouse, the festival then moved to Kuala Lumpur on December 8, where chefs Aidan Low of Akar Dining, Gary Anwar of Ember, and Hun Yan of Charline came together with Darren Teoh at Dewakan to collaborate on a indulgent 11-course plant-forward journey featuring many endemic Malaysian ingredients.
From December 8 to 12, Kita presented various masterclasses, from cocktail crossovers at one of Asia’s Top 50 bars, JungleBird, to classic French cooking at legendary restaurant Cilantro. There was a natural wine discovery at Kuala Lumpur’s new culinary playground Tiffin at the Yard, pastry making at the Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia and an exploration of orang asli cooking with Native Discovery, amongst many others.
Dinners included collaborative chef menus at modern-Asian restaurants Beta, Kikubari, Hide and ATAS at the RuMa Hotel. There were a total of 20 events across Penang and Kuala Lumpur curated by the festival, with up to 70 chefs, masterclass experts, partners and sponsors onboard.
Darren Teoh said, “We wanted to cook fun and quirky dishes that would be perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon. We asked ourselves what would we like to eat if we all cooked at a party? And then came up with these ideas. We have all been dying for an excuse to spend the day with people we liked and doing the things we loved. The list of people who would have been there could have been longer, but maybe we’ll hang on to those for next year”.
From some of the city’s top restaurants such as Entier, Nadodi, Skillet and Curbside Cantina, chefs Awangku Irawan, Sricharan Venkatesh, Jun Wong, Zoe Rai, Jeff Ramsey, Noreen Ramli, Masashi Horiuchi, Chai Chun Boon, Raymond Tham, Tan Joe Lee, Toni Valero and Darren Teoh were teamed up on different stations focusing on a myriad of produce, each station bore playful names such as ‘What Comes Out Of The Ground’, ‘Fishy Findings’ and ‘Loud & Saucy Braised Beauties’.
The 200,000 sq ft heritage Sentul Depot is among the country’s oldest, and together with the hip new foodie haven Tiffin at the Yard, it was the perfect setting for the finale, which saw the chefs feeding eager foodies and guests spread out over four sessions. Yeoh Pei Teeng of YTL Land said, “We have always been a strong supporter of the culinary arts and it's great to see Sentul Depot serve as the venue for the Kita Food Festival finale.”
Reflecting on this year’s festival, Leisa Tyler said, “Kita 2021 has been immensely successful and given us fascinating insight into the market and community. We’ve made some great partnerships, such as with our official booking partner - FunNow, and we definitely want to grow and nurture these connections. We will be working tirelessly towards a world-class culinary experience which puts Malaysia on the map for Kita Food Festival 2022.” – The Vibes, December 17, 2021
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