It all started with cancelled travel plans. I was meant to be in Hong Kong to give a keynote speech about Southeast Asian Street Food and Cultural Identity. The coronavirus pandemic put paid to that, at least for the foreseeable future.

Then my weekly Char Kway Teow pop-up stall got cancelled indefinitely — again, courtesy of Covid-19.

I figured, what better time than for me to go back to what I know best, which was live cooking videos? This was something I’d done on various platforms and in various iterations since the early days of live video streaming some 8 years ago.

Within a couple of weeks of the launch of my Lockdown Malaysian Cook-Along series on Facebook, my fellow-Malaysian chef, TV host and award winning cookbook author Norman Musa sent me a message suggesting we collaborate.

Norman as well as my friend Zaleha Olpin of MasterChef UK fame (and author of the brilliantly-titled “My Rendang Isn’t Crispy”) had similarly had their food promotional travel plans thrown for a loop.

In spite of that, they were both keeping busy by engaging their social media audiences with their videos and recipes.

Even though we couldn’t promote Malaysian food in person and our food businesses had taken a hit, we were at least able to share our cooking knowledge via live videos.

So I saw that we were all basically doing the same thing, but we were all doing it alone.

And if you’ve ever been on social media as long as I (and Norman) have, you’ll know that going it alone is a tough slog.

So I figured we should do it together. Norman thought it was a great idea.

I started making contact with some of the top names in Malaysian cuisine — people I knew personally, whom I could trust to deliver.

MasterChef Malaysia judge Chef Johari Edrus agreed to come on board. Johari is a Swiss-trained chef with decades of international experience, and he is famous for his “eclectic cuisine” — he cleverly introduces the world to Malaysian flavours by incorporating traditional ingredients and cooking styles into his international dishes.

Dave Murugaya has an inspiring story that deserves its own special feature; suffice it to say that despite losing his job thanks to the Covid-19 situation, he has managed to build an amazing YouTube presence in a very short time with his vegan Malaysian food videos through pure guts, perseverance and talent. I had to have him on the team.

Rene Juefri is the young and personable executive chef of DoubleTree Hilton in Dubai; he has won countless culinary competitions and he’s previously worked as chef de cuisine at Michelin-starred establishment Galvin in Dubai.

So this is what we’re going to do –

1. As some of the world’s most well-known Masters of Malaysian cuisine, we are coming together through online Cook-Along broadcasts starting in June 2020.
2. We’re going to go Live every Monday in two different timeslots.
3. Through our individual styles, you will learn how to prepare restaurant-quality Malaysian or Malaysian-inspired meals you’ll be proud to serve your family and friends.
4. You can watch these Cook-Alongs via our website or on social media, but make sure you register here >>MalaysianChefs.com/JoinToday << so you don’t miss our updates and other good stuff.
5. Why are we doing this? We want to create an unforgettable experience for people united in their passion for Malaysian food, while raising awareness to help those who are less fortunate during these difficult times.

Stay tuned for further announcements, and please reach out to me for more details at jackie@jackiem.com.au