KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 3 — When Dewakan opened in 2015 at Shah Alam’s Kolej Damansara Utama (KDU) university campus, it already stood out.
For the first time, we had a restaurant bringing local ingredients to our table in ways we never before imagined.
The driving force of the restaurant is Darren Teoh, who once lectured molecular gastronomy in KDU and staged in Copenhagen’s Noma and Germany’s Restaurant Amador.
Throughout the following decade, Dewakan has not wavered from its ingredient perspective.
A shift from Shah Alam to KL in 2020 brought them to the 48th floor of the Naza Tower, where sweeping views of the city’s skyline is also integral to the dining experience.
The restaurant offers sweeping views of the city’s skyline from the 48th floor of Naza Tower — Picture by Choo Choy May
Along the way, they were awarded two stars and a Green Star by the Michelin Guide, making them the first in Malaysia to be given this accolade.
In an interview with Malay Mail, to mark this milestone, Teoh shares his thoughts on ingredients, looks back at the dishes he has created with his team and looks forward to the future.
Ingredient foraging, then and now
Teoh: In our first year, our stance for the ingredients was whatever we could get our hands on. Mostly they were sourced from Taman Tun Dr Ismail.
We had no idea how people would react to the restaurant with its location and distance from the city centre. However, we weathered on and with huge support, it led us to grow our repertoire.
The end desire was to bring the jungle in as much as possible but at that time, we didn’t know how to get the stuff in.
There was a wide world out there and we needed to “Indiana Jones” our way to find them.
Now we connect with people who produce and farm these items. Suppliers also reach out to us, asking if we are interested in testing out their ingredients.
Throughout the years, Dewakan has been awarded two stars and a Green Star from the Michelin Guide — Picture by Choo Choy May
No hated ingredient in the repertoire
Teoh: It’s very unlikely to absolutely hate an ingredient. Our approach is always to figure something out. Sometimes things take quicker or longer and in this case, it took seven years.
An example is the kemili, a wild, small yam, discovered about seven years ago. It’s hard to figure it out, as it has a strong muddy flavour that you realise for indigenous people, eating wild ingredients was more for sustenance and not for enjoyment.
In a recent menu, we borrowed the nixtamalized method used in Peru from converting corn into masa dough where alkali is used. We mashed the nixtamalized kemili into a flatbread.
Ingredients tend to reveal themselves after some time. That is why these 10 years have been exciting as we’re always feeling out new ways.
There’s always something that we cannot figure out, like a good way to eat the sea conch. It’s tasteless and if you overcook it, it becomes hard.
All you get is texture and I don’t cook something for texture so it has to have a flavour profile to it.
Spot the secret ingredient found in every menu
Teoh: I wouldn’t say I have a secret ingredient but maybe a super hero ingredient, which my team will resonate with.
It’s lime leaf oil, made with limau nipis that I developed when I was still teaching in KDU. I grew very attached to the profile as it’s fragrant and lends an acidity to a lot of things.
Since I brought it to Dewakan, it’s been on nearly every one of my menus.
I tend to reach out for that very often. And sometimes when we are tasting dishes, even before I can say something like, “I think it needs….” one of the guys will say, “You want lime leaf oil, right?”
I will be looking at it and go nahhhh, and out of nowhere, the lime leaf oil will just float on by and I will go, how do you know I am looking for this!
The team in Dewakan works together to put up all the menu items with inventive techniques — Picture from Dewakan
Ingredients wish list that won’t make it to Dewakan
Teoh: The limau hantu willl be very cool to mess around. I was introduced to the fruit at Kampung Peta in Johor, where a Jakun tribe resides.
It’s the size of a grapefruit with a thick pith and you squeeze out the sacs that resemble finger limes in a teardrop shape.
You get citrusy sourness and a little bitterness. It’s very elusive and there were two trees there, where one died after it was water logged.
I did bring back some seeds for a friend to plant it but it will take about 30 years to grow it!
If the law permits, I would like to serve game. Our proteins are typically farmed except the river and sea ones. This includes pigeon, venison and goat.
A book with their methods is in the making
Teoh: One of the things that contribute to the menus being interesting throughout the years is we had long staying team members that we can turn to them to ask about previous experiences. Even former members can be called to share their stories.
It’s only now that we have been formalising some of these thoughts in terms of techniques and ingredients that we use with the view of writing a book eventually.
Lime leaf oil features in all of Dewakan’s menu and in this case, multiple fresh herbs with Ming prawn, salted lime and starfruit juice is dotted with the oil — Photo from Dewakan
Memorable dishes throughout the 10 years
Teoh: I don’t have any as I move on very fast. I do remember them but it’s not memorable.
There’s one time I deep fried sheep’s brains. This was for What Do They Sheep Think, where sheep’s brain was paired with kulim and cendawan kukur.
Some of the diners have reminded me of the Ox Tongue Forbidden Rice Porridge from the first menu where a mushroom broth infused with spring onion and coriander roots is served with black glutinous rice, choy tam, soft boiled egg and ox tongue.
Another recent one is the Tatus Hitam Crayfish with Bamboo Shoot. The slipper lobster is grilled and served with breadfruit (sukun) flatbread, grilled bamboo shoots and a noni sauce.
When we develop a dish, there’s two parts to it. The first part is the novelty of the coming and arriving of the dish from the R&D, the application of the new technique and new ingredients.
The second part is the excitement of perfecting the dish, the doneness and getting it right. Once that is done, we’re moving on to the next dish.
Previously I might have put dishes before that I don’t feel strongly about, which I regret. This was for many reasons, whether it was ego or trying to fit some ideal in my mind that we were supposed to project.
The reality is the guests want to come and pay for good food, and we should be in pursuit of that first, before we pursue any other ethos.
Now, we have shifted our stance and everything we put out now is stuff that we are 100 per cent certain about.
All the dishes are very tasty and I love all the dishes like the Origami Frog, which was tasty and cute.
In this current menu, the Dabai Chocolate Tart, a cacao-less chocolate tart with dabai fruit, rose fudge and heart of palm and keluak tart shell from the current menu is a simply stellar tasting dish, that represents a novel use of ingredients, technique and it was from one of the team that invented it.
Ox Tongue Forbidden Rice Porridge (left) from the first menu is still talked about while the newer Tatus Hitam Crayfish (right) is fast making impressions — Picture from Dewakan
Most hated dish by diners
Our dishes tend to divide the room a lot but I enjoy all the dishes I put out there.
It was goat ham served with a noni bread and a rose sauce, very reminiscent of a Katz’s pastrami sandwich, which I liked a lot.
However, people didn’t like it. Once they saw it on the menu, they won’t even try it
After 10 years, I can say Malaysians are not adventurous. They say they are but not.
What’s next for Dewakan
We have not stopped accumulating the stories and as long as it fulfils the purpose, it will continue, I don’t think we have come to a point where we are ready to stop.
I do feel we have come to the point, for these past two to three years, on where our next direction is going to be.
Having said that I don’t believe we’re reached a milestone of 10 years, we need to know that answer immediately.
First and foremost, it’s to maintain a business so it must be profitable. You must be able to feed the people who work under your employ and also in order for us to do the things we want to do that costs money and so we need to generate that.
There is a product and a service involved and we want to continue to be able to give good memories to people.
And the second part, we have been in the forefront of a lot of things for our city from a culinary perspective but I think we’re on the precipice where there are a lot of other interesting things happening as well.
Enter Bidou (Instagram: @bidoumy): The next chapter in Damansara Heights
Teoh: The new place Bidou (belly in French) is a breakaway from what we do in Dewakan. It’s been four years in the making since its conceptualisation.
We’re looking at the Grande Cuisine from the 1950s to 1960s era in France.
We want to look at dishes from Paul Bocuse and Troigos that made them famous. These dishes will be contemporised for our market here and present time.
Bidou in Damansara Heights will be the next chapter, where the menu features the Grande Cuisine in France from the 1950s to 1960s, when it opens — Picture by Lee Khang Yi
It will be more dish forward rather than ingredient forward. A few liberties like the expression and depending on what French ingredients are accessible will be taken but the main components will be there.
The menu will be shorter with four courses that feature at least three to four choices to select from.
The wine list will have a total of 30 wines by the glass choices. The approach is based on their price range, to give you a broader choice. It will also be a more casual and relaxed dining.
For me, French food is my background as I cooked in a bistro and Singapore’s Les Amis so I feel an affinity towards the cuisine as it tastes good and I feel it’s fun.
Advice for up and coming restaurateurs
Don’t do it! Don’t give your life away. I think if you feel that is what you want to do, you’re half way through.
My biggest challenge was acquiring wisdom while I was persevering away and that had to be done quite actively as you cannot just wait.
If you want to pursue something, you need to pursue it to the end. And sometimes it’s not just hitting the brick wall over and over again and you call that perseverance. You need to figure a way around it.
That’s how we made it to 10 years, making sure our stakeholders are happy, our shareholders are happy and making sure our team is also happy but all that required so many moving parts.
You cannot just bulldoze through everything and you must have some wisdom too. This applies to everyone, including that uncle frying char kway teow.
For us, the pursuit is still here because there is a technical challenge that rises from here. The curiosity we get from the ingredients and our own backyard, fills a purpose that we are still fulfilled by.
