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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 Ti ..read more

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 Introdu ..read more

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 gre ..read more

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 ..read more

Robin Lim is the founder of Superfruits Valley in Perlis, one of the largest superfruits farms in Malaysia. Spanning 50 hectares with 40 greenhouses, Robin’s farm grows superfruits like gac, fig, passion fruit and cape gooseberry - with nutritional benefits that will blow your mind. In this episode, the modern farmer shows us how it's done, the importance of building up the next-gen of farmers and of course, life in Perlis. “Agriculture will not be wrong. Growing the right things for the right market is very important. And you need to analyse yourself on the market demand, rather than listenin ..read more

ZUS Coffee is the newest coffee chain in Malaysia that has grown from two outlets within two years of the pandemic to a total of 71 outlets, in six states across the country. Co-founder Terence Ho, born in Ipoh and raised in Kuala Lumpur, comes on the show to profess his love for Starbucks & HaiDiLao and how he modelled his start-up after these brands. He also shares about taking the road less travelled, being called a “kopi boy” by his parents and recognizing a problem as an opportunity to deliver quality coffee throughout Malaysia. “I did a bit of reflection and found that weakness is st ..read more

Amazin’ Graze is the healthy snack company that is taking the shelves of big grocery stores by storm! This is the story of how three corporate Asian women’s idea of creating healthy granola and snack products in their home kitchen blossomed into an international brand: now satisfying the daytime and late-night munchies of consumers across Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and the US. Co-founder and CEO of Amazin’ Graze, Amy Zheng, drops some tips on the best way to find your business partners, opens up about the brand’s failure story and gives us a sneak peek into the process behind cr ..read more

As the year comes to a close, we brought on two of Kessyl’s girlfriends to reflect and re-evaluate 2021. The things we struggle with and laugh about in our mid-20s: The fear of falling behind, stepping into uncertainty and celebrating growths along the way. Is this a trap? Is this freedom? But honestly, if we were to sum up this episode into a song, it has to be Adele’s “I Drink Wine.” And hey, if you’re in this quarter-life crisis, know that you are NOT ALONE. “Just because you can’t imagine it, doesn’t mean better don't exist.” - Quin Ooi, 2021 00:00 - Soul fulfilling project: Project ME 5:5 ..read more