The evolution of the newly Michelin-starred Dewakan, according to Chef Darren Teoh
The maverick chef dishes about what it’s like being at the vanguard of locavorism.
Dewakan, often accredited as one of the first to lay emphasis on indigenous ingredients in the local food scene, has come a long way since its inception in 2015. What started as part of an educational entrepreneurial effort at KDU University College turned into a formidable business venture that demanded a bigger footprint as it moved into the upscale Naza Tower in Platinum Park KLCC four years later.
Under the helm of chef-proprietor Darren Teoh, Dewakan redefines the notion of “modern Malaysian cuisine” with homegrown produce—some of which may sound foreign even to the natives such as kulim, buah keluak and more—reclaimed and reappropriated in ways that encourage deeper appreciation for the land and culture.
How has Dewakan evolved after all these years?
To me, there is no track pattern to it. It just moves from one place to another; it’s not static. It continues to be dynamic or at least that’s what we strive for. It’s not about tracking evolution. Evolution just happens. It’s spontaneous. It’s actually a culmination of the work that happens over a period of time and that is not visible to everybody. It’s like seeing a duck swim—there’s all that paddling going on under the surface. Our evolution is like that. I don’t think it’s restricted or tracked.
Do you feel pressure to keep things new? How do you strive for longevity?
You cannot exist if you don’t feel pressure as it builds perseverance. The pressure that we apply on ourselves is to do better and it’s this pressure that creates the right environment for evolution that you asked about. That said, I don’t feel that we need to be constantly reinventing ourselves for the sake of reinventing ourselves. A lot of what we do happens because we feel like that is the most organic direction for the cuisine and the restaurant.
Have you seen the practice of employing local ingredients picking up steam since you started?
I mean, in terms of growth percentage, I think it has gone up quite a lot. You have a number of restaurants that are doing things following the global movement that encourages restaurants to look at their own backyards and derive a cuisine from there. You have restaurants like Akâr Dining, Atas, Beta KL and more that are doing similar things so that’s at least a 300 per cent growth from what it was in 2015.
Where do you source your ingredients?
Our ingredients come from a variety of places and sources. A lot of these vendors are small companies, some of them are doing things independently but there have been bigger companies who take from smaller companies as well. We have also taken produce from certain social enterprises that benefit the indigenous communities. Our main objective is to make sure that we procure ingredients that we want to work with and the quality has to be extremely high.
Any new-found produce that you plan to incorporate in the menu?
At this point, we have received a couple of ingredients that, well, they’re not literally new as they have been around for a long time and we’ve always known about them. We’re currently figuring out ways to work with them. For our current menu, we’re working with items like keranji and dabai, which we use a lot. Things like kulim are always on the menu. There’s the limau lelang that we just brought in but it turns out it’s not edible.
What do you have in store for your customers now?
We aim to refresh our menu every four months but these past two years have put us out of sync. So we’re currently working on a new one. As for creating and experimenting, we don’t have a step-by-step process. I always hold on to this principle that if the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. It’s a quote by Abraham Maslow. I use this for just about everything and everyone who works in our organisation.
