Doyen of Fine Dining
Spreading his dominion across Asia-pacific, Ryan Clift stopped by the St Regis KL for a brief stint as a guest chef, during when Samantha Lim stole him aside for a speedy chat
Some chefs are competent, others are commendable, and then there’s Ryan Clift. If spearheading Tippling Club—ranked among Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants and The World’s 50 Best Bars list—doesn’t deserve deference, how about hosting one’s own show on the National Geographic Channel? It’s hard to discount a man with his own brand of professional chef knives or the knowledge
My tattoos are
not like those of American chefs who have got bloody onions, garlic and cross sections of beef on their bodies. Mine expresses my love of Japanese culture plus art, and my two boys.
I got to where I am
by not taking any prisoners and not taking no for an answer.
My kitchen brigade see me
as a mentor, a father and a guiding force.
The biggest sacrifice I’ve ever made was
committing myself to this industry. Unfortunately, top-tier dining is relentless. You miss weekends, Christmas, birthdays... You basically give up everything to make customers happy.
The best kitchen knives
are the ones I make in Bali called Blades Of The Gods. They’re black Damascus, folded 260 times by hand, and contain meteorite through the blade— absolutely stunning but also extremely pricey and there’s a two-year waiting list for them because only one guy, Empu Ketut Mudra, makes them near Ubud. He implements old Balinese techniques— the same used to make Keris daggers.
While filming the craziest thing I did was
drink camel’s milk straight from a camel without a cup. It’s got a very funky flavour— exactly how you would expect camel to smell.
My biggest ethos is
staying true to your own standards and not allowing people to give you second-best. I’m only ever asking for first place.
Turning 41 last year
a relief. Didn’t think I would make it. It marks 29 years of professional cooking. I do feel a bit old when I see kids’ resumes these days.
A little known fact about me is that
I’m actually a big softie and a bit of a romantic. I’m not as scary as I make out to be—it’s all a big show.
Sustainable cuisine
is that he worked cheek by jowl with Shannon Bennett, Raymond Capaldi, Peter Gordon, Emmanuel Renaut and Marco-pierre White. Clift, who turned 41 last year, forayed into a few firsts mid-2017. Located at the L Hotel in Seminyak, Bali, GROW and GROW UP are his inaugural projects outside Singapore, both of which herald sustainability. The Burmese-english bloke completed a few prompts put forth by Malaysia Tatler:
is every chef’s responsibility. We’re killing our environment and chefs need to play their part. Try to import as little as possible and use as much local produce as you can.
GROW,
my first restaurant in Bali, is a very rewarding project. We spent a lot of time training young Indonesian chefs, teaching local farmers to deliver better quality products, and putting more money into their pockets.
GROW UP,
on the other hand, is a bit tongue in cheek. It’s a very stunning rooftop bar that overlooks all of Seminyak. Bali has a very big culture that revolves around the magic hour of sunset.
If ravenous (and omnivorous) aliens visited Earth
I would serve them Donald Trump because there’s a lot of him to feed off and he’d probably taste bad, thus they would leave us alone.