A dedicated chef
> Pamela G. Kalaimagal has come a long way from a child cooking for her family of 16 siblings to a hotel’s senior chef de partie that she is today
With a heavy heart, she left her child with family members, and worked in Riyadh for seven years.
Pamela then returned to Malaysia to continue caring for her daughter, taking on catering jobs and working in hotel kitchens.
Today, she is the senior chef de partie at Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences, Kuala Lumpur, while her nowadult daughter is studying law. At the hotel’s Flavours restaurant, she oversees the menu as well as cooks for the events and weddings held there. Talking about how her love of cooking began, Pamela said: “I learned cooking from my grandmothers, especially my maternal grandmother.
“[By] the time I was 12, I could cook curries and other dishes on my own ... I liked it when people said they enjoyed my food.”
Whenever someone complemented young Pamela’s cooking, it helped boost her selfesteem.
Pamela said she loves cooking so much, she could do it “nonstop, all day”.
She added: “I also like to teach people. I don’t like to keep recipes to myself.”
Looking back on her culinary career, Pamela can’t help but feel some fondness for her old boss Jarod, who helped her get started, and whom she saw as a father figure at the time.
Recalling that time in her life, when she learnt new styles of cooking, she said: “I never went to any culinary school. When I tasted something that I like, I would learn how to cook it.
“I can now cook Indian, Malay, Chinese, and Western dishes. As a chef, you must know how to do everything.”
However, she does get to show off her Indian roots on Fridays, when she prepares the briyani promotion for lunch.
Patrons can enjoy a wide variety of briyani rice dishes (including chicken, mutton, vegetable and fish), as well as accompanying dishes such as siting masala, prawn Sothy, and her much sought-after tomato rasam.
Pamela makes everything from scratch. For her Indian dishes, she grinds the wet masala spice paste herself, ensuring that her food tastes better when compared to using dry masala from a packet.
For a taste of her cooking, she prepares for us some of her specialities such as prawn Manchurian with raita, mutton masala, pilao rice, and her signature tomato rasam.
The mutton is tender and succulent while the prawns are not overwhelmingly spicy but the gravy that comes with the dish is truly superb.
Both dishes go well with the rice, that is aromatic on its own.
However, the star of the meal has to be the sublime rasam with its rich, mildly spicy tomato souplike texture.
As for the secret to her good food, she says: “I don’t do shortcuts. I will do a job until I am satisfied.”