Chef Ian Lim’s skills forged in kitchens from hell

to the challenge. Lim explains: “I oversee all the operations in Berjaya Times Square Hotel. “I oversee 67 chefs from various sections, including our fine-dining Samplings on the Fourteenth restaurant. Every section has its head, but I oversee them all.”

Lim has been in the food industry since he was 19.

“In my time, you had to be good in academics [to] go to university,” recalls Lim, who was then more keen to sharpen his culinary skills.

“So I mentored under my paternal uncle who was a chef. He once invited me to his home to grill bacon which was something very new to me then. I liked him and so mentored under him. I got myself into the kitchen after form six and worked in a hotel in Penang.”

His uncle, who worked in another hotel nearby, continued to guide and mentor him.

Lim adds that he started from the bottom as a casual worker and picked up different skills.

“I spent a couple of years working in the cold kitchen. Here, we learned the French style of handling cold meats. It is essentially learning how to make appetisers and salad [and to make] food beautiful with a little bit of artistic carving.”

Lim adds that everything he knows now are things he picked up along the way during the course of his career.

In his early days, he worked under two German and one British chefs. “You learn from the scoldings that you got. There were no culinary schools in those days. What you see in Hell’s Kitchen (the TV show) is what we went through.”

He says they had to learn to take the scoldings and the pressure in order to become good chefs.

Now, Lim is known for his organic cuisine, knowledge of herbs, and also creativity in various styles of cuisines.

“As a Malaysian chef, you have to go through the seasons,” says Lim, who adds that chefs have to be prepared to cook different types of food during various festive occasions, such as Chinese food during Chinese New Year, western cuisine during Valentine’s Day and Christmas, and Indian food during Deepavali.

“It is a mixture of everything,” he adds. “Now, you have Japanese and Mediterranean cuisine, and special meal requirements such as vegan.”

At home, Lim cooks when he is in the mood or what his children want to eat. “I can cook anything. So it is about what you are in the mood for. My wife has her own style of cooking which I enjoy, but mostly, I do the cooking.”

But Lim enjoys most the food from his hometown. “I love the Nyonya Peranakan style of cooking, and Penang hawker food.” – S. Indra Sathiabalan