A leisurely lunch with two of Cambodia’s culinary kings
By: Paul Millar - POSTED ON: August
25, 2017
Focus Cambodia sat down with Cambodian chef Luu Meng and his business
partner Arnaud Darc at their restaurant Malis in Phnom Penh to discuss the
Kingdom’s dining renaissance
Luu Meng, the head chef of dedicated
Cambodian restaurant Malis and long-time business partner Arnaud Darc
Words by Paul Millar Photography
by Sam Jam
What kind of role does cuisine play
in preserving Cambodian culture?
Luu Meng: Well, I think it has a big
role to keep the food culture, especially the Cambodian food culture [alive].
We’ve had more than ten years now since Malis restaurant opened, and before
that I was doing some research to keep that identity. It’s a big role, not only
for our restaurant, but also the people in Cambodia – they start to appreciate
Cambodian cuisine, and also to recall their memory, their experience. I’m
talking about Cambodians, but also the visitors – it has a big impact for them,
and they have a different image of Cambodia. With food, people go very deep
inside their experience when they are travelling.
Arnaud Darc: I would say that food –
in my country, in France, or in any country – is a big part of any culture the
same way that music is, or art is. It’s part of what creates an identity. We
all relate to our country because we are missing the food – it’s the same
everywhere, and I don’t think Cambodia escapes that rule. Before Malis, which
was the first 100% dedicated Cambodian cuisine restaurant when we opened it ten
years ago, you didn’t have that type of restaurant – you had restaurants that
featured Asian food, there was Cambodian, Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese all
together. When you look at the shape of the food industry, you’re following the
evolution of Cambodian culture. And today Cambodian culture has integrated
other cultures and made them their own. Cambodian food is just that – it’s a
big melting pot of other cuisine.
In the past 15 years, how has the
restaurant and fine-dining scene changed in Cambodia?
AD: Since we started, a lot of
Cambodian restaurants have opened. I think everybody now is adding their stones
to the building of Cambodia’s reputation within the country – and also abroad.
There is a lot of improvement – not just on what you can see as a consumer, but
also in the back, where there are more and more young Cambodians who are
learning how to cook, who learn the basics in terms of food preparation and
storage, food management – the progress has been incredible.
The bang kang river lobster is one
of many local specialties at Malis
So it’s become much more of an
industry now – people can say: ‘I want to be a part of this, I want a job
cooking Khmer food?’
AD: Yes – you can have a career in
the food and beverage industry of Cambodia, in the restaurant industry. And on
the top of the local entrepreneurs you have people bringing brands and
franchises, so you also have to bring training, education to the Cambodians and
then, after, entrepreneur opportunities, so some of them work with big brands,
they start to understand what they learn and replicate it.
With so many international brands
coming in, does it make it harder for Cambodian businesses to succeed?
LM: There are two ways you can look
at that. The international brands coming in, they have all the advantages of
knowledge they already have. But on the other hand, the international brands
coming in, they also don’t have the local culture.
AD: You look at Brown Coffee,
they’re very successful – you don’t know if you’re in Cambodia, you could be
anywhere. They’re international. They’re foreign-educated, but it’s all local,
they brew the coffee themselves. So I think any franchises who are coming in
also bring that knowledge of how to set up the system, and that’s good for
Cambodians to learn. The hardest part for us is to train. The education part of
our industry is very weak still, and Luu Meng and myself work very hard to try
and find a solution to that problem.
Outdoor dining at Malis Restaurant
What are some other challenges of
working in Cambodia specifically?
AD: The most difficult thing in our
industry is human resources – that’s number one. You want to open a restaurant,
it’s not the financial part, it’s finding those human resources. If we opened
maybe ten or 20 years ago a restaurant with people who didn’t know how to work,
the clients understood. The expectation was not so high, so they understood
that a person maybe couldn’t take an order properly. But now that it’s more
developed, so you cannot just open a restaurant like you used to ten years ago,
you need to have the basics in place – and that’s very hard to put in place if
you want to do it well. If you’re not a fast food place I mean – if you’re a
fast food place you have six products to sell; it’s easy to train.
The two of you have been working
together for more than a decade now. How has your relationship changed?
AD: When I came to Cambodia I was a
student in France. I came for an internship in Accor, in Sofitel Cambodia, for
three months. When I met Meng he was a, what,
a chef de partie?
a chef de partie?
LM: A butcher.
AD: He was a butcher. And we had the
same nature. My job was inventory. We met while we were taking stock. At some
point we talked about how Cambodian cuisine is missing, there’s no [such]
restaurant, and one day he said: ‘I’m ready – let’s do it!’ And we started to
work on Malis. Before we opened it we did six months of research. Meng trained
a lot in international hotels, and he had to find the people to bring in the
knowledge. And we’re still learning. Every week Meng goes to the market,
travels, meets people in the remote areas where they teach him how to do this
and that and he gets back to the kitchen and ah, he has an idea and pop! We
never stop. Because he’s very curious, and our passion makes us very close –
that passion for food.
Source: http://sea-globe.com/leisurely-lunch-two-cambodias-culinary-kings/
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