The MICHELIN Guide in Asia continues to pay attention to atypical and popular places: after Bangkok's street food, the spotlight moves over to the peranakan specialty restaurant run by an almost 70-year-old chef who has cooked in a factory cafeteria all her life.
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Fine dining works in mysterious ways. It just so happens, that in Malaysia, where the MICHELIN Guide has just entered, one out of four-starred restaurants is conducted by a woman in her late 70s, Beh Gaik Lean, who totally lacks any experience in fine dining.
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Chef patron of Auntie Gaik Lean's Old School Eatery in Penang, Beh specializes in Peranakan cuisine, a sort of mix between Chinese, Indonesian and Malaysian cuisine, which she says she interprets the old-fashioned way. And customers flock to it in large numbers, regardless of its MICHELIN star (even if a table must be booked two weeks in advance). They are also attracted by prices that remain among the lowest in the world for a Michelin-starred restaurant: a full meal (eating to one’s heart’s content) never exceeds $40.
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Beh attributes her success to the cult of hard work and sense of sacrifice he inherited from her father, who served in the British Army. So much so that for years and years she says she worked tirelessly, doing everything by hand, "until her bottom fell out." She was already well known to Malaysia's royal family when Michelin set its eyes on her, praising her secret recipes, jealously guarded for decades, and her uncompromising food quality.
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However, Beh lacks any kind of training: she has never attended culinary school or worked in a MICHELIN star restaurant. She started cooking at the age of 21 in the cafeteria of a Motorola factory and only opened her own restaurant ten years ago, where her son Adrian now runs it alongside her. When the coveted award was announced to her after a year of review, she barely knew what Michelin was. "I know it but I'm not very familiar with it. So, when I heard the news, I Googled it calmly and I understood (what it meant)."
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Her day in any case has not changed much. It begins at six o'clock, when she wakes up to cook for the temple. Before the lunch service, she goes to the market with Adrian to buy fresh produce and does not stop working until the last evening guest leaves the table, six days a week. Throughout her strenuous daily routine, she consumes six or seven meals a day. "I love food; the word diet is not part of my vocabulary," she jokes. "The restaurant takes up most of my time. I'm quite spiritual and I have eight grandchildren, I think that's enough for me. I just want to die happy."
Source: Insider
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