If you grew up in the late 80s or 90s like me, chances are, you grew up watching Chef Wan. Who else remembers plonking themselves before the television at 1pm on weekdays (or was it just me?) to watch him whip up delicious-looking local cuisines peppered with his unique and bubbly personality. As cooking shows come and go, Datuk Chef Wan is our very own chef personality that made a name for himself that actually stuck through the years. Even until now, he is still very much in demand. Recently, he was in town at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel as part of his cooking tour to promote the best of his versions of the Malaysian cuisine and I jumped at the chance to attend! It was actually my colleague Kathleen's assignment to cover him and though I was on leave to complete my university papers, I did some turbo typing to complete the 2,500-word essays just to go out that evening. Talk about determination. And boy, was it worth it!
I was kinda starstrucked seeing him before my eyes (imagine what it would be like seeing Jamie Oliver). How he is on the telly, how he is in person! Every the bubbly and funny guy, it was a nice surprise to see that he made sure to say hello and shook hands with everybody in the room. Even after he started his cooking demonstrations and some of the audience came in late, he made it a point to say hi and even snapped photos of the guests haha! He cooked 3 dishes: Kari Laksa Bibik Neo, Nasi Ulam Diraja and Ayam Panggang Madura.
All I can say is, the moment the mixture of spices hit the wok, the room was instantly filled with wafts of hunger-inducing fragrance. He shared nostalgic snippets of his childhood, growing up with baba-nyonya heritage and his journey as a chef in Malaysia and abroad over the years. After a good few hours, the food was ready and my, oh my the smell was just crazy. After the demonstration, while all the excited (and I
mean super excited) makciks and kakaks rushed to snap photos with the chef, Kathleen and I headed straight to the food for a sample. BOY WAS IT DELICIOUS. Probably because we were all starving by then but I mean, I knew it was going to be delicious, but whoa it was so delicious. Totally didn't take photos of the laksa because it was gobbled up before I even had the chance to do so!
In the end we managed to sneak a photo with him, even got a selfie out of it! The hotel instantly printed out the photos for us, which we got him to sign! Now it's attached to my fridge whee!
I feel that he is such an accommodating person, honestly. Because one of the many kakaks AKA Super Fan, took group photos with him, single-person shots and
then whipped out a friggin monopod for selfies. A smiling and joking Chef Wan was a good sport throughout and just layan je. I guess he is used to all the attention after countless shows and interaction with these women over the years right? Later, he even uploaded a photo with me and Kathleen in it on his Instagram (ma, I made it lol)!
He was very chatty throughout the whole event as he is on his shows and watching his antics while he cooked was a joy. He had the room in stitches the moment he came in, right until the end, and more. Despite his obligations, he sat down for some Q & As with us reporters and he gave us all the answers that we didn't even need to ask questions for. :D Definitely an event to remember.
And just because I am missing his nasi ulam so badly today, here's a photo of him tasting the food before serving.. as he should.
Signed,
Your Super Fan.
♥
