CHEF YASA OF HOTEL SANTIKA MATARAM
Love and Honesty, Actually
S
antika means peace and harmony. Right now that’s something everyone would welcome a large helping of. Add a serve of perfectly prepared traditional local ingredients, a dash of spicy innovation, and you have the perfect recipe for an Indonesian culinary treat. And when Chef Yasa, of Hotel Santika Mataram, puts ‘food made with honesty and love’ at the top of his kitchen checklist, things are definitely looking up. Yasa spoke with My Lombok recently, and told us more….
Is there one dish you love and remember from your childhood? Yes, I always remember ayam betutu, a traditional spiced and roasted chicken my mother always made for me when I was a kid. I loved it. When I was feeling ill, especially, my mum always knew just what to cook. Tell us about your career and some of the places you have worked. After senior high school, I studied for my diploma at the Bali Tourism Institute (STP) and later found a position as cook for the crew on a tanker ship. In 2007 I went to work at Santosa Villas and Resort in Lombok and then at the Hotel Vila Ombak on Gili Trawangan, from 2009 to 2011. The following year, I moved to Hotel Santika Mataram and, apart from a short break in 2014, when I went back to Java for a while, I have been there ever since, and I am now head chef. How would you define your style? As a cook I would say I am ‘slow but sure’. I’ve also been inspired, by cooks like Gordon Ramsey, to cook with feeling and technique. One of the most important things for me is team work. I prepare mostly traditional local recipes, because it’s a style of cooking I like, and I want to develop and promote Indonesian food. The menu at Hotel Santika is mainly Indonesian dishes, because most of our guests are Indonesian.
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