Chef Interview

CHEF YASA OF HOTEL SANTIKA MATARAM

Love and Honesty, Actually

Santika 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.

Which dish do you most like to cook?

I like to make sop buntut, which is oxtail soup, iga bacem a traditional dish of braised ribs, with sambel hijau – a sauce made with spicy green chilies – and tahu tek-tek, which is fried tofu with spicy peanut sauce and vegetables.

Which dish do you think is the guests’ favourite?

I would say it must be gurame sambal terasi, which is fish cooked in a sauce made with chilies and shrimp paste. That’s definitely a best seller.

Do you have particular ingredients you really like to cook with?

The most important thing for me is that I have plenty of herbs and spices in my kitchen. Then I can make anything I want.

Which is your ‘must have’ kitchen gadget?

Well, I use knives all the time, so I absolutely must have a good sharpener.

Could you describe your typical working day?

Normally, I work an 8-hour day but, depending on the guest situation, sometimes it could be 10 or up to 12 hours. And, remember, it’s 6 days per week.

What do you like most about your job?

I really like that I can always find new techniques. Also, I like to take a simple dish and make variations of it and make the food even more delicious.

What do you see as the biggest challenge?

Culinary science is something unique. For me it’s something that's always developing. It never ends, and that’s what makes me always want to learn… and learn….

What foods do you really love to eat? Is there anything you would never eat?

Vegetables… and vegetables. Any kind of vegetables. I love them. What I don’t like and never want to eat is raw food – I mean sushi, and things like that.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

For now, especially because of the situation we’re in, I like to spend time gardening, and growing ornamental plants.

If you hadn’t become a chef, what do you think you would be doing right now?

I think if I hadn’t become a chef I would be in the army. I suppose that’s because since I was a kid I liked playing with toy guns and that kind of thing. After senior high school I was thinking about applying to go into the Indonesian army, but then I heard there was a cooking school in Bali and I thought it would be something interesting to try – something new.

Do you have a favourite celebrity chef?

Yes, I have two. Gordon Ramsey, the chef I mentioned before, and Jamie Oliver – both from the United Kingdom.

Any tips for budding chefs? Tip number one: ‘Do what you wanna do’. Try it and don’t be afraid to try it, because if you want to create great food you need to do it wrong a hundred times. Tip number two: Go somewhere to get experience, because experience is the best teacher you’ll have, if you want to become a great chef.

Other than creating great food, what would you say are the most important qualities that make a great chef?

Honesty. You have to be honest with yourself, because once you are honest you can really know what is inside the food that you make. And also love. You have to make food with love, so you can give love to all your guests.

Fresh Fruit Muesli

Ingredients

• Muesli 100gr • Fresh Fruit (chopped) - dragon fruit, banana, orange, blueberry, pineapple • 80gr plain yogurt • 50ml of honey

Method

• Pour the muesli into a bowl. • Arrange the fruit on the muesli and add the yogurt. • Serve with honey

Santika Sop Buntut (Oxtail Soup)

Ingredients

• The tail (oxtail) • Nutmeg • Garlic • Carrots • Potatoes • Celery • Ginger Sambal ingredients: • Cayenne pepper • Red chilies • Garlic • Tomato

Method

• Prepare and clean the oxtail. • Boil the oxtail over medium heat. • Add the grated nutmeg, celery, carrots, and grilled ginger. • Chop the garlic then saute until browned, and to the boiling oxtail. • Cook until the oxtail is tender and serve with potatoes and carrots which have been boiled separately beforehand.