Jun Wong is easily recognised as one of Kuala Lumpur’s best chefs, know for her very delicate and nuanced approach to her cooking style. Her new residence at the whimsically named Yellow Fin Horse at Else Kuala Lumpur sees a markedly different change to her style from before, which switches her Japanese leaning style to what she terms elemental cooking. We speak to her to find out more.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I have a Bachelor’s degree in hospitality management, but it was during my internships in hotels that I discovered the attraction towards working in a kitchen. The high octane, high discipline, fast paced adrenaline of being on the line was super addictive. And since then, I have worked in 4 different countries across 2 continents, in a varied mix of restaurants holding Michelin stars, AGFG Chef Hats (Australia), and World’s 50 Best rankings. It was only when I returned to Malaysia in my first stint as a head chef here, that I began to veer away from my fine dining background, and leaned towards something less stuffy, but still intentional and thoughtful.
With such a whimsical name, can you tell us a bit about Yellow Fin Horse?
It’s gibberish. It means whatever you want it to mean, just like our “mascot”, whom our owner affectionately nicknamed George, he is whatever creature you interpret him to be. But some might relate the name to some hybrid mythical creature, like a cross between a seahorse, Pegasus, unicorn, or an Amberjack fish. George, however, looks like a dragon to me.
What style of cuisine do you serve?
Our approach is “elemental cooking”, which takes basic cooking approaches such all open fire cooking, curing, aging, preserving, etc., and applying these primitive techniques to good ingredients and quality produce. To add to that, we don’t necessarily anchor ourselves to a specific cuisine, because when you look at our approach towards cooking, all these techniques predate cultures and borders in the conventional sense. (add: When we take open fire cooking for example, you would be hard pressed to name a culture that doesn’t have some form of that. Even if we took an actual dish for example, like raw fish, you have the Bornean Umai, Japanese Sashimi, Latin American Ceviche, Chinese “Yu Kuai”, Italian/ Spanish Crudo, Scandinavian Gravlax, etc. so who is borrowing from who’s culture strictly speaking?)
Tell us your philosophy when it comes to your cuisine?
There’s a lot of restraint and discipline when it comes to our cooking approach. It seems counter-intuitive as we make most things from scratch, but where our restraint comes in is in knowing how much intervention is necessary to achieve the optimal result, for the ingredient/ dish to shine.
Do you work with any specific farms or producers?
We support local producers as much as we can. A few notable ones we consider as friends in terms of them being involved in helping us curate or bounce ideas/ suggestions on how to best use their produce would be Chocolate Concierge, A Little Farm on the Hill, and Grace Cup from Cameron Highlands. We also have very good relationship with our local seafood supplier.
\What are three must order dishes on the menu?
This is a question I always feel conflicted to answer. But I would say that the 3 most popular dishes amongst diners are the a) Potayytoe Potahhtoh, b) “Sinaloa Style” Aguachile and the c) Charred Caramelised Miyazaki Short Rib.
How about three vegetarian dishes?
Summer Salad, Chargrilled Aubergine, and the Charred Sugarloaf Cabbage.
Tell us something about Yellow Fin Horse that people might not be aware of…
We also have a very solid beverage programme that is very cohesive and in line with our food philosophy. Or something more of an “oops” moment, we have had some minor explosions of glass jars from our carbonation process for some of our fermentation projects.
Yellow Fin Horse
145, Jalan Tun H S Lee,
50000 Kuala Lumpur
Opening Hours:
Wednesdays to Sundays, 6.00 pm to 12.00 am
Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
| PHOTOGRAPHY: ELSE HOTEL | WEBSITE: YELLOW FIN HORSE |