Arimbi recalled she had frequently moved around to follow her diplomat father’s assignments, and in each place, the entire family loved to try new foods.

Still, she was fascinated with product design and was not interested in pursuing a career as a chef.

“Growing up, my focus was on art and I pursued my dream by studying art,” said Arimbi, who studied in both the United States and England.

After her studies, she took up different jobs, including as a freelance lifestyle writer for several magazines — a job that brought her attention back to food. “There’s a story behind every [dish],” she said, explaining her fascination with food and its history.

Her involvement in the Indonesian Heart Foundation opened up her eyes to the importance of healthy foods, taking into account that many people are suffering from diabetes or heart attacks at a young age.

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With such concerns mind, Arimbi believes that a healthy eating habit should start from home, prompting her to start cooking class at the South Jakarta apartment in which she lives.

“There’s a special kind of pleasure when cooking with your family. Apart from having healthy and delicious food, it also brings family members closer,” she said.

Soon after, she started learning more about food to boost her cooking skills, taking part in various workshops, both home and abroad. She also learned from various chefs who were happy to share their knowledge. “These chefs also arrange sharing sessions after returning from workshops,” she said.

Arimbi also found that in addition to Jakarta, Ubud in Bali was among the places that allowed her to delve deeper into the cooking scene, while expanding her network to include international chefs who chose to work in Indonesia.

Once, she took part in a workshop located in a restaurant whose ingredients were taken from a garden in the backyard. Another time, she recalled visiting a restaurant that empowered surrounding farmers and livestock breeders.

“By knowing about food sources, then we can better control how healthy our prepared dishes can be,” said the mother of four.

The same applies when cooking at home; all the ingredients, spices, the amount of salt, whether or not MSG is used and preparation methods are completely known.

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She said children look to their parents for examples of healthy food. For example, children who are not used to having fast food, would not be tempted to eat them.

“Many parents have complained [to me] that their children do not like to eat vegetables. But upon further questioning, it turns out these parents don’t like to serve vegetables at home,” Arimbi says.

As a chef, she has her culinary idols, but she confessed that her favorites changed over time. When she first joined the culinary world, she idolized celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Anthony Bourdain.

After a while, she started looking up to those she considered to be extremely dedicated to the culinary world.

“They are not very well known, but they’re truly dedicated and experts in the field,” said Arimbi, who, along with fellow Indonesian chef Sandra Djohan, cooks up scrumptious dishes in the Spice of Life cooking show on the Asian Food Channel.

One of Arimbi’s favorite chefs is Nancy Silverton, the American chef known for popularizing sourdough-based bread and artisan bakery in the US.

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“Her attempt to introduce healthy bread was a revolutionary move amid the highly industrialist American culture, which prefers sweet bread with a lot of baking powder,” she explained.

Arimbi was also pleased with the rising popularity of Indonesian food in the culinary scene, a development which has also encouraged the emergence of young and creative chefs.

“Back then, those wanting to study cooking would face resistance from their parents, who believed the profession would offer no potential,” she said.

Nowadays, she is happy to see many young chefs eager to explore their skills, such as by taking internships at various restaurants or traveling to other parts of the world to taste their signature dishes.

“I’m not saying that chefs should travel a lot, but if possible, [they should] try to visit places to see unique culinary traditions that will enrich their culinary knowledge or can be useful in creating recipes,” she said.

She said Indonesia itself has a rich culinary tradition, much of which has yet to be exposed, largely due to poor presentation or a lack of promotion. Some even say that because Indonesia boasts a wide variety of signature foods, it is hard to focus on promoting them all.

“However, take a look at China, which is a vast country, but each region offers its own signature dish that is very distinctive,” she said, adding that she has placed her hopes on the young generation of chefs to come up with a solution to better promote and present Indonesian cuisines.

Healthy food is her main concern, especially because many Indonesian dishes are fried.

“Actually, Indonesian cuisine contains many healthy spices, but too many are being fried,” she said.

Alternative methods of food preparation — by grilling or even air frying — could be a healthier solution, she added.

Arimbi also underlined creativity as an important factor when teaching to ensure the cooking process should not depend too much on existing ingredients or same old techniques.

“We can fuse ingredients or change cooking techniques,” she said. “This way we can create new menus from old recipes.”

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