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Edwin Lau: A personal chef his wife
(JP/Niken Prathivi)While dedicating himself to a healthy life and food, celebrity chef and model, Edwin Handoyo Lau, lives up to the challenge at home â cooking for his wife
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(JP/Niken Prathivi) (JP/Niken Prathivi)
(JP/Niken Prathivi)While dedicating himself to a healthy life and food, celebrity chef and model, Edwin Handoyo Lau, lives up to the challenge at home ' cooking for his wife.
Since starting his gastronomic career in 2001, the 30-year-old gained experience in several establishments, including The Ritz-Carlton Bali and Grand Hyatt Jakarta, before eventually focusing on healthy food.
On TV, Edwin has hosted at least six cooking shows, including Good Living with Edwin Lau and 811 Show on MetroTV. Edwin owns a franchise sushi and steak restaurant, Master Sushi and Grill (MSG) and has also written a cook book, Healthyummy Bible.
'My typical daily routine begins with cooking breakfast for my wife, going to the gym and handling my restaurant, Master Sushi & Grill, which is abbreviated to MSG. Other than that, I do cooking demos quite often both in the country and overseas, as well as healthy life seminars.
I chose MSG for the brand of my restaurant because it is catchy ' only three syllables, which is easy to remember. The restaurant offers sushi and steak dishes, because whenever the meat price goes up, I can still sell sushi. Conversely, when people eat less sushi, I can still sell steak.
I combine local and imported products in my restaurant. The meat I use for the steak, for example, is only local tenderloin because I love to promote local products, but within international dishes.
It is a fun restaurant, for children and adults, and it also has a vegan menu as well as dishes for young professionals. All is healthy food, with great flavor, of course.
However, a true challenge for a chef is actually serving healthy and yummy food for his wife and family ' you can ask any chef.
I cook food for my wife, do groceries and take care of the budgeting because I'm responsible for her wellbeing and myself. The thing is, my wife is easily bored, including with her meals.
For me, it's simpler to make meals for 10,000 people. But to create a meal in a small portion differently every day, which is favorable to my wife's taste, is certainly not easy.
My wife's two favorite dishes are fried tempeh with omelet, which is filled with smoked meat and drizzled with reduced balsamic vinegar ' eaten with steamed rice; and pasta with angel hair ' I use Korean recipes and mix with honey syrup, salty soy sauce, grated ginger and onion.
When I don't work, I usually go somewhere ' it could be Bandung or other cities ' and do food tasting before I make my personal food review for my website, edwinlaukingdom.com.
It can be on street food, or food in premium restaurants. If the place has a recommended dish, I will try it and make an honest review out of it ' because I don't get paid ' so people can get a fair assessment.
My favorite holiday destination is Hong Kong, because the country has representatives of the best culinary establishments in the world. If you want to be a world-wide celebrity chef, you have to open your restaurant in Hong Kong.
My plan is to open my restaurant in Hong Kong, or Singapore.'
