JP/Anggara Mahendra

For chef Rahung Nasution, cooking and culinary arts can open doors and give insight into the history and journey of a society.

'€œIn the current modern era, Indonesian society is still trapped in the Stone Age when it comes to cooking. Most Indonesians still see cooking is a domestic matter for mothers to handle,'€ Rahung told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.

'€œWe have also seen the development of celebrity chefs, which has made cooking seem like an exclusive job. This has disconnected the art of cooking from society. As a cook, I believe that cooking is not only a domestic matter for mothers and is also not an exclusive job but it is for everyone because it has its roots within society,'€ he added.

 The 39-year-old said people can learn a lot about a society from its local cooking methods and culinary traditions.

'€œFor example, most culinary traditions in Dayak and Papuan [cultures] use simple spices. This shows that their cultures are relatively untouched by foreign societies. The situation is different in Aceh, where most dishes require more than 20 spices to mix because the society there has been affected by India and other foreign cultures,'€ he said.

Rahung'€™s love and passion for cooking have been developed since childhood. He gained his views and expertise on various cuisines from his nomadic tendency to seek journeys throughout his life, which has covered three countries and two continents.

Born the eldest of five siblings in small village in Batang Angkola, which is located 40 kilometers from Padang Sidempuan in southern Tapanuli, North Sumatra, Rahung had to learn to cook from an early age because his parents, who were poor farmers, mostly spent their time working outdoors.

From his mother, Rahung learned to make the andaliman chili sauce, his trademark spice that he often uses in his cooking.

Life in the small village did not suit Rahung, who always dreamed of going to other places and of experiencing more in life. As a young boy, Rahung was often fascinated with stories of the great city of Jakarta told by older village boys who had the opportunity to go to the capital.

At the age of 14, Rahung decided to leave home and started living on the streets. He moved around to Jambi, Palembang, Jakarta and various regions of East Java just to taste how it felt living outside his village. He found protection by living with prostitutes, transsexuals and other fellow pilgrims who were kind enough to give him a place to sleep at night.

After living on the streets for one-and-a-half years, Rahung finally decided to return to his village.

'€œI did not want to end my life on the streets,'€ he said.

Rahung continued his study in Padang Sidempuan, away from his village. He lived in a dorm with five other students from other villages. That was when Rahung started to learn to cook for other people, and at times exchanged recipes with his roommates.

'€œEach of us brought local spices from our villages and we took turns cooking for one another,'€ he said.

Rahung then went on to finish his senior high school in Yogyakarta, where he established relationships with student activists from various part of the archipelago. These connections would later open more doors for Rahung to travel around the country and to learn about local cuisines and culture.

Rahung'€™s connection with anti-New Order regime activists also ignited a sense of rebellion within him and he began tattooing his body. One of his trademark tattoos is a Papuan tribal pattern printed right across his face, which represents his solidarity with the suffering and marginalization of Papuan people by the Indonesian government.

'€œTattoos were symbols of resistance and I love to have them on my body,'€ he said.

'€œIn 1997, a lot of my activist friends were captured by the New Order regime. I was depressed and I went to Bali. There, I met an Australian woman, began a relationship with her and she paid for me to go to Australia with her. I lived there until 1998 and worked as a paperboy and a porter to survive,'€ he said.

Returning to Indonesia, Rahung reconnected with several activists from Timor Leste, whose country had gained independence from Indonesia. They invited him to come to Timor Leste and what was supposed to be a three-month vacation for Rahung ended up being six years living in the newborn country.

During Rahung'€™s time in Timor Leste, he learned how to produce videos and documentaries from his friends. A military rebellion then broke out in Timor Leste in 2006 and Rahung again moved to Yogyakarta.

There he met with his old friend, Durga, a tattoo artist, and together they set out to make documentaries on traditional tattoos across the archipelago. While working on this project, Rahung also took the chance to learn more about local cuisine, especially that of remote tribal communities in Indonesia.

'€œWhenever I visit a remote region, I like hanging around with the mothers and learning about their cuisine and cooking methods. I carefully documented them because I believe records of these traditional tribal dishes are important for Indonesians,'€ he said.

Now that Rahung has documented numerous traditional dishes in written notes and on his blog, he plans to present them in the form of video documentaries.

'€œI managed to secure a deal with a cooking channel to feature videography of traditional dishes in Indonesia. The documentary basically shows the biography of each traditional dish by visiting local kitchens where they are being cooked.'€

At the end of the day, Rahung said that he wanted Indonesians to truly appreciate the nation'€™s culinary richness in all of its glory.

'€œEach region always feels that its cuisine is superior to the others. Indonesian tongues need to be more democratic [...] To address this, I often create '€˜chaos'€™ within a traditional dish by mixing it up with spices from other tribes.'€

To find out more about Rahung'€™s favorite recipes, visit his blog at kokigadungan.tumblr.com.

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