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Sandra Djohan's soulful world of food
Sandra Djohan
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Sandra Djohan. JP/AWO
Many Indonesian chefs have their own cooking shows on television. Few, however, can entertain an audience. Sandra Djohan is one such chef.
While her cuisine is indisputably delicious, it is Sandra's dynamic and funny character that succeeds in lighting up her show, making cooking look like play.
However, the culinary world is not a game for Sandra. It is something into which she pours all her heart.
Apart from preparing for her next series of the Spice of Life cooking show on the Asian Food Channel, Sandra is promoting Indonesian food to the world.
She and fellow chefs Petty Elliot, William Wongso and Budi Lee recently returned from the Frankfurt Book Fair's Gourmet Gallery, a place for chefs from around the world to showcase signature cuisine from their home countries.
Indonesia will be the festival's featured guest next year; the appearance of the chefs was planned to whet the appetites of the book fair's audience.
'We had a great time there,' Sandra said. 'Hundreds of people attended the cooking shows and when we cooked dinner at Blumen restaurant, we were very busy, but managed to have fun, too.'
Sandra has participated in international culinary events in several countries, including France, Japan and the Netherlands, which she says has helped her to promote Indonesian food as well as culture.
'I'm so annoyed when many people abroad have never heard of Indonesia's delicious dishes,' Sandra says. 'Many people don't even know where the country is. I'm very determined to approach them through such events to introduce Indonesian food as well as its culture.'
She continues. 'I also want to show that Indonesia's finest meals are not like usual gourmet food, which has minimalist food plating. I call our food 'soulful' food that makes your heart and tummy full.
The 42-year-old was born in Jakarta into a family that loved cooking. Sandra says that her grandmother always asked her to help in the kitchen, later passing a cookbook onto her.
While Sandra wanted to pursue her dream of becoming a chef by enrolling in cooking school; her father, Robby Djohan, a prominent local businessman, told her that aiming to become a chef was not a good decision at that time in the late 1980s.
'My father told me that it was not the right time to pursue a career in the culinary world, so I studied photography instead in the UK,' Sandra said.
Upon returning to Indonesia, Sandra worked in the hospitality industry, as an interior designer and hosted dinner gatherings in her spare time.
No matter how interesting her work was, Sandra never let go her dreams of working as a professional chef. Based on the experience of working in restaurants abroad, she opened a French restaurant, Coquelicot Le Bistro, with friends in 2005.
Despite its success, Sandra was hungry for more. 'I had a French restaurant but I didn't have proper French cooking techniques. After convincing my father, I went to Paris in 2009 to study at the renowned French culinary institute Le Cordon Bleu,' she says. The exciting restaurant was left to her partners.
Upon graduating from Cordon Bleu, Sandra applied to become a chef in a restaurant in Paris. 'I was quite shocked to know that instead of cooking, I was only told to peel onions on my first day of work. I cried on my way back home,' she says. 'It took me a while until I was allowed to cook.'
Sandra said that the experience taught her how to be a patient, disciplined chef. 'If I didn't go through all that, I wouldn't know that it's not easy to be a chef.'
After almost two years in Paris, she came back home and opened her own restaurant, Epilogue, in South Jakarta, serving French cuisine with an Indonesian twist.
Her hard work has made Robby proud. 'He's now my biggest fan, always asking me to cook lamb and never lets anyone else cook for family gatherings,' Sandra said.
Apart from hosting cooking shows on local and regional TV channels, Sandra recently launched a cookbook titled From My Kitchen to Yours, featuring her own food pictures.
Sandra also has dreams to open a local cooking school with a nine-month program and renowned chefs as instructors.
'Indonesia has a lot of crazy cooking techniques. I have an ambitious plan to have a school that teaches all that, with students from all over the world learning to cook Indonesian food.'
