Me in my chef white with colourful Malaysia Kitchen background.

Here is a quick intro about me if you have never heard of me before ‘I am Norman Musa, a self taught chef born in Butterworth and now resides in Manchester, UK. I am the Executive chef and co owner of Ning Restaurant in Manchester,UK. This year I was selected as Lotus Formula One Official Malaysian Chef to travel around the world with the Lotus team to cook for the like Tony Fernandes, drivers and whole team. Last year I was a finalist for Chef of the Year Award and also finalist for the Restaurant of the Year Award. I also self published my cookbook titled ‘Malaysian Food’ edited by my business partner, Andy Spracklen marketed in UK, Singapore and Malaysia. Together with Malaysia Kitchen campaign, we are working hard to promote Malaysian food in the UK. I met Sidney Kan of BigBoysOven in May 2010 and so much excited when he offered me to write for this blog to share my experiences running Malaysian restaurant abroad and especially my movements to promote Malaysian food in the UK. You can join my facebook fanpage ’Malaysian Chef Norman Musa’ for more information. ‘

Hello All and Apa Khabar

First of all I just want to wish ‘Selamat Hari Raya’ to all my Muslim friends and readers wherever you are.
I was back for Raya last week to celebrate with my sister and brother in Butterworth and both have families with kids. Having children around made Raya more cheerful with their laughter. It works for any celebrations no matter Chinese New Year, Diwali or Christmas. Don’t you agree? I spent most of my time with my nieces and nephews as they obviously know where to take me to buy them ‘baju raya’ and lots other unnecessary things that their parents will not even considered buying them. I think that is one of the reasons why they love me so much and always look forward for me to be back.
After been back for a week and eat ‘kuih raya’ as much as I can, I flew back to Manchester for 5 days to do my cooking demos at the prestigious shopping retail Selfridges at Trafford Centre, Manchester for three consecutive days. I was invited by Malaysia Kitchen (campaign subsidised by MARTRADE) to do the demos. This is what I enjoy doing as I love to interact with people especially when it comes to promoting our amazing Malaysian food. British are so keen to know more about our country especially the food. I get so excited when explaining to them about how diverse our foods are and to get to show them how we cook our food.

To my surprise not many people in the North were aware of Malaysian food and some of them have not even heard of Malaysia. In a way, I do feel quite lucky and honoured to have my Ning Restaurant to do well in Manchester and considered as one of the best restaurants in Manchester by the foodie websites. The funny thing was when I mentioned Thailand to the audiences; everyone knew where the country is. At some point I turned my demo like a geography lesson to tell them and by now hopefully few thousands of the northerners who went to see me cooking know where Malaysia is and appreciate the range of cuisine we have to offer. It was a successful event and well done to Malaysia Kitchen team too.

Passing out food samples for audiences to try.

Busy crowds who were so intrigued to know more about our Malaysian food.

Watch the video of my demo

Now I am back in KL again from 20th until 29th September to do my cooking demos and book signing. I am quite nervous on this as I never cook in front of Malaysian audiences before so this will be quite nerve wrecking but I suppose I have to remain calm and focus. For those who want to meet me in person and talk more about the exciting things I have achieved in the UK, do join me at below venues:
Friday, 24th September at Kinokuniya at 2pm
Saturday, 25th September at Borders, The Gardens at 3pm
Sunday, 26th September at MPH, OneUtama at 2pm
I will also be on NTV7’s The Breakfast Show on Thursday, 22nd September at 8.30am.

Ok, competition time. I have three of my ‘Malaysian Food’ cookbooks to give away. To win this, you have to answer simple question below:

‘If you were to promote one particular Malaysian dish that deserve to be known globally, what would it be and why?’

You can answer this in the comment box below and don’t forget to leave your email address so I can contact you personally to let you know you have won my cookbook.
Competition ends on 10th October 2010. Good luck.