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From the Producers that brought you Urbanscapes, here comes another fun-packed festival, celebrating food and drinks over the course of three days, featuring the best of mixologists and culinary experts from the region, all under one roof; at the chef-d’oeuvre, Taste of Tiffin. Only in Publika.
That’s right. If you’re a major, big-time foodie, you don’t want to miss this weekend of utter decadence, happening from the 26th to 28th of February.
The Taste of Tiffin Brunch Sessions will be happening on the 27th and 28th of February, featuring culinary experts behind RootCellar KL and Singapore’s Brunch Bandits By Nithiya who will be treating guests to a breakfast fare that will put a big, toothy smile on your tummies.
Lipstiq.com caught up Basira Yeusuff, Head Chef of RootCellar KL, who tells us about her journey in the culinary world and gives us a little sneak peak into what guests will be treated to at the Taste of Tiffin Brunch session.
Gowri: Basira, tell us about the idea behind RootCellar KL.
Basira: RootCellar KL is a collaboration between a bunch of people. My other partners are my siblings, we all take care of different aspects of the business. Bahir takes care of content and marketing, Rabia does the books and finances, there’s me with the cooking, and Abbas with the logistics. My parents have also been super-supportive, I’m glad I’m one of those lucky ones who knew what I loved doing since the beginning.
We do catering gigs, private parties, and a lot of pop ups.
G: Can you describe the menu?
B: There is no particular menu, really. There are some signature items, but no fixed menu. I like to work organically, just using whatever that I have at my disposal, and whipping something up. This works very well especially when my clients say, “I totally leave it up to you.” It’s very ad-hoc, and inspiration based.
My style of food usually revolves around modern european style, like traditional french and european style but infused with local cuisine. For example, our signature item would be the pulut hitam cheese tart. I make something, and then incorporate a twist to it. Another example would be my creme brûlée with lavender. So yeah, I’m all about adding the twist. They are only available by pre-order though.
G: Oh, so people can’t just show up and demand for a pulut hitam cheese tart?
B: Well, no they can’t, because we are a pop-up restaurant. We show up for caterings, events, festivals, but there is actually no physical location.
G: Why the name Root cellar?
B: I had chef-crush on Magnus Nilsson, who runs the restaurant Fäviken in Sweden. For his cookings, he uses things that are in and around him, there’s no fixed menu, and I found that very exciting. He also had this really interesting technique where he’d store his root vegetables in chiller roots, sort of to trick the plants into thinking they’re still alive. It’s also called a root cellar. So when I watched that episode on TV and saw what he did, I was like “Holy sh*t a root cellar!” And the rest is history.
G: How has the journey been in the last one year?
B: Being in the F&B industry and having no physical outlet, it’s difficult for people to understand our concept, and what we’re all about. There are always a lot of questions about what we do, and why we do it this way. I really want people to get used to this idea of a pop-up restaurant, and hopefully get more people on board.
G: Has this always been your idea? Have you worked in a “physical” restaurant?
B: (chuckles) I studied culinary, I’m a professional chef and have worked a couple of years in restaurants, but the thing is, I get bored easily! I got tired of churning food out from the same fixed menu day in and day out, I wanted the process to be more creative, more organic.
I did open up my own place once but it didn’t quite work out because of the location and other factors. So I decided to go underground. I bought over a kitchen and equipment and did mostly underground stuff after that. It started out as a sandwich bar, and evolved from there.
We also became a vending-partner with Urbanscapes once, that was fun!
G: How did you get involved with Taste of Tiffin Brunch Session?
B: We were invited to Taste Of Tiffin, because we have worked with Urbanscapes before and it’s the same people doing Taste of Tiffin now, so they are familiar with my style and thought it would be fun to collaborate again.
Taste of Tiffin goes on for three days. I am, of course, doing the brunch session on Saturday, 11.30 am and 1.30 pm. Each session can accommodate about 40 people, and we’ll be serving a 3-course meal. This will also be our first brunch pop-up for 2016, so we’re really excited!
G: So you’ll be cooking, mostly?
B: Yes, cooking, serving, running in and out (laughs). That goes back to our concept of organic approach with RootCellar, it’s a small team of people, so it’s us preparing the meals, it’s us serving you, and it’s also us answering all your e-mails! During the brunch sessions, guests are welcome to ask me any questions or give any feedback, we keep it interactive.
G: Tell me about the Fancy Breakfast Club.
B: That was my past venture. I was a chef there for a year, collaborating with about five or six other people in an underground kitchen in Bangsar. We did mostly catering and underground dining too.
I did mostly sandwiches with them, and then people thought “Basira can only make sandwiches”, and I was like, “Nooooo! I can do other things too!” So that was also how I branched away and founded RootCellar.
G: Future plans for RootCellar?
B: I’d really like for the idea of pop-up restaurants to start catching up first. I love this organic way of doing things, being very personal with clients, and we would love to have an outlet one day so people can find us. And our pulut hitam cheese tarts.
We also love to collaborate with people, be it organisations or individuals, and that’s mostly where I get inspiration for the food. So we welcome everyone! Even our name cards is the result of a collaboration with Atie J, who designed this beautiful name card for RootCellar. I don’t limit the collaborations to anything, it can be with music, flowers, space, movies – anything at all! For example, I’d listen to an album – get inspired by the song, and I’ll start thinking about how to transfer that into a plate.
G: What else do you love, besides cooking?
B: I love love music, if I had even an ounce of musical talent, I’d screw this cooking thing and get into music (laughs).
Well, we’re lucky she didn’t. Head on to Publika this weekend and treat yourself to Basira’s one-time only special brunch menu at The Bee, Publika. For more details, visit Taste of Tiffin’s Facebook page.
For more information on RootCellar KL, visit their webpage.
