DATUK LIM BIAN YAM is a true-blue Baba, right down to his mannerisms and speech. His accolades are many, including being honoured in 2005 as a “living heritage treasure of Penang”. His is a life of devotion to God, to his art of cooking and floral arrangement and, to his family, friends and students.

"My maxim [with regards to food] is 'Cook with love, eat with gratitude'. It is as simple as that… My intended legacy, and I must thank God for that, is to leave behind things that can bring joy to people. Satisfaction when they do it. Contentment. The feeling, 'Ah! I have done it well'. That is why I emphasise the word 'well'. In terms of people, it would be anybody who is touched by my recipes. They should bring joy to the father and mother who cooks with them”, he said. Picture right: Cooking class in Kuala Lumpur, June 2007

He was gifted from young, as excerpts of his interview below shows but, just as important, he was a product of his environment. Born in 1933 into a Nyonya family which lived in the Straits Chinese bastion of Muntri Street, Penang, he was infused with their lifestyle. His family, notably his miner grandfather Tan Choo Fatt, family-matriarch grandmother, dedicated father Lim Eng Siang and loving but strict mother Tan Saw Bee, greatly influenced his development.

A self-thought floral artist who is recognised as Grand Master or sifu kung in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia, he started his career as a humble draftsman in the Penang City Council in 1951. In the mid-1950s, he began to teach flower arrangement by going “house to house” and founded in 1962, with the help of several Penang notables, the Penang Floral Art Society, which has flourished to this day.

From young he had decided not to be a professional chef, preferring to be a “self-sufficient” teacher of home cooking and floral art. Among his students were celebrity chefs, royalty, wives of corporate personalities and restaurateurs. When asked how many people he has taught, he said, “Hundreds, although I charge a premium. I must be one of the most expensive culinary teachers in the region”. Yet, true to his beliefs, he lives a simple life in a link house, having given away much of his belongings to his friends and in support of his faith.

Lim is a perfectionist, immaculate and painstaking in his ways and could be fussy and obstinate to the point of being irksome. On his detailed experiments on food with his relatives earlier, he said (mixing Baba Hokkien with English, as is common among the Straits Chinese):

“Some would say ay chniah toke toh ho lah (enough, now that we can serve the dish at a sit-down meal for guests), koh boey eh neh im kim, eh neh kek kau (still want to be so detailed, so fussy), bay teok chi lay, bay teok hee lay (this is not right, that is not right). But this is the way to live you know, I told them. I was discouraged many a time. Loo chay soo (you are a lot of trouble), some would say. But I knew where I was and where I was going. And if wah boey mee kiah nee, wah boey chniah tor (if I wanted certain things, I want them to be authentic)”. Picture above right: Lim with his Penang cooking gang in 1998

His attention to detail in physical form shows through more than anything else in his floral art. See slideshow HERE. What may not be immediately apparent is his cooking, especially the complex processes that go through his mind as he develops a dish. Some simple things like the sauce for his Hainanese steamed chicken took 30 years before he found a recipe that, in Nyonya parlance, masuk medan (qualify to be moved into a protected, cherished place among the honoured) or khee toke or khia toke (deserving of a place on the table, usually the main one, and served to guests).

Belonging to the faith of Mahikari or “true light”, he now runs an International School of Cookery in Taman Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur, with the help of his Principal, Vincent Chee.

This is a small attempt to show the man behind the art.

Note: (1) Lim was conferred, in July 2007, the Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (DSPN) by the Yang diPertua Negeri of Penang, which carries the title of “Datuk” (2) For his contributions to cooking and floral art, he has been awarded the International Order of Merit from the Biographical Centre in Cambridge, England, and the Shield of Valour from the American Biographical Institute in North Carolina (3) He has won countless prizes for flower arrangement, the most recent of which was First Prize Medal at the 2005 Hong Kong Flower Show. Aged 72 then, he beat contestants from 11 countries, among them Japan, the Netherlands and Australia. The next oldest contestant was in his mid-fifties. (4) He has published a few books, notably, The Eye of the Flower Arranger (Collingridge, 1967), Floral Creations (Federal Publications, 1977) and Inspirations (self-published, 1996). His latest book, published in June 2007, is Lim Bian Yam’s Favourite Recipes on International Cooking. Read more here.

Excerpts from Interviews with Lim Bian Yam at his International School of Home Cookery in Taman Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur, June-July 2007 (Part 1)

• How it all started in the kitchen playground
• Penang Nyonya kitchen management
• Cooking, cooking everywhere
• The Muntri Street house
• Creative mother
• Encouraging, liberal father
• Kim poh a top koay maker
• Ah Hong Pak, the Hainanese chef
• Chiak boey teok ho (Eating well is a must)
• Penang food quality in the 1940s
• Calling of a very “creditable” guy
• Work in the City Council
• Self-taught floral art
• From house-to-house to the Istana Negara
• No future for an architect in Penang
• Penang Floral Art Society
• Cooking versus floral art?

How it all started in the kitchen playground

I was born into a family that loved food, especially my maternal grandfather. He simply loved food. So he got us all into it. And all the maidens [relatives and char bor kan], whether they liked it or not, they had to spend their time in the kitchen. So it was very easy to get things done. My grandmother, whenever she took part in a decision to consider a home, she would like to see the chau kar (kitchen). She did not care if the bedroom was big or not. You know the kitchen, it could be four times this hall [referring to a normal living room of a terrace house]. The chau kar became a playground for me. In those days, we were not even allowed to leave the home you know, in case there were cars – even in those days, half an hour per car! [laughs]. I was cooped up in the house and did not know how to fly a kite or play marbles. Everything happened in the kitchen. It was a playground for me. Back

Penang Nyonya kitchen management

The kitchen was organised by the matriarch, my grandmother. And she might delegate someone to manage it. In our case it was her sister-in-law, my kim poh (wife of his maternal grandmother’s brother). She was good not only at managing but also cooking. Which was why our family recipes oo lat (have strength or “power”). Not only that, Ah Hong Pak, the [Hainanese] family chef would chip in. On a normal day, after instructions from grandmother, my mother would also help. On special days, the maidens in the kitchen would include cousins and the char bor kan. One of them was in charge of many many things. My grandmother married her off later like her own daughter. She [grandmother] would also take in widows. The house was always very busy. But it was well and strictly managed. There was no trouble. Back

Cooking, cooking everywhere

It was cooking left, right and everywhere in the Nyonya house. It was like a fun fair. When I was very young, after they cooked, I would be there because I loved the sound of hot metal sizzling with water. The bar lay (day bed) nearby was made of teak. It was so nice to sleep there. And the people… Wah eh koo kar liau (all my uncles) from my mother’s side, they would be in charge of purchasing… Tak kar tak chiah khee chi peng, khee hee peng (ride the bicycle here and there). Heap Chin was the department store at that time. In the later years, they were at Carnavon Street. They were choot miah (famous). Whenever you made koay, you would go to Heap Chin, nowhere else…You want choo bee (glutinous rice) for huat koay (a type of steamed Nyonya cake), you go to Heap Chin. They never let you down. And the uncles, they were like traveling salespeople… “Busuk go there. Puteh go there”, the maidens would ask them.** It was most comical. Back

** The Nyonyas were very funny, even sadistic, at giving nicknames. Busuk means smelly. Puteh, meaning white, was usually reserved for a dark guy (Chinese and Indian). Such names could stick with them all their lives.

The Muntri Street house

Our house at 42 Muntri Street was large and long. We lived there until WWII. The house has been sold. All the [wood] carvings have been dismantled.* I loved that house very much. It was a lovely house. I simply enjoyed it. When you called at the door, the person in the kitchen could not hear. It had three chambers, each with a chim chneh (air well). We got light and ventilation from the chim chneh. The front hall, where visitors frequented, had one. The second chamber, the dining area with the second hall (private living quarters), also had one. This was where we entertained close relatives like my kim poh (grandmother’s brother’s wife). There we had a tng toke (long table) and a toilet. Just before Chinese New Year, the table would be full of tins for leng peng. The kitchen also had a chim chneh. And there was another opening at the back. We used to play masak masak** there. And there was something that impressed me until now. We had a goldfish in the second chim chneh for umpteen years until its eyes popped out. Back

* The Muntri Street house, before it was bought by Lim’s family, was built by a millionaire for his mistress called Nyonya Chantek. It had very intricate carvings.

** Masak masak is a children’s game where they emulate cooking and entertaining, usually with material from the surroundings like sand, leaves, etc

Creative mother

I was very fortunate. My mother [Tan Saw Bee] was very artistic. She used to do the sang guay (the hair “bun” Nyonya style that we see in old pictures). Although she was not a professional, you know relatives lah, they were very good at connecting you up if you were good. This chim poh (grandfather’s younger brother’s wife) here, that kim poh there. Not like today, we call everybody “aunty”. That time we were very particular and knew who the other person was at once. And my mother was good at embroidery. She was good at kim suah ay, shoes made of real gold threads. Shoes made with manek (tiny beads) were second grade. And my mother loved singing. Singing English songs. Back

Encouraging, liberal father

Surprisingly, mine was not the “Chinese” father but the “English” sort who prepared breakfast for us. He [Lim Eng Siang] must be partly responsible for my [good] health. He would give us “wheatbix” [not sure of the right spelling] with butter, honey and Marmite. We would be eating bananas, papayas, pineapple at breakfast, unheard of in most Chinese homes. He was a good father who encouraged me when I showed an inclination towards art and cooking. He never stopped me like saying tah por lang choe chi lay mee kiah ah? (a guy doing these things?) He was one of the managers at my grandfather’s firm which published the Straits Echo and Penang Gazette. That’s where I got all the papers for drawing. Back

Kim poh a top koay maker

My grandmother’s sister-in-law became a widow at a very young age. At that time, you know, they did not remarry. She came to stay with us and became one of the top Nyonya koay (cakes) personality of the time. She was one of the three gems of Penang – Tua Bak (Big Eyes), she and a third one, whom I cannot recall. They did not need recipes. Every week we had happenings in the kitchen because her koay was very laku (popular and sold well). She did not retail. Just took orders. Remember leng peng? [a type of crispy but fluffy cookie that “melts” upon contact with the tongue]. She was one of the top leng peng makers in the state. Back

Ah Hong Pak, the Hainanese chef

We had a [Hainanese] chef, Ah Hong Pak ("pak" means uncle). He was with my great grandmother since he was 14 years old; came straight from China. They [the Hainanese folk] were good [cooks]. They supported each other. They met every Sunday in their clubhouse and exchanged notes [on cooking]. Ah Hong Pak became one of us. I was his “blue chip”. I was the only child in the family. He loved me very much. He would carry me around. He happened to love my mother very much too. Back

Chiak boey teok ho (Eating well is a must)

Ah Hong Pak was really good. He was really our “Hong” (phoenix). And you see how God arranged it. He put him in the right family. A family which loves food. You know cheng boh ho boh iau kin tapi chiak teok boey ho (it does not matter if we don’t wear well but we must eat well). That was the motto of our family: Chiak boey teok ho (eating well is a must). My mother was also very particular about this. And my great grandmother, even more so. So it was good for me. Back

Penang food quality in the 1940s

In those days only the restaurants stood out. There were Loke Thye Koo and Thye Pak Lau [both near the torn-down Capitol cinema in the Komtar area]. We used to sit at the balcony and look out at the trishaws and cars passing by. And there were some Indian Muslim ones. They were really good, true-blue restaurants. Of course, there were a number of others that I cannot recall. The kopitiam (coffeeshop) was not so much lah, not as rampant as now. We very seldom entertained out, always had food at home. Restaurants had to be really good to match home-cooked food, which is why I value home-cooked food. Things were also cheap and you didn’t have those chains [of restaurants] that pau snua, pau hai, har mi pun pau ay (literally, encompass the mountains and seas, and everything else). And of course you have the Hainanese restaurants along the Tanjung Bungah side – Hollywood, Springtide, Sin Hai Keng. Back

Calling of a very “creditable” guy

I am an Old Free. I left school in 1951. That was Mr [JE] Tod’s time [1951-57]. He was a very sharp man. Before the exams, he wrote [in his school report book]: “All your work very creditable”. And I [pleasantly surprised] got all credits. Even my father could not believe it. A credit for maths too! I told him my diagram very nice you know. Secretly, of course, if I knew Tod’s predictions were coming true, I would have liked if he wrote “All your work very distinctive”! [laughs]. Anyway, I was in the middle rung [in school]. Strangely, it made it easier for me to work. I wanted to be a simple man. My idea then was to work for the government, and during my free time, develop my hobbies. Obviously, I was not permitted to do that. I had other callings. So okay lah. I am grateful to God for all that. I belong to Mahikari which means “true light” because God is light. I am very grateful, given all the turmoil around us. Back

Work in the City Council

I started work with the City Council, with the Town Planning Department, in 1951. Did you know I was top student? After half a year, I was encouraged to take the exam [for draftsman]. But I refused at first. Later, persuaded by others, I went in. There were five of us, two old staff and three new ones. I was the only one to pass. I was quite famous at the council you know. I just could not believe it. It was then under Cunningham Brown. Because of my art, I was given a special room… just for me to draw the crests and all the paraphernalia… that time koh bay hiau chnuah (did not know how to boast). I was just four or five months into my work then. Back

Self-taught floral art

It was drawing at first [when asked how he started his floral art]. My father could see me ua him ua hor (sketching “bears and tigers”, meaning drawing a wide array of things). He encouraged me, so did my uncles. They would buy me colour pencils and so on. So I ua kar luan loh (drew in a frenzy). I was never still you know. Up to now, I can never chay tiam tiam (sit down quietly). Otherwise, wah thak chek nya (I would only read). If I sit down [and do nothing], I feel like I have wasted the day.

Who really started me off was my goh chek (younger brother of the father, fifth among the male siblings). He was the master at Francis Light Primary School in charge of gardening. At that time they grew really lovely flowers, especially at the headmaster’s house. It was on the road leading to the school by the field. I would visit him and he encouraged me to take part in the Penang floral show. That time it was the ang mor char bor kar liau (all the Caucasian ladies) and their amah cheh (Chinese servants) who could arrange flowers. I was competing with them you know. What also made me interested was I grew my plants, I grew my flowers… And I told myself “it is a shame I can’t bring them into the house”. But there were no teachers [of floral art]. But I am the type who “never say die”. Boh sinseh, kar kar tee (no teacher, teach myself), so I bought all the books from News & Periodicals [a bookshop at Lebuh Bishop]. Mr Rahim, the person in charge, was very helpful… You don’t have to be formally trained. You just have to organise yourself. And you got it. Back

From house-to-house to the Istana Negara

I did not jump into floral art. My drawing was quite strong. I was teaching flower arrangement in the 1950s – 55, 56, 57…I went to homes of people like Arul Thuraisingham and the private secretary at the residency, Mrs Abdullah. They would say “Bian Yam, I have six students and so on…” So I went from house to house to teach. I had many students including royalty like the then Raja Perempuan of Perlis. The Sultanah of Kedah was also very interested in flowers. They were my very strong supporters. I am very grateful. I was the first Malaysian to go to the Istana [Negara in Kuala Lumpur to arrange flowers] for the Rulers Conference. I met the Raja Permaisuri at Whiteaways [departmental store] and her husband [when he was the Yang diPertuan Agung] told me: “Mr Lim, you are going to be famous”. Later she even arranged for me to give demonstrations at YMCA and so on. Back

No future for an architect in Penang

Fathers then [during his younger days] would tell their children you would do well in this and that, and you just followed. My father said I would make a good draftsman and I followed. I became a top draftsman. However, there were a lot of jealousies. Nevertheless I stayed there [at the City Council] for six years. I was not satisfied being a draftsman. I was aiming to be an architect. And I told myself I did not want to do things that would depend on many people. If possible, I would like to be self-sufficient. But my father wisely told me that you love Penang so much. And if you do not want to leave Penang or Malaysia, you cannot be an architect. “Chuan boh chiak” (cannot make a living), he said. Then I told myself, I must know interior designing – so I took a course on interior designing. And mastered in a way, in my own humble way, colour combinations. I had to be good at designing. All these were the grounds for floral art. Back

Penang Floral Art Society

The opportunity came to me [to form a floral art society] in the Penang Gardening Society. Their members oo lat ay chai boh (are quite powerful, you know). I became a committee member. They knew I was good at floral art and they needed someone with my expertise. I took part in their floral arrangement competition and in two years swept the board. I was competing against the “mams” and their amah cheh. Also the Penang high society ladies. At first, they looked down on me – a small fry and a man at that. However, Charles Lim was wonderful. He really encouraged me. He helped me to start the Penang Floral Art Society and we would have loved him to be with us this year [2007] at our 45th anniversary. So was Kooi Jiong (who was with the deaf and dumb school). Together, they advised me. So we had our first meeting at Sun Hoe Peng [restaurant] in 1962. For it to last 45 years is another God-given blessing.Back

Cooking versus floral art?

Floral arrangement does not affect my cooking. Cooking was my first love. Even as a young boy I would play masak masak. You know the game where we invite people to come to our home for makan. We would play with the sand and the materials. And now I use some of the materials for flower arrangement. Back

For Part 2 of the interview please click here. It looks in particular, at his views on food. It includes his opinions on:

• Research, cooking and the litmus test
• Quality, masuk medan and khee toke
• On sharing
• Cook with love, eat with gratitude
• A very personal journey
• Cannot cut corners
• Kepala keras, beh sai knuah looi and kam cheng
• Classification of food for his classes
• Selection of tasters, and the balance between strictness and compassion towards students
• Ngor heong bak
• Sambal goreng
• Leng peng
• Wor pau
• Tau eu bak, children and garlic
• Nasi briyani
• Nasi lemak
• Chicken rice and sang choy
• On fusion
• Mee rebus
• A new adventure: Fusing gu bak koay teow with mee rebus
• On Malaysianising

**Republished with permission. This article first appeared in Rasa Rasa Malaysia.

Comments (0)

Show/Hide comments

Show/Hide comment form