Mr Lim secured a job for Chef Htet in a nasi briyani restaurant at Taman Sri Andalas, Klang as a dishwasher. Chef Htet always was in a discomfort atmosphere within himself because of the language barrier and the difficulty of being far away from home and his mother.

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“Every time I feel sad, my mother’s advice would always echo in my mind, which is everything is in my hand and everything depends on me,” said Chef Htet. That is when he realized that he had to work as twice as hard to become someone in Malaysia and he took the initiative to learn the Malay language by studying it every night before sleeping then the next day he would practice it with his colleagues. 

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Chef Htet’s first salary was just RM 750.00 and the first thing he bought was a DiGi simcard to call his mother in Myanmar. After 4 years, Chef Htet quit and got another job at New Seng Kee (NSK) which was to cook for the staffs. 

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“I applied all the cooking techniques and recipes that I observed from my previous job here in NSK,” said Chef Htet. The first ever dish he prepared was Keow Teow Penang which also happens to be his favorite to eat dish in Malaysia. 

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After 2 years of working at NSK, Chef Htet decided to take things up a notch which was to open his own Thai food stall. It was located at Klang road, for few months his life revolved around just cooking and going back home alone. 

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Business and things personally went downhill when Chef Htet started his addiction with gambling. Winning or losing, it became his greatest enemy and finally after months the realization hit that he was wasting his life away, along with the pressure to pay his debts from all the gambling he had to stop it. To get back on track, he gave up on the stall and took up a job in Cafe Antipodeon, Bangsar in the kitchen crew. 

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“I wanted a change, I wanted to be more than just cleaning tables, cutting vegetables, mopping the floor, taking orders”, said Chef Htet. He observed every duty that a head chef does, the respect a head chef receives. From then on, Chef Htet never stopped working, it was all about working and learning everything about cooking every day. 

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Chef Htet created a strong bond with the head chef which also made him to create a good impression in front of their manager. As the head chef quit, Chef Htet was promoted to be the new head chef at the age of 28.  “It was a strict restaurant, I did not have the freedom nor the chance to experiment something new, I was quite unhappy working in that sort of situation,” said Chef Htet.

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It was the year 2019, when the Coronavirus wave hit Malaysia and people started losing jobs unexpectedly, it was the same for Chef Htet. Few weeks of being unemployed, Chef Htet was recommend as head chef by the manager of Café Antipodean, Miss Sherly, for a new café called The Hungry Tapir in Petaling Street. 

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His journey took a pivotal turn when he got the job as head chef after the interview immediately. The Hungry Tapir is a vegan based restaurant, it was a lot to learn but Google stood by him as his loyal teacher. Here, Chef Htet was allowed to try and experiment new dishes as the café requires a new menu from time to time. 

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In the year 2021, another branch from the same café was launched named “LaGula” which was mostly for vegan bakery and pastry. Chef Htet was also appointed as the head chef and had to create a new menu for LaGula too. With his indomitable spirit and boundless creativity, Chef Htet continues to weave his magic, one dish at a time, leaving an inedible mark on the vegan’s culinary legacy.

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