ANN/THE STAR – For many chefs, the pinnacle of their career aspirations is to earn a Michelin star (or perhaps two or three) for their culinary endeavours.
Yet, these ambitions are often lofty and elusive, given the fierce competition in the culinary world.
In Malaysia, for instance, only five restaurants currently boast Michelin stars, typically earned by seasoned chefs with years of industry experience.
So, you can imagine the overwhelming emotions experienced by 29-year-old Sarawakian Chef Michelle Goh, who, along with her husband and fellow Chef Pongcharn ‘Top’ Russell, helms Mia Restaurant in Bangkok. Their joy knew no bounds when they received the prestigious Michelin star accolade in December 2023.
“Um, I honestly couldn’t really tell you in words – I feel like the whole thing was a very, very surreal experience. When we first got the notification that we got a star, I think everyone was really in disbelief and shock – we didn’t really know if it was real or not.
Goh is now the youngest Malaysian female chef to have a Michelin-starred restaurant and also the first Sarawakian chef to have bagged a Michelin star.
In so many ways though, the recognition awarded to Goh is a long time coming. Especially when you consider that she wanted to be a chef from the tender age of eight.
GROWING UP
Goh grew up in Kuching, Sarawak, and spent most of her formative years with her grandparents. She said it was both her paternal and maternal grandmother who sparked her initial interest in cooking.
“From a very young age, I was helping my grandmothers in the kitchen just because both my grandmothers are very good cooks.
“And at the time, they would kind of let me help out with stirring the wok or really, really simple things like peeling vegetables, so that is how I started cooking,” she said.
The turning point that tipped a beloved hobby into a potential career happened when Goh was just eight years old and was due in large part to British celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver.
“When I was eight, I was watching a Jamie Oliver cooking show called Oliver’s Twist and he was making fish and chips and it was a very casual dish but the way he made it and spoke about it really changed my perspective on what food could be. That is when I realised that I wanted to become a chef,” said Goh.
While most young children typically profess to want to do something when they are young only to change their minds fairly dramatically when they get older, Goh was steadfast in her decision.
Her heart was set on becoming a chef and she never wavered. In fact when she was 15, she tried to convince her parents to let her quit secondary school so she could go to culinary school – to no avail. At 18, she finally fulfilled her childhood ambition when she enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney, Australia.
“I think that a lot of my life, I felt a little bit like an outcast, just because I was one of the very few people who knew what I wanted to do, so it made it a little bit difficult to go through the motions of doing other things when I already knew what I wanted to do.
“So when I first moved to Sydney, it was that feeling of ‘Oh, I finally belong!’ because everyone kind of shared the same passion and we all had the same goal,” she said.
CAREER TRAJECTORY
While she was studying in Australia, Goh made it her mission to gain as much work experience as she could and eventually ended up earning her stripes at renowned Australian eateries like the three-hatted (the Australian equivalent of three Michelin stars) Sydney culinary institution Rockpool.
On her days off, Goh spent her time interning with award-winning Australian pastry chef Anna Polyviou, learning how to hone her pastry skills.
After finishing her studies, Goh headed to Singapore, where she worked for acclaimed Chef Jason Atherton at his famed eatery Pollen (now rebranded to Marguerite).
It was there that she met her now-husband Pongcharn, better known as Top.
The two began dating, but Top dreamt of returning to Thailand and Goh was young and up for an adventure, so she threw caution to the wind and went to Thailand with him.
THAI DREAMS
In Thailand, Goh found at job at the renowned two Michelin-starred German eatery Suhring in Bangkok, where she was put in charge of the pastry section at the tender age of 23.
After two years of plying her craft there, Goh and Top both left their jobs and found themselves at a loose end.
With time on their hands, they put together a pop-up series. As luck would have it, a Frenchman who was once a chef chanced upon their pop-up and offered them an opportunity to open their own restaurant.
And that is how Mia was born in 2019 in Bangkok. At first the restaurant was meant to be a casual dining eatery, but then the COVID-19 pandemic happened and Goh and Top had to re-think their entire strategy.
“When COVID hit, we ended up closing Mia for nine months and it was quite difficult because the whole delivery thing didn’t work so since we were closed for so long, we had to decide if we wanted to reopen Mia with the same casual concept or we wanted to change concepts and do something completely different.
“So we decided that as a collective, we wanted to give fine-dining a shot, because both Top and myself – our background and experience is in fine-dining – so we just decided to change. Which means that we did renovations, we upgraded our silverware, tableware – it was a huge operation and we opened after COVID as a fine-dining restaurant. And after we had done that, it was very, very successful, so the owners decided to make Top and I partners in the restaurant,” explained Goh.
MIA’S GROWTH
Mia is a modern European restaurant in Bangkok that harnesses Top and Goh’s French culinary training backgrounds and fine-dining experience and distills it into an approachable dining experience.
“So I think that the way we both approach food at Mia is we want to make food that we want to eat – tasty food and food that is approachable – which basically means if I were to bring a foodie here, they would enjoy the food but if I were to bring my mum, she would also enjoy herself. So for us, it’s really important to find a balance between delicious and interesting,” she said.
Goh and Top also have entirely different ways of working which complement each other perfectly in a restaurant environment and has helped create a thriving ecosystem for their team.
At Mia, the seasonal menu focuses on sourcing the best produce in Thailand while utilising a creative approach to European flavours.
But Goh said the signature dish that she is most proud of is Mia’s cereal bowl, which is an ode to her Sarawakian roots.
“I think one of the most popular dishes on our menu is called the Mia cereal bowl that highlights three main ingredients, namely Milo, milk and corn.
“This one is quite close to my heart because it is inspired by a Malaysian dish. So in Kuching, we have an ais kacang flavour called Milo jagung, so it is basically ice kacang covered in evaporated milk, Milo powder and tinned corn, so I wanted to take that idea and transform it into a dessert.
“Because if you think about it, Milo, milk and corn, they are all like breakfast ingredients, so I wanted to make a breakfast-inspired dish, so we called it a cereal bowl,” she said. – Abirami Durai
