Malay Food: Innovate or Perish?

Food is considered one of the most fundamental elements of culture. On the same token, it is a significant indicator of ethnic or national identity. Food is one of tangible means of expressing our identity. In any community, be it Malay community or otherwise, food plays a very important role in promoting their identity besides other cultural activities for example handicrafts, architectural designs or dances. On the other hand, food is never a fixed event as it is always adjusted to suit to the relevant social structural transformations such as the impact of both modernization and globalization. Hence, Malay culinary culture is always in active mode in innovating and responding to the constant influx of food and other culinary elements that flow from outside into their gastronomic microcosm. This microcosm reflects the community’s unique cultural identity. In gastronomic tourism, chefs play an important role in preserving the local gastronomic journey. To understand how the Malay chefs respond to these phenomena, this research will analyze the activities taking place in restaurant kitchen. The ethnographic analysis of activities taking place in the kitchen of restaurant can signify the transformation at the macro level in term of modernization and globalization into micro practices of everyday activities. The findings are able to explain the paradox of globalization and how the local response to the food trend.