Makan Malaysia UK is a Malaysian food catering business launched by our very own Alumni Susanna Encarnacion and Katerina Perry (Class ‘09). They cater events and create Malaysian ready meals and kitchen sauces that they send all over the UK. Makan Malaysia delivers anywhere in the UK, so you can satisfy your Malaysian food cravings without leaving the country! This would be wonderful news to our GIS Alumni, especially those who are residing in the UK or have children who are studying in the UK – you can send them a piece of home to comfort them and bring some joy!
Good news! Makan Malaysia is offering a 20% discount for our GIS alumni community – use the coupon code: GIS20 for online store orders at checkout.
Su and Kat – could you please tell us more about ‘Makan Malaysia’?
We created Makan Malaysia to help spread the reach of Malaysian food in the UK. We have an online platform offering ready to heat Malaysian meals and kitchen sauces that get delivered every week across the UK. Our online store is full of our favourite dishes like mee mamak and nasi lemak that we grew up eating and that we want everyone in the UK to be able to enjoy too. Our kitchen sauces like sambal, satay marinade and peanut sauce are also available in local Reading shops and online platforms like Delli.
We also cater for weddings, private events and corporate lunches all over the country.
What made you come up with the idea of launching the ‘Makan Malaysia?
When we first came to the UK for university (many years ago!) we found it hard to find good Malaysian food especially on our student budgets, and a lot of people we met hadn’t even heard of Malaysia – we always thought that one day we could help fix this. After university and working in corporate for a few years, we both realised that actually our real passion was for food, especially Malaysian food and it was time to start helping spread the word across the UK!
We launched Makan Malaysia so we could share the amazing flavours and culture of Malaysia with everyone in the UK – we wanted to cement Malaysian cuisine as a go-to for everyone here. We initially started by selling our Sambal online and hosting dinner parties and supper clubs in our local community for friends and family. We then moved on to serving food at local markets and collaborating with other independent businesses in our area.
And now we have a nationwide reach through our event catering and ready meals.
We’re also so happy to have seen the rise of other Malaysian food businesses across the UK and not just in London, the Malaysian community here continues to get stronger and better and it’s a privilege to be a part of it!
What makes ‘Makan Malaysia’ very special?
We do! We both grew up eating A LOT and now we see our childhood as years of research for the job. Our love of food means we know exactly what flavours and emotions we are trying to create with our cooking and we just want to share that with as many people as possible. All of our dishes and sauces come from a place of passion and love for Malaysian food, and we hope our customers can taste that too.
What are the barriers or challenges that both of you faced or facing and how do you overcome all those challenges?
Having our food compared to everyone’s grandmas! No one can make food like what you ate growing up at home, and we know it! But we’ve learnt not to let that get us down, our food is just our own version of what we love and we hope people enjoy eating it as much as we enjoy cooking it!
We also both entered into this self-employed food industry with no experience so we’ve had to learn everything from scratch and there have been a lot of bumps and lessons on the way. It’s just the two of us doing all the roles from cooking and cleaning to marketing and admin, but throughout this journey we have been fortunate enough to have a supportive community around us that have always helped us through offering advice, mentoring and just generally having our backs. And, of course, we have each other to cry to when we need, share in the highs and push one another when we’re scared or unsure.
And then there’s the challenge of being two females in a very male dominated field that initially shared a lot of our life and business across social media to help build our following. We wanted people to connect with us and understand our food and the love that goes into it so we built a very personable brand which meant we were fairly exposed and have had to suffer inappropriate comments and situations with customers, followers and passers by that think it’s ok to make us feel uncomfortable and threatened. We’re lucky we have each other and our support group to talk to about this and make ourselves feel less vulnerable (strength in numbers!), but it’s not always an easy space to be in. We’ve learnt to deal with situations like this by not engaging and shutting down communication – don’t dignify these people with your time or respect – keep that negativity out!
What would be your advice to anyone who would like to start a similar business as yours?
Do it! But be prepared for it to take over your life, as much as you think it won’t, it will creep into your social and personal spaces! You’ve got to love it or it won’t be worth the work, and people always know if there’s passion in your work and that will help it sell!
You’ve also got to be open to help from people you trust around you, support is so invaluable in an independent business where you can sometimes feel very alone. There’s no shame in asking for and getting help, we all need it! And as much as you can, don’t forget to take time for yourself so that you keep sane and keep loving your job. Our way of keeping sane is through our dogs – they don’t care about our work and are just happy to see us.
Share with us a bit about your time at GIS, any fond memories?
We met each other at GIS in Year 9, so there are DEFINITELY lots of fond memories – we probably shouldn’t share all of them but we can say most of them were in the canteen and all the times we’d sneak there during and between class – Wednesday roti canai days were the best! We were also quite involved in the school extra curricular activity scene and loved hosting food fundraisers (including selling 100 IKEA hot dogs) and running around the school after hours.
People you would like to thank? Parents? Friends? Teachers at GIS? Please mention all their names, especially GIS teachers why are you thanking them for?
We wouldn’t be here today without the support of everyone in our lives – our partners and families that put up with the long, erratic hours and emotional breakdowns and our friends who are avid cheerleaders and loyal customers. There’s a very long list, but we can’t forget to include our favourite GIS teachers who helped mould us into the sort of women who would dare to start their own business in an unknown territory and as friends (which a lot of people told us wouldn’t work!). A special shout out to Ms. Yap, our form tutor, who put up with a lot of nonsense from us, including our snacking in class with 2nd breakfast and leaving our honey star crumbs everywhere, but also somehow managing to keep us in line. And of course, we’ve got to thank Mrs Yeoh, Mr Donaldson and Ms Woo (who is now a customer of ours!), they’re all A-class mentors and absolute legends!
Advice for your younger self?
Don’t take yourself so seriously, just enjoy yourselves whilst you don’t have crazy life responsibilities! Always be kind, to yourself and the people around you.
And what happens at university doesn’t necessarily define your career, so take some pressure off yourself! Su studied Chemistry and Kat studied Geography & Religion and whilst our time at university was great and we learnt many life lessons we’ve both ended up in completely different vocations and it’s absolutely fine.
Enjoy yourselves!
Any life or motivating motto that you have followed? Taglines that we should know?
Relax lahh.
Laugh laugh then you cry. But also sometimes cry cry then laugh so it’s ok.
Anything else that you would like to share?
Our mission is to share Malaysian food with as many people as possible whether they’re trying it for the first time or just missing the flavours from Malaysia. We’ve just relaunched our online shop with a new menu of ready meals for the freezer and a range of sauces to help you with your own Malaysian kitchen creations including a smokey wok sauce, satay marinade and a range of sambals.
Check them out here and send someone the gift of food!
https://www.makanmalaysia.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/makanmalaysiauk/
Good news! Makan Malaysia is offering a 20% discount for our GIS alumni community – use the coupon code: GIS20 for online store orders at checkout.
A huge ‘Thank You’ to Susanna and Katerina for sharing their exciting business journey with us. We wish you all the best with your future endeavours! If you would like to feature in our Alumni articles, just get in touch with us: alumni@gardenschool.edu.my. Because every story matters. Connect with us on social media via Facebook / LinkedIn or if you would like to read another article via the Global Alumni Website. If you haven’t become our registered member yet, please do so via this link.