CALLING herself "The Rock Chilli Queen", a former restaurateur and head chef is attracting thousands of followers on her Instagram page by posting good ol' Malaysian recipes — mostly with a Western twist.
Adilah Sainer used to run her own food business called TAFT The Artisan Food Trail, Restaurant & Bar until she decided to shut it down in 2019. She also had a chilli oil business.
The driven entrepreneur owned a few Instagram accounts for her separate businesses, and a private one as well. The Rock Chilli Queen page was incepted in 2017; it was in 2020 when the pandemic lockdowns were implemented worldwide that she decided to become a full-time mother, giving her more than ample time to post actively on that page.
Shares Adilah: "During lockdown, I was cooking all kinds of dishes for my family. For the sake of keeping myself sane after all the hard work of cooking, decorating and cleaning, I'd take my food pictures and videos, and share the recipes with others on my private Instagram page. Later, I decided to start doing things properly and ended up putting it on The Rock Chilli Queen page."
Smiling, Adilah admits that she finds it incredibly satisfying to see the end result, namely the pictures on a page after they're posted. "The satisfaction went beyond seeing how many likes or comments that the page generated," she says, adding: "When the reels came along, everything became more interesting."
To date, Adilah has more than 50,000 followers on her page. What hooks viewers is her charming and humble manner in delivering step-by-step guides on how to make specific dishes. Her reels are also short and snazzy — just over a minute each — making them fun to watch.
FAMILY RUNS DEEP
The family element in Adilah's cooking runs deep. After all, she was taught how to cook by her mother. "The recipes I feature are mostly those handed down from my mum, while some are from recipe books or from my travels," shares the former air stewardess.
This attractive mother-of-two is married to a German, who, as she laughingly confides, is hooked on local condiments such as budu, cencaluk and tempoyak. She was the one responsible for introducing him to the local sauces.
Her husband and children often request for her to cook specific dishes for them, which she happily obliges. Sometimes, together with Adilah's mother, they would all make an appearance in her reels.
"My family is already accustomed to my way of cooking, which is always full bodied and spicy," she shares, before adding that her husband's and son's favourite dishes are her spicy mutton curry, any of her fusion pasta creations and her duck dishes. "My daughter loves my chicken soup and masak lemak cili habanero," she offers.
Smiling, she tells me that her biggest pleasure is seeing her family enjoying and appreciating her cooking. "All that hours dedicated in the kitchen has paid off when I see their enjoyment," says Adilah, before sharing that they now rarely eat outside, preferring to use eating together at home as family bonding time.
EAST MEETS WEST
Among Adilah's most popular recipes among her fans are her spaghetti sambal belacan, sweet and sour cencaluk and mee hoon goreng sardine. As a self-confessed habanero and ghost pepper addict, this type of chilli is always incorporated into her dishes.
"Besides having the knowledge to cook some classic recipes and follow recipes to the T, I also love to improvise to suit my taste. I adore dishes which are flavourful and spicy," says Adilah.
Continuing, she tells me that she enjoys developing new recipes based on eastern and western ingredients. "My creativity is inspired by my own imagination and also my understanding of ingredients and their purpose, be it local or western."
It's from this knowledge that she's able to create new dishes or substitute certain ingredients in order to obtain a similar taste. It also helps towards expediting the preparation process.
For example, she loves to make laksam — otherwise known as laksa Kelantan — but finds the process of boiling fish, deboning it, and making the noodle tedious. To make it hassle-free, while at the same time retaining the same rich flavour, Adilah crafted what she calls Laksa TAFT — a fusion laksa using penne pasta for the noodle, and canned tuna for the gravy.
"It has all the ulam, condiments and spicy sambal like the original laksam Kelantan, and I add Italian basil to the ulam," she elaborates, adding: "This dish was a big hit during my restaurant days, so I've decided to share the recipe on my Instagram too."
Asked on her plans, Adilah confides that she's not contemplating to return to the food business just yet. She's just contented with creating and cooking for her loved ones.
Smiling, she concludes softly: "I don't really market my dishes. I just love sharing my recipes, especially of those dishes that I'm cooking for my own family."