The Secret Recipes
ALL of them
were tourists who joined the market tour as part of his renowned cooking class.
“Those pick-up cars bring the
freshest vegetables that have just been harvested yesterday morning from the
highland areas. In the afternoon, those vegetables are loaded onto the truck
and arrive here at around 4 to 4:30 a.m.,” Holzen explained to the tourists
while driving.
“If anyone of you in Europe or
America have access to vegetables like this, unless you live on a farm, it’s
impossible.”
Holzen teaches Balinese cooking three
times a week: every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
He started the class with an
introduction of local markets and explained about exoticspicesa and fruits to
the participants.
Later , he would take them for a
quick tour to buy fresh vegetables, stocks and catches of the day from Jimbaran
fish market. These ingredient would later be used in the cooking clas.
When the morning tour was done, the
cooking class continued for the next six hours at Bumbu Bali II restaurant in
Nusa Dua, Holzen’s second restaurant built to follow the principles of
traditional Balinese home compounds.
The participants were later taken to
an open kitchen where more than 20 of Holzen’s secret recipes would be
revealed.
“So
far, we have done about 1,700 classes,” said Holzen, who is also author
of many cookbooks.
His restaurants, Bumbu Bali I and
Bumbu Bali II, are renowned frothier authenticity and for the legendary cooking
class that has operated for 17 years.
He said when the restaurant was
first opened, he thought the location was not very good, but it came at
affordable price.
“So I figured out if we do only a
Balinese restaurant, we needed to attract some people. So we decided to put
‘restaurant and cooking school’. The cooking school serves as a sign of
quality,” he said.
Unlike other cooking classes that
are available in Bali, Holzen’s class also implements modern cooking methods
that involve a scientific approach and the usages of modern cooking wares, such
as pressure cookers and thermometers.
His new way of cooking as shown in
the cooking class is also featured in his latest book, A New Approach to Indonesian Cooking.
Holzen’s modern cooking technique is
mostly influenced by American food scientist Harold McGee, UK celebrity chef
Heston Blumenthal, Nathan Myhrvol and Maxim Bilets (the authors of Modernist cuisine) and Philips Pauli,
author of Classical Cooking: The Modern
Way.
Most of the recipes featured in his
latest book were gathered from his travels across the country, such as recipes
from places like Maluku, Padang, or Palembang.
Holzen first moved to Bali in 1990
to take a position at the Grand Hyatt in Nusa Dua. He was transferred from the
Hyatt Hotel Singapore in which he served for more than five years.
When he first arrived in Bali, he
said he was disappointed to find out that Balinese foods were not very popular,
leaving him with the impression that mie
goreng (fried noodles), nasi goreng
(fried rice), gado-gado (vegetables
served in peanut sauce) and satay – frequent food found on hotel’s menu – were
Balinese foods.
He said the hotel has a strong
philosophy about the food of the countries in which it is located, such as by
serving ethnic foods.
“With his philosophy, I came to Bali
and found out there was no book in English about Balinese foods,” he said.
He came up with idea to write a
cookbook on Balinese cuisine after holding a competition of chefs at the hotel.
Amazed with the diversity of foods
presented at the competition, he took photos and collected recipes to document
it.
His book on Balinese cuisine, The Food of Bali, then provided the
basics in the development of Bumbu Bali. “We still follow these recipes today
and many of them are used in our cooking,” he said.
His knowledge of Balinese food
expanded when he met his Balinese wife, ketut Puji Anniki Oka, who took him to
her house and introduced him to her community.
“Obviously, countless trips into
villages and homes as well as by actively taking part in many ceremonies have
helped me to collect and record a vast variety of authentic dishes,” Holzen
said with enough knowledge to serve and introduce authentic Balinese dishes, he
left his job, then at another upscale hotel and took a chance to open his own
restaurant.
As a chef, he said he never stops
exploring the wonders of Indonesia’s cuisine in order to deliver better quality
cooking.
His travels and addiction to
photography have resulted in more than 10 cookbooks, including three books that
compile varieties of Indonesian food, which recipes he collected during his
volcano hopping trips across Indonesia in the last 10 years.
“We always learn: that’s what I need
to do as a chef. How can I improve the quality? That is important for me. If
you can maintain the quality of the restaurant, I don’t think you will get
problems in business,” he said.
His ultimate aim is to constantly
find new things and create a good working environment for his staff-believing
that when his staff members are happy, they would work happily and in return
make his customers happy.
As an adventure junkie, Holzen also
hopes he can find time to climb more volcanoes and spend time with his family.
His life philosophy is simple: live the moment,
work hard today and work better tomorrow.
“I don’t know what I’ll be
in five years. What is important for me is today. Today I have the possibility
to improve what I did yesterday. I don’t know what I’ll be tomorrow,” he said.
“What I know is, I want to climb
more mountains and spend more time with my family and be together than we have
in the past, that is important for me.
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