"Dear Chef Fadzly, kindly introduce yourself particularly about your roles with WICS Halal Commission in Malaysia. What is WICS in the first place?"
/I am Mohamad Fadzly Bin Che Omar. Currently I am working at Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, UCSI University and holding the position as Head of Praxis, Industry and Community Engagement (PICE). Besides that, I am also the Deputy President with Gastronomy Association of Malaysia. Gastronomy Association of Malaysia is the national body association registered with Registrar of Society in 2018. Our international collaboration association is with WICS ( World platform of Islamic Countries Culinary Society). Under the programme of WICS, I was appointed as WICS Halal Culinary Commissioner for Malaysia covering requirements for food serving facilities intended to receive ‘Halal Verification”. We already have the guidelines prepared by JAKIM. We believe by sharing the knowledge to WICS members will actually benefit everyone.
"You are attached with UCSI as the Assistant Professor of Head of Praxis, Industry and Community Engagement. What are the key objectives of the faculty?"
/As the Chef Lecturer teaching Hospitality and Culinary Students:-
1. Nurturing and developing the students' skills and talent in Hospitality and Culinary Competition
Example : Food Hotel Malaysia (Salon Culinaire, Battle of The Chef, World Chef Championship, Food Hotel Indonesia, Melaka culinary Challenge, Hansik Taste of Korea and others.
2. To bring in Industry Partners together with Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, UCSI University. To share their expertise and jointly organize events, activities and developing more research and development initiatives on their products.
"Industry and community engagement require heavy commitment towards connecting industry players within the designated segments. What are your current projects and moving forward, your vision in year 2021?"
/1. To establish strong relationship with industry partners. For example: projects in the pipeline is with Kenwood, Brand 21, UCSI Living Lab and Gastronomy Association of Malaysia and Giorik. To-date, all the industry partners have signed official MOU/MOA with UCSI University.
2. In the other hand, we have also established collaboration with Bestari brand, AKASA brand, Karta Brand, Avena cooking oil, Eciatto Coffee, 1883 syrup from France, Emma brand, Medetop, Coco Empire and NIS brand.
"On behalf of the audience, when did you realize your passion in cooking? How did you master all the techniques turning few simple ingredients into one
delicious meal?"
/1. Cooking is about passion, discipline, knowledge through formal education and experience.
2. To be good chef in developing good end product or a dishes is by having taste enrichment. By exploring various types of cuisine namely Italian, France, Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai cuisine, Indonesian food, Malay food and etc.. . You will be able to develop the different types of taste and texture. Indeed in cooking, there are techniques, rules and steps which to be followed in order to prepare a good dish; overall the patience in cooking must be there.
3. Some people say cooking is easy. There are dishes which are easy to prepare. For example: Dodol making which takes few hours to prepare, same goes to Serunding (Kelantanese Beef Floss or Chicken floss) which require hours of preparation.
"We have been told by our principal that you are currently working on the flagship project by nurturing the students to become entrepreneurs. Kindly tell us more about the live pitching project in relation to your faculty."
/Indeed, the project is a good platform which we are able to explore young talents to be in real business world. I had recommended two of our current students despite both of them are already doing business. Well, Sharoul already has his own café known as The Merchant which is located in E-Curve, Damansara. Through the platform, our students can gain the opportunities such as sourcing for partners and expand their business. Another student, Siti Hajar is talented in Pastry which she is already doing online business during this period of time and start earning good profit. Special credit goes to Brand 21 by offering the unique platform to the younger generations and opportunity.
"You are truly remarkable icon within the culinary industry. How do you define Malaysia culinary landscape? Is Malaysia heritage cuisine gaining recognition worldwide?"
/The current pandemic of Covid 19 affected almost every industries and is the most challenging period for hotels, resorts and tourism attractions centers. As Malaysian, I am proud to say that Malaysia is a country greatly known as "Food-Haven" with great wonderful taste of food, various food textures enriched with great aroma of dishes despite our multi racial society which is so unique in the eyes of the world. Malaysian heritage cuisine is something we are proud of. In 2017, we showcased our Malay Wedding food during the world expo and we won various categories. Our signature cuisines are well accepted in world cuisine society.