A thrilling culinary collaboration will happen at one of KualaLumpur’s most lauded dining destinations on 26 April 2025. Sabayon, EQ’s fine-dining restaurant will collaborate with JAMPA, Phuket to present a spectacular four-hands dinnerNfeaturing a collaboration between Sabayon’s talented Chef de Cuisine, Steve Ariffin, and JAMPA’s Executive Chef, Rick Dingen. The event will be presented by EQ and Kita Food Festival.
The one-night only Sabayon x JAMPA four-hands dinner will see chefs Steve and Rick come together to present a limited-edition menu which will redefine sustainable fine-dining. The seven-course menu, priced at RM650nett per person, will showcase groundbreaking Malaysian produce like local caviar under the T’lur brand, and the exotically perfumed harumanis mango.
The meal will also feature exotics like bael fruit, also known as the Bengal quince or wood apple. Gerard Walker, General Manager of EQ, says the four-hands dinner will open the eyes and Palates of diners to the concept of sustainable dining. “In many fine-dining restaurants it is considered bragging rights to serve up produce that has been flown thousands of kilometres from their origins. It has fed the perception that food products should only be valued because of their limited availability. This collaboration between Sabayon and JAMPA will help present the new thinking that palatability of food is as reliant on the mastery of the chefs as it is in the foods’ perceived value. Chefs Steve and Rick are maestros in their own rights and I can guarantee an eye-opening, appetite-inducing meal as a result of their collaboration. Of course this will be heightened by the environment it will be served in, with Sabayon’s famed city views, and the Twin Towers front and centre,” said Walker.
The two culinary creatives hope that by shining a spotlight on the exotic ingredients available in Southeast Asia, they would help reframe diners’ perceptions of value, creativity and promote the advantages of sourcing and using local ingredients. Netherlands-hailing Chef Dingen, who hails from Eindhoven, has worked at Michelin-starred Dutch restaurants including La Rive and De Heer Kocken. His awareness of the need for sustainable cuisine began when he was Sous Chef at De Kas in the Netherlands, working with produce from the daily harvest. Speaking to local farmers gave him greater insight into the origin of the ingredients he was cooking with, and sparked a desire to know and do more, resulting in a move to Thailand.
After celebrated Bangkok restaurant Savelberg was awarded a Michelin star with Dingen as Chef de Cuisine, he moved to Haoma, a Michelin one star and Michelin Green Star which espoused sustainable, seasonal, local ingredients sourced from farmers, breeders, fisherfolk and the restaurant’s own garden. His time at Madison Steak Avenue in the Anantara Bangkok helped him develop his fire cooking skills and creativity, preparing him for JAMPA, which assimilated his experience in fine dining restaurants, use of local produce and woodfire cooking skills to turn the concept into a one-of-a-kind dining destination in Phuket. JAMPA is famed throughout Thailand as a restaurant where live-fire cooking and sustainable gastronomy result in sophisticated dishes that celebrate the ever-changing seasons of nature. JAMPA also owns an organic farm which reduces their environmental impact while enabling the culinary team to showcase the very best from the land and sea.
Kita Food Festival is an exploration and celebration of food in Southeast Asia. Through a series of curated dinners, collaboration cook ups, symposiums and CSR programme, Kita aims to spotlight chefs, producers, flavours, and food innovators, while offering inspiration and skills to the younger generation, and a platform for discussing consumption and the future of food.
Malaysian one Michelin star chef, and owner of the celebrated Dewakan restaurant, Darren Teoh is one of the Founders of the Kita Food Festival, and one of its directors. Sabayon is a constant on lists of Malaysia’s best culinary and dining experiences, having been named Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best for 2024, among multiple other accolades. The iconic restaurant on the 51st floor of the Gold category Green Building Index- certified hotel is also one of the few Malaysian recipients of Wine Spectator’s Two Glass certification, having been a constant at the Best of Award of Excellence for five years consecutively, from 2020 to 2024. In his three years at Sabayon, Steve Ariffin has proven himself as both a technicist and innovator, designing lauded menus for some of Malaysia’s most influential personalities, historic wineries and gastronomes.
A common bond of sustainability and environmental consciousness runs between the chefs, restaurants and EQ. The five-star hotel is Malaysia’s only Gold category Green building, and was built with sustainability in mind. The orientation of the building follows the sun’s path throughout the day, so as to minimise solar heat gain. The building’s placement also means the property can take advantage of the abundance of natural light, thus decreasing reliance on internal lighting. The luxury property’s pledge to environmentally sound operations has made EQ a prime example of ASEAN’s Green Hotel Standard, in keeping with The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ focus on sustainability in 2025.