From Malay Mail · Opalyn Mok · · 3m
From dishwashing in Melbourne to his own kitchen in Penang
An engineer took a job washing pots near his house in Melbourne, and 14 years later he runs Gilda in George Town.
In brief
An engineer took a job washing pots near his house in Melbourne, and 14 years later he runs Gilda in George Town. Ahmad Soffian Salim skipped culinary school entirely, learning by working two kitchen shifts a day until he was head chef in five years. Originally reported by Malay Mail.
He started at the sink
Before Ahmad Soffian Salim was brining chicken and making coconut milk romesco at Gilda, he was washing plates. That was more than 14 years ago.
An engineer, not a cook
He majored in mechanical engineering and worked at Malaysia Airlines, planning aircraft maintenance and servicing schedules.
Melbourne, 2012
He moved to Australia with his wife, Aim Aris, when she went to do postgraduate study there.
A job close to home
They lived far from the airport, so he looked for work nearby and became a kitchen assistant washing dishes and pots.
The cafe behind the house
One of Melbourne's best cafes was right behind them, at the peak of the city's cafe culture. Some kitchens there built menus to pair with coffee.
“It was really interesting and that was the first spark for Ahmad to want to try immersing himself in this industry”
The produce hooked him
What pulled him in was the quality of local ingredients. Chefs barely had to intervene, just elevate what was already there.
“I love food but what really made me want to be a chef was the high quality local produce there”
Two years became eight
The couple planned a short stay. Ahmad went kitchen assistant to line cook to head chef of an Australian restaurant in five years.
He skipped culinary school
Fees were high, and the chefs he worked for told him to learn on the job instead. So he did.
Two jobs, one day
He worked a morning shift at one restaurant, then dinner service at another, five days a week, purely to get more reps in.
“I was fully occupied working from morning until night time for five days kind of thing”
A year of pop-ups
With Aim finishing her PhD in late 2019, they took a year off to travel and run pop-up kitchens in Jakarta, Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand.
Lockdown caught them in Penang
They were there for cookbook research in 2020. Three days into a kitchen takeover at Norm Micro Roastery, the government shut travel down.
“And then the government announced a lockdown”
Saying yes to consultancy
Stranded, they were asked to plan a restaurant menu. One month of help turned into nine, developing dishes, running the kitchen and training staff.
“At that point, I had only ever been a chef, I didn't know much about restaurant consultancy”
Building kitchens for others
A one-year residency in KL's Chinatown in 2023 finally gave him his own team. Then came Peninsula House in Penang in July 2024, handed over on opening.
The lockdown friend
Art collector Leong KY met them at a pandemic pop-up and kept hiring them for private dinners. When his new Blank Canvas space proved too big, he offered them the extra room.
“I would say he is our 'lockdown friend'”
They wanted to consult, he wanted them to run it
KL plans stalled while Penang moved. Gilda opened on October 25 last year with five founders, Ahmad and Aim running operations.
Why the name Gilda
Aim picked a short female name, the way Melbourne restaurants do. It is old English for golden, which also means golden crust and a golden standard.
Food without a box
Modern Australian is the base, Southeast Asian flavours the layer on top. Sea bass with green chilli and coconut romesco, beside a kerabu-like mango and edamame salad.
“we want to make good food, without any limitation, without any box”
What it means
Ahmad Soffian Salim skipped culinary school entirely, learning by working two kitchen shifts a day until he was head chef in five years.
