New Netflix series Chefs Uncut puts the spotlight on chefs in Southeast Asia

One of Netflix Southeast Asia’s latest acquisitions is Chefs Uncut, a six-episode series created by CreatorsLab. Each 25-minute episode explores, albeit briefly, the motivations and origin stories of six chefs. 

Closer to home, Singaporeans will recognise the three chefs chosen for the series — chef LG Han of one-Michelin-starred Labyrinth, chef and TV personality Bjorn Shen, and chocolatier Janice Wong. The next two young Thai-Chinese chefs hail from Bangkok who have, in recent years, gained international recognition from the award circuit — Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn of one-Michelin-starred and No. 1 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, Le Du, and Pichaya “Pam” Soontornyanakij from Potong, who’s Asia’s Best Female Chef 2024.

Lastly, Jordy Navarra in Manila, whose restaurant Toyo Eatery won Asia’s Most Sustainable Restaurant Award 2023 and is a constant entry in the list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. 

It’s not the first time I’ve heard about CreatorsLab. Three years ago, I interviewed the CEO and co-founder of CreatorsLab, Jon Lister, for The Peak. Then, I got wind of a relatively small-scale passion project CreatorsLab worked on, called “The Creators,” through Chef Han’s social media page. By then, they had made two short films: one on chef Han and one on chef Shen. And evidently, Lister hasn’t stopped there. 

Sincere and genuine 

Now renamed Chefs Uncut, it premiered on Netflix Southeast Asia on March 1. Although much shorter than the various chef documentaries on the streaming service, it makes up for the lack of time for a fully fleshed-out narrative with punchy anecdotes and recipes.

Each episode is divided into six chapters or “courses”, and the chefs share parts of their stories between their inspiration for dishes served in their restaurants. This concise approach gives the unfamiliar viewer a sense of the cuisine while offering a slice of the chef’s personality (or at least as much as possible in that short time). 

For chefs with a larger-than-life personality, this format worked. The more candid the chef, the better the anecdotes for crisp one-minute clips. 

Both chefs Han and Shen, already known for their straight-talking demeanour, make for great entertainment in each of their episodes as they let their guard down. Chef Shen unapologetically rattles on about his love for drawing the male genitalia, and chef Han defiantly stands his ground on taking a modernist approach to Singapore cuisine. In contrast, their fathers lean into a lightly antagonistic role of the ever-cynical critic.  

Still, it’s not to say that Lister doesn’t give the chefs with a quieter persona time to shine, too. Chefs Pam and Navarra are noticeably less boisterous but are given more anecdotes from the people around them to help colour their narrative, which are the two most heartwarming of the bunch. 

Underscoring chef Pam’s episode is the support she’s gotten from her family, from using her parent’s house to do a private dining venture called “The Table” to turning an old shophouse in Yaowarat into her fine-dining restaurant Potong.

Chef Navarra extols the joy of community in his episode, whether creating a family-type work culture in his restaurant or working closely with local producers and farmers in the Philippines. 

Off the mark

The two weaker episodes are those of chefs Ton and Wong, two stories that perhaps could have benefitted from more time and a sharper angle. 

In chef Ton’s episode, the chef and restaurateur takes away precious time for personal anecdotes to showcase four of his establishments: fine-dining restaurants Le Du and Nusara, casual eatery Baan, and pad thai wine bar May Rai. While they no doubt showcase his keen eye for business and F&B trends, I wish it gave deeper insight into the driving force behind chef Ton, known for fiercely advocating for locavorism in Thailand. 

On the other hand, chef Wong’s episode, the last of the series, honed in on the Singaporean chocolatier and dessert darling’s artistic motivations. Crediting a motor accident for turning her life around, she reveals crucial milestones in her life but only very fleetingly, at the end, touches on her love for chocolate.

It felt odd that there wasn’t more time to explore how she married her love for art and chocolate. 

All in all, the Chefs Uncut series offers a relatively (all the chefs had considerable financial support from friends and families) varied landscape of Southeast Asian chefs who have found success in the region.

From championing their native cuisine to unabashedly tearing down the boundaries of convention, it shows that chefs here are equal, if not even better, and bolder than their Western counterparts.