TFN Talks with William Salim
We caught up with William Salim, the humble visionary owner and Head Chef at SENSORIUM, one of Bali’s most coveted dining spots, to talk about the inspiration behind his mouth watering menu and what it takes to own and run a successful restaurant.
William, where are you originally from and what inspired you to become a Chef and a restaurateur?
I’m from Indonesia, Born in Medan, North of Sumatra. What inspired me to become a Chef is my family. All the members of my family are amazing cooks. My mom, she’s the best cook ever. Since I was kid, I loved to join my mom inside the kitchen and just helping out because I found it was so much fun even though all I did was moving the cooking pan around and not actually “cooking”. And also every time when our families cooked something, that’s when everyone gathered around and just had an amazing time, good quality times with my family. And of course, I love to eat (who doesn’t)? So from there, I developed the love of cooking and wanted to become a Chef because I believe that food has the power to bring people together and create memories and hopefully I could inspire people along the way as well. I wouldn’t say I am a Restaurateur yet as I only have 1 restaurant. But of course one day, when the time is right, I’m hoping to have more than 1 restaurant.
William, you are the Head Chef, owner and mastermind behind SENSORIUM. How do you juggle all of these responsibilities on a day to day basis?
Yes you are correct. To be honest, It’s not easy at all and will never be. But I knew what I signed up for. When I first opened SENSORIUM (which is last year), I faced lots of challenges in terms of dividing my time. As this is my first time opening my own restaurant, I never realised the amount of work that needed to be put into it. What makes it a big challenge is that I have to do most of the work in SENSORIUM by myself. From being in the kitchen, doing ordering, meeting suppliers, accounting, social media, and so on and so on. And I’m the Chef as well, it makes it even tougher. Because it seems like I just have to be everywhere and anywhere in my restaurant. People always told me that I could hire someone to help me doing all this “back office” stuff, however since SENSORIUM is quite small, I prefer to handle it myself besides I could learn few new things that I never knew before. But I’m quite lucky now as I have my partner who help me with social media, and by the way she’s amazing and I thinks she’s so talented with this social media thing which I always found so difficult. But yeah, after one and half year running this restaurant, I realised I just needed to be more organized and be smart about going through all the different responsibilities I have at SENSORIUM. Plus, it’s my own restaurant, so it’s actually a blessing being able to be 100% involved in my own business.
What is the main concept behind SENSORIUM? What inspired you to open this particular restaurant and how did you come up with the name?
The concept behind SENSORIUM is providing a complete brunch dining experience like no other; also creating a good, happy and a memorable memories through our hospitality and foods. After all, SENSORIUM is all about a celebration of the 5 human senses. I came up with this name from the inspiration of SENSES n SENSORY, hence I combined them together and created the name SENSORIUM. What inspired me the most with this particular restaurant is because I really want to do something different and unique. Something that other brunch restaurants don’t have yet. I realised that most of the brunch restaurants here in Bali, almost served the same foods and I think it would be cool to give people more options and choices. That’s how SENSORIUM was born.
How did you come up with the idea of fusing Australian and Asian cuisine?
The idea of fusing Australian and Asian is the at the heart of SENSORIUM because I spent most of my time in Australia. Thirteen years to be exact. And it was there that I started building my dreams to become a Chef. I went to Australia to study at one of the best culinary school in the world and worked in Australia for the past thirteen years. I learned so much about cooking techniques, different layers of flavour, understanding the food culture in Australia and how to run a restaurant business. I chose to fuse Australian cuisine with Asian cuisine because, well I’m from Asia and the flavour of Asia is familial to me. So it’s just made sense for me to combine those two together. The skills and experience that I got from Australia combined with the flavour of ASIA that I grew up with. Hence I called our signature style the “AustraliaSian Cuisine”.
Where in Bali do you source the ingredients for your dishes from and as a Chef, what is it like collaborating with local farming communities to be able to bring the freshest ingredients to SENSORIUM?
Most of the ingredients that we use here are all from local produce. This is one of the reasons why I love Bali so much. Because we have mostly everything here. From fresh seafood, fresh vegetables to fresh coffee. Our vegetables are grown by a local farmer in the “Bedugul” area. While all of our coffee is from “Kintamani” area and all of our seafood is coming from “Jimbaran” area. I think we are so lucky to be able to open a business in Bali as we got all the freshest ingredients that we could dream of at our doorstep and being a Chef, this is like a playground for me. And also being able to work with local farmers or local coffee producers and local fishermen, it just means so much to everyone as not only are we able to share and taste these amazing products and give them to our customers, we are also supporting these local people which means so much to them and their families as well.
What are the benefits and challenges of running a restaurant in Bali?
Well in my opinion, every business has its own challenges and benefits. For me, the challenges of running a restaurant here is that we have lots of competitors. As Bali is one of the world’s biggest tourist destinations, we are lucky that Bali has lots and lots of influence from all around the world. Also what makes it a big challenge is being able to change people’s perception of my food. I realised that people in Bali, more specifically in Canggu area are getting used to eating almost the same foods, for example, the Smoothie Bowl. I knew that virtually every brunch café in Canggu, always has a Smoothie Bowl on their menu, that’s why I decided not to put a Smoothie Bowl on the menu at SENSORIUM, but instead, I do something completely different in order to give my customers more variants, also allowing my customers to try something different, something that maybe they never tried before in terms of the flavour. However for the benefits, its actually pushes me every day to be a better Chef and keeps pushing me to always create new menus in order to let my customers try something different, yet super tasty.
What blows me away at SENSORIUM is that you are able to deliver a sensory fine dining experience with your food in a totally casual atmosphere and extremely democratic prices. In fact, the cost of dining at SENSORIUM is on par with any other restaurant or cafe in Canggu but the quality of the culinary experience vastly superior to many. In fact upon reading your reviews many tourists and locals would agree that SENSORIUM is perhaps one of the top dining experiences Canggu has to offer. How do you achieve this?
First of all, thank you very much for your kind words. For me to be able to achieve this, all of us (my staff) need to work together as one team. I can’t do this without my team. From the beginning, I always told them that we have to always give the best to everything we do. Doesn’t matter if its only washing dishes, cooking foods or making coffees. We always need to give 110% on everything that we do and provide the best experience to all of our customers and just hope for the best.
When I visit SENSORIUM I often see you on the floor interacting with your guests making sure that everything is up to par and striking up conversation. This level of care and commitment on your part really blew me away and warmed my heart. It’s not something you usually see often. Where does your love for what you do come from and what inspires you to be this hands on and involved in the SENSORIUM experience?
When I first opened SENSORIUM, I always wanted to give the best dining experience to all of my customers. I wanted them to feel special every single time they visit us here. In my opinion, to be able to feel this kind of dining experience, where the Chef comes out and talks to customers, you can’t find it anywhere unless it’s a middle - up or fine dining restaurant where you have to have paid quite a big amount of money to be able to experience this. But based on my experience, I’m fortunate enough to be able to experience the “fine dining” atmosphere and whenever I see the Chef bring out the food and explain their creations to us, its makes it even a memorable experience and that’s why I wanted to let my customers experience this kind of treatment, but in a more casual dining and not in a “fine dining” situation. Plus it’s my passion and it’s really a blessing for me to be involved and be completely hands on in my own business.
Also, every time I visit SENSORIUM I am blown away by how friendly and hospitable all your staff is. It feels like a family. As the head of the business, how do you find and select staff who are this passionate about delivering such a high standard of guest experience?
When I first hired my staff, I never actually knew much about them until they worked for me for couple of months. However as the owner of this restaurant, I always remind my staff about “FAMILY” and the importance of “HUMANITY” and “RESPECT”. I always told them that as humans, we have to respect each other. Doesn’t matter if you are rich, poor, tall, short, different religion, different skin colour and so on. We need to respect each other without any difference. I always told them to treat people the way you want to be treated. At the end of the day, Humanity is all that matter.
Can you elaborate on the thought process that went into designing the menu at SENSORIUM and what two dishes do guests absolutely have to try and why?
When I created the menu, I always tried to do something different and unique in terms of the flavour combinations. I also wanted to do something that is beautiful to the eyes and tastes amazing as well. Especially nowadays. People eat with their eyes first. That’s why I have to make sure that when I created the menu, it had to look amazing and appealing. The two dishes that I would love my guests to try are actually “The Textural of Mushrooms” and “Ice-Cream Sandwich”. The reason are; the mushrooms are actually inspired by one of my best friends, who loves mushrooms so much. This dish is a definition of “UMAMI BOMB”. A very simple Mushroom dish that is cooked and created with heart, love and passion. The process itself to create this dish took us about +- 5 hours. While the “Ice-Cream Sandwich” is because its shows who I am as a Chef. This dish is inspired from my mom and my childhood memories. When was kid, my mom used to bought me Vanilla Ice-Cream every Sunday (if I behaved), but unfortunately I didn’t behave very well. But every time if I got the Ice-Cream, I always had it with toasted white bread. So inspired by this, I created my own “Ice-Cream Sandwich” that comes with a toasted buttery Brioche Bun, homemade vanilla Ice Cream with sea salt and Lime. It is a combination of hot, cold, sweet, salty and buttery. Its just taste amazeballs. So come and try it whenever you guys have a chance to visit us at SENSORIUM. It will definitely surprise you well.
Note from the Editor: The first time I visited I ordered the Textural of Mushrooms and this dish is what made me fall in love and come back to SENSORIUM over and over again.
Do you have any plans to expand the SENSORIUM brand experience in the future?
Yes definitely. If I found the right place, the right time, and the right investor who has the same vision and mission as me; opening a restaurant
is not easy at all. But yes definitely, I am hoping to expand the SENSORIUM experience in the future.
What advice would you give someone passionate about training as a Chef and eventually opening their own restaurant?
Before you decide that you wanted to become a Chef, you have to make sure that you really know what you looking for as a Chef. Becoming a Chef is not easy. In fact, its damn hard. You are going to work 8-14 hours a day standing up, sometimes 16 hours a day with lots of pressure and challenges. No more weekends off and less family time. But those are the sacrifices that you have to be aware of and willing to make. However, if you are really serious about becoming a Chef, then please don’t give up . Follow your dream and learn as much as possible, and one day if you had chance to open your own restaurant, make sure to give the best experience and always provide the best quality ingredients that you can offer to your customers and stay true to yourself. Ow and also, respect your staff, suppliers and customers.
Note from the Editor: SENSORIUM has Vegan and Vegetarian options available upon request.
Bulgogi Beef Burger
The Rice Bowl
Ramen Soup
‘TFN Talks’ In Partnership with Tropical Nomad Coworking Space