In The Kitchen with Aaron Khor, chef-owner of Fifty Tales

It’s minutes past noon when we step into Fifty Tales, just in time for lunch service. After a warm welcome from the front of house, a glimpse into the kitchen at the back of the Malaysian Chinese restaurant reveals a culinary team hard at work with quiet yet steady intensity. Half of them appear to have tattoo sleeves, including chef-owner Aaron Khor, who helms the kitchen alongside co-founders Aaron Phua and Bimmy Soh.

Coming from a family who ran a restaurant in his hometown of Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Khor has grown accustomed to professional kitchens since his teenage days. While pursuing a culinary arts diploma at KDU University College, he worked part-time at Dewakan before honing his skills at Locavore in Bali for close to three years.

Upon his return to Malaysia, Khor did some private dining stints around Kuala Lumpur. He later continued to work at Dewakan full-time and was part of the opening team for its new location in Naza Tower until Covid-19 hit. But as one door closed, another opened – landing him a role as Head Chef of Fifty Tales, and then as a partner when the noodle bar moved to its current Seapark address in 2023.

Today, Fifty Tales is known for serving Malaysian Chinese noodles (read: not ramen) for lunch and sharing plates for ‘cincai’ dinner, blending influences from Cantonese, Teow Chew, Hokkien, and Peranakan traditions. This brings us to back to its kitchen, where Khor shares his culinary journey and ethos with us as he whips up a hearty bowl of 50Tales Nyonya Laksa.

When and how did your culinary journey begin?

Aaron Khor: The first time I entered a kitchen (a house kitchen doesn’t count) was my aunt’s place in Kuala Kangsar, which does Peranakan food. This was when I was probably around 13 years old, and I helped them by sending food to the table and sometimes cutting vegetables for a claypot tofu dish (as that was the easiest thing to prepare at the time). The restaurant is still running today.

What’s one dish that tells your story as a chef, and why?

AK: I would say it is the Peranakan Laksa that we serve at Fifty Tales because it represents two things about me. One is my love for noodles and the second is my heritage, coming from a Peranakan background. Laksa to me is a combination of these two, and it is a dish that is truly unique to the Malaysian/Indonesian archipelago. Nowhere else you would get something close to laksa in other parts of the world.

Do you have a kitchen superstition or ritual you swear by?

AK: This was taught to me by one of my chef mentors: ‘If you can’t sweep the floor properly, don’t even think about opening or running a restaurant.’ It is a practice that I instil within myself and my team to highlight the fact that getting the basics right is pivotal in everything we do in the restaurant.

Everything from sweeping the floor to folding clothes and even just making sure the windows are wiped free from fingerprint marks creates a habit of practising the basics.

How do you approach building a menu? What’s your creative process?

AK: For Fifty Tales, when building a menu, it is more about listening to what our customer demands. Our customers enjoy familiar flavours but also appreciate a slight twist in dishes from time to time. This will always be my starting point – to develop dishes that are familiar to our local Chinese taste buds while also representing a unique cooking technique, ingredient, or culture.

I would then think about the balance of the menu. As the menu is a la carte, most customers for lunch and dinner would share dishes among themselves. The dining culture in Malaysia is also very catered towards sharing plates. With that being said, we try to offer some light dishes, along with something fried and something comforting so that there’s a dish for almost everyone.

After understanding that, I would think about what ingredients I would want to showcase or use to represent the current season. Once I’ve decided the ingredients, I would only then think about the techniques I would apply to ensure the balance of the menu and to represent a familiar dish/technique in the Malaysian Chinese palate.

Khor slurps up a bowl of Fifty Tales noodles for lunch.

What’s the wildest, most unexpected dish you’ve had to cook (so far)?

I don’t know if this is considered wild, but I would definitely say that I haven’t seen it around. It is currently on our menu – the Cured Red Snapper that we dress with spiced black vinegar and finish with frozen local Cameron strawberries. It is not a common pairing within the Chinese Malaysian Palate.

I was inspired by a classic Sichuan dish called “Mouthwatering Chicken” ‘口水雞’ (kǒu shuǐ jī). It consists of black vinegar that is cooked with spices and szechuan pepper chili oil. We added some cashew nuts for creaminess and strawberries to introduce sweetness to the dish – and it has unexpectedly become one of our crowd-favourites.

What’s the biggest misconception people have about being a chef?

AK: That being a chef is an easy job and that the routine is easy to follow and do. Being a chef requires the skill to wear many hats and the most important part of that is being a great cook. That in itself is also a very difficult to achieve. Yes, there are talented chefs, but it still takes training and practice to get there.

What’s a moment in your career that challenged you the most?

AK: When I was young and new to the F&B industry, I had a hard time facing the fact about the amount of sacrifices I must make to be in this field. When I was doing my internship at a hotel – working on New Year’s Eve and seeing everyone spending time with their families while I was shucking oysters for the buffet line – it hit me hard. I told myself at that point, if I were to stay in the industry, I have to put my passion to the test to see if I really do love what I do. Hence, here I am today.

How do you see the local restaurant industry evolving in the next five years?

AK: The industry is getting more vibrant with more established brands and talents coming in from different parts of the world. This will raise the standards for the industry and I am happy to see it happen. Consumers will be more well-informed and exposed to different styles of restaurants and cuisines. More fast-paced casual restaurants will pop up and the fine dining scene will be more extensive in the coming years.