Happy birthday Malis

Cambodia's top chef and entrepreneur, Luu Meng

Any excuse for a party and good food and I'm all yours, so I was more than happy to accept an invitation earlier this evening from Cambodia's best chef and entrepreneur Luu Meng, to celebrate the opening of a new wing at his Malis restaurant on Norodom Boulevard as well as it being the restaurant's 2nd birthday. Meng was on hand to greet all the invited guests from tour companies in Phnom Penh and joined us for a long chat after a gorgeous and filling five-course meal that majored on the flavours of river fish and pumpkin. Meng is a workaholic, he and his business partners have fingers in many pies including Malis, Topaz, Anise Hotel, Cafe Sentiment and so on. As if that's not enough, they're building two branches of the Almond Hotel in the capital and in Siem Reap and that's just for starters. I'm sure I saw the words, global domination, on his to-do list! He's just 34 years old and the elegant and classy Malis was his first foray into the restaurant business at the end of 2005 after spending eleven years learning and perfecting his trade as a top chef, first at the Cambodiana Hotel and then at various hotels for the Sofitel and Sunway groups.