Chef Syaiful Bahri Kamaruddin

The successful Indonesian chain café, Izzi has only been around in Klang Valley for three years but they have been giving a tough competition to other pizza chain like Pizza Hut and Domino. All these thanks to key people behind Izzi, Sous Chef Syaiful Bahri Kamaruddin.

Chef Syaiful has an impressive sixteen years of vast experience in the culinary field, which was accumulated during his early days working in different countries such as China, Jeddah, South Africa and Asia countries, specializing in butchery.

He first opened a 60 rooms chalet with friends before he initially hop over to Club Med. While working for Club Med, he received an offer from a famed hotel in Brunei but in a twist of event, he did not accept the offer from Brunei. Instead, he joined Berjaya Group in 1994 where he opened the first Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant in Bangsar. The ambitious Chef Syaiful does not want to be just an ordinary chef; he wants to be a part of everything – hence the term business oriented chef where he manages everything in front and behind the kitchen.

Six years later, he joined California Kitchen Pizza at Suria KLCC in 2000 and worked there for five years. That is then when he discovered his passion in Italian cuisine and subsequently, he came out with most of the items available on the menu such as the pasta and pizza range that California Kitchen Pizza is famous for.

In 2005, he resigned and joined Izzi at their first outlet in Damansara Utama, and then the second outlet at Bukit Bintang where he is the operation manager cum sous chef. Every kitchen operation that took place in both outlets; from purchasing to training and preparing new items for the menu are under his supervision. He’s currently monitoring a total of 26 kitchen staffs in both outlets.

When asked about his unforgettable experience throughout his involvement in the culinary field, he shrugged.

“It was the worst scenario ever for me. I was working in Jeddah that time and I was hospitalized for about a month for tasting raw chicken meat. The people in Jeddah are very particular on fresh meat; they do not take frozen meat. So, every day, I have to taste all the newly arrived meat, uncooked to ensure it’s fresh from the farm, not frozen and thawed… until one day, I finally cannot take it anymore,” he smiles.

“Then since you tasted much raw chicken before, could you guide us on how to choose when buying chicken from the mark