Typical Indonesian cuisine is spread throughout the region from Sumatra to Papua. However, it is unfortunate that there are not many restaurants or local Indonesian culinary brands scattered abroad.
According to Celebrity chef Arnold Poernomo, among Southeast Asian countries, Thai cuisine is more popular abroad, including in Europe.
"Why is there more Thailand? Because there are many students, many workers from Thailand and their community is bigger than us, therefore there are many Thai restaurants," said chef Arnold when met at Mangkokku, Sarinah Mall, Jakarta, Wednesday (29/6/2022).
This is different from Indonesian students or workers who live abroad. Chef Arnold saw it, most of them live abroad not for business purposes.
Talking about Indonesian students who come there, most of them just study not to work. Even if they want to work, it's more of an internship at the culinary school they are involved in," he said.
According to Chef Arnold, Balinese cuisine is actually quite popular abroad. However, Thailand is better known in Europe and its cuisine is closer to the taste of Western countries.
In addition to the active role of the Indonesian people who live abroad, CEO and Co-Founder of Mangkokku Randy Julius added that culinary business actors actually need political support from the government.
This is because the Thai government has been doing this since 2009. Randy said that the Thai government has a mission to create 9 thousand Thai culinary outlets around the world, both restaurants and supermarkets.
"Now it's almost 25 thousand worldwide. That's why I said, if possible from the government there must also be support. In 2009, the Thai government said it wanted Thai ingredients outside, such as spiced rice. already has its own farm," said Randy. link
