FOOD & DRINK
Maureen Suan-Neo: from restaurateur to queen of Nonya Secrets sauces.What’s the secret to her success?
Did your parents ever ask you to do chores that you resented when you were young? Little did Maureen Suan-Neo know that all that pounding of lemongrass would lead to a glittering career in food. Nonya Secrets sauces are a range of Malaysian- Chinese sauces, most of which started life in her restaurant kitchens. Suan-Neo has 31 years as a restauranteur under her belt. At her peak she ran four restaurants in London with her husband, John Arumainayagam. Within three years of opening her first
restaurant, Singapura (Malay for Singapore), in Fulham, Loyd Grossman named it as one of his top 100 London restaurants in a Sunday Times article in 1985. Te neighbourhood restaurant gar- nered a celebrity following, including ac- tress Helen Mirren and political commentator Andrew Neil. “Of course, it was a huge success”, Suan-Neo recalls. When the lease of the restaurant was due to expire, her customers suggested moving it to “the City where the money was and I would do well there”. With her customers’ idea humming in her ears, she launched
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the first one in Leadenhall Street in the City in 1993. Over the next four years, she opened a string of restaurants in quick suc- cession, “From day one, it was full. Tere were queues around the block”, she proudly pronounces. Other openings fol- lowed in St Paul’s and Covent Garden. In 1997, a new fine-dining concept arose: the Suan Neo Restaurant in Broadgate. “We had fantastic reviews from Fay
Maschler”, Suan-Neo recalls. In 1995, her cookbook on Nonya cuisine, Red Heat, was published. Grossman, in his 1998 book Te 125 best recipes ever, proclaimed his love for her food, describing her as “one of the best Asian cooks in Europe”. Suan- Neo’s kalio (Indonesian braised beef ) recipe appeared alongside those by other culinary luminaries, such as Michel Roux, Joël Robuchon, Raymond Blanc and Gordon Ramsay. Hard work won Suan-Neo much recog-
nition and praise from customers and the media. Tis acted as a springboard to tele- vision appearances on ITV’s Tis Morning and the Food Network channel as well as demonstrations with celebrity chefs, such
as on the BBC Good Food Show with James Martin – all which cemented her reputa- tion as an established cook. She has held cookery classes and private catering, in- cluding a fundraising event in 2015 at- tended by then-mayor of London Boris Johnson. Her energy does not seem to have waned with age. Suan-Neo tells me that she recently cooked for 80 people at a party, single-handedly – She is 66 years old. Winding back the clock to the age of
19, Suan-Neo, originally from Singapore, had saved enough money to fly to England to attend a secretarial course. She had wanted to go to university in Singapore but her parents could not afford it. “I just came with a suitcase, that’s it.” She worked as a secretary “because that was the fastest way to earn money” and at the same time did evening classes to become a company secretary. She wanted a career and was am- bitious. She says: “I started to cook in earnest
when I came to the UK. I had to fend for myself. I had learned from my mum in Singapore. I was always her helper. Aged
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