It was about 11am in the morning and we are having a great conversation about the business of food. “When we first came up with the idea of an Asian Food Channel, the idea wasn’t an obvious one- it is now but not in 2004,” said Hian the Managing Director of AFC. He’s a bit under the weather drinking copious amounts of lemon tea but still as sharp as a tack.

It’s a bad habit of mine to watch what people eat or drink. Not in a creepy peeping Tom way but more like mild curiousity. Maria, Hian’s partner and AFC founder orders warm water. She did confess that she is getting into all the different kinds of Malay rendang and has a fondness for curries. She has the most expressive laugh, the kind that makes you want to tell funny stories.

Back to AFC. Not willing to listen to all the discouragement within the industry, Hian and Maria kept at it, visiting numerous cable providers. “Guess which country agreed first and was most aggressive?” Really Hian, us night critters find questions like that a little too early at this time of day. “Hong Kong,” he said with a satisfied smile. They also got a lot of encouragement from Malaysia.

Apparently our very own cable provider was very encouraging and asked them if they could get it up and running within 6 months. “We were so happy that someone was enthusiastic about the idea that we said YES,” Maria smiled. “Then we came out and went, how the hell are we going to do this?!” But do it, they did. From concept to up and running they took an astounding 6 and a half months. But this is not a fairy-tale. Setting up an independent lifestyle channels is not for the faint stomached.

Talking to Hian and Maria, it’s easy to see how they complement each other. Hian has the watchfulness and ambition of an investment banker. No doubt on days when he’s not snorting a whole load of vitamin C, he’ll probably talk a mile a minute and sell you your own car. Us polite Malaysians call it, that Singaporean je ne sais quoi.

Maria on the other hand has the chutzpah and eye for detail befitting a broadcaster of her experience having produced shows for the BBC. She also has the happy aura of someone who truly seems to be enjoying what she’s doing. There in lies the heart of AFC’s engine. An absolute conviction and delight in their business. We can talk about passion until the cows come home but there are other factors that made AFC one of the most watched channels in the region today. Timing is one, the right kind of chemistry is another and the challenge to create something well, out of nothing. And of course passion- oodles of it.

Today the naysayers are literally eating their words. “They used to take bets on us,” said Maria with disbelief. “They even told us, the bets were not whether or not we will succeed but how long before we folded.”

"We came out and went, how the hell are we going to do this?!"

Are they serving up cold dishes of glee to these people? No one is really thinking about that with young and eager production people lining up outside their doors. They try to create a diversity of people working under them. Different people have different eye for content and gives a whole smarsgoboard of viewing choices for the armchair foodie. Indeed AFC is the only Food Channel that has a plump makcik making kerabu; next to an ex-model from Sweden doing some lindonberry whatnot; and a bunch of half frozen Japanese going fishing in the middle of winter with kitschy high pitched commentary over flopping seafood.

Authenticity is important to these people. Now that they are chugging along, AFC is going to get their teeth into more in-house productions. The latest of this is Chef Wan traipsing around Cameron Highlands cooking up yummy things with just-plucked ingredients. We like it. If you want to cook a curry, put it in the good hands of someone born to eat it. Not unlike shows that shall not be mentioned with chefs without the knowledge of pecah minyak faking a curry. You know who you are.

Indeed cooking shows are addictive. Good news for people who hinge their daily bread on food and all its wonderful muses and guises. But that is not all Maria and Hian are thinking of. There is so much more to do in the realm of food. We are only scratching the surface here.

Something close their hearts is on food production. “Food is getting too processed,” said Maria. With all kinds of books recently on the dangers of over processed food people are loosing their connection with food. I remember once in University (in England) placing a fish head in the campus fridge (thinking I might make fish head curry) only to have people come down on me for being disgusting. It’s a fish head for fudge sake! I was horrified to learn that many of my friends have not seen one and was quite happy to see fish as a saran-wrapped fillet.

Today with organisations as the Slow Food movement and people going back to the farm and growing their own food, more people are aware that there is a need to know where your daily diet comes from. Especially with worldwide problems of obesity and food related diseases reaching alarming rates.

There is a nobility in agriculture, I quipped having gone through my own father’s phase of breeding goats and planting chillies back in Perak. Maria agrees. “ I think Malaysia can take a convincing stand on this,” she adds. We have land aplenty here and a connection to our food that many developed countries no longer have. Our love of farmer’s markets have not waned with people still going on weekends to Kuala Selangor for fresh seafood or the Selayang market for everything else. However the younger generation are already supermarket inclined, children are more partial to fast food and the age of convenience affects us too. It happens but its up to us as a community to balance that out.

Perhaps growing food is going to be a necessity soon. “Food prices are going up. What you can do with an acre of land is amazing,” Maria interjected into my thoughts. Oh there is much more to talk about with this dynamic duo but two hours have flown by in a heartbeat. It happens when you’re chewing the fat about food with people equally into it. And thus, we shall leave them sitting sipping their beverages and planning world domination, one kitchen at a time.

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