Coming from Switzerland you might expect Chef Heinz von Holzen to be a cheese or chocolate master.

But surprisingly he’s a Balinese cuisine supremo who has even been asked to teach home-grown Indonesian chefs how to cook their local delicacies!

Chef Heinz, who’s heading to Dubai to prepare dishes and teach cookery classes at Junsui restaurant at the Burj Al Arab has lived in Bali for the last 20 years and is the owner and head chef at the exclusive Bumbu Bali restaurant.

He says one of the reasons he loves Balinese food is because it’s so hard to find. “In Bali it is extremely difficult to find Balinese food unless one is invited into a home or to a ceremony,” he explains.

“In Bali most street food is prepared by Javanese vendors. Funny enough when I arrived in Bali, chefs asked me how to prepare their local flavours!”

From Nasi Goreng (fried rice) to gado gado (salad served with a peanut sauce dressing) Chef Heinz says Balinese food
is different to other cuisines because of the ingredients. He says he hopes one day Balinese cuisine will be as popular as Chinese or Thai but it requires chefs to be more passionate about the style.

“The unique aspect of every cuisine is the usage of spices, which in Bali’s cuisine is very different then in Thai or Chinese cooking. Indians use a lot of dry spices, we use mostly  fresh ones. Balinese cuisine is also very different to the cuisines in different regions of Indonesia,” he adds.

“All we need is more enthusiastic chefs who believe in the cuisine of the nation. Unfortunately there are not even a
handful of outlets even in Bali which prepare good Balinese cuisine.

If we had a nation like Thailand or Vietnam behind us which offers such a fast variety of foods, then it reaching a large number of followers. would be a quick process.”

Luckily for Chef Heinz he has a Balinese wife to share his love of the island’s cuisine, although her speciality is far less exotic.

“I physically cook about 40 hours a week in the kitchen on the stove and conduct cooking classes three times a week so when I get home I do not want to see more food!

Every now and then we cook a pasta dish at home. My Balinese wife cooks a fantastic spaghetti bolognese.”

Exclusive recipe
FRIED RICE WITH SEAFOOD

Main ingredients
3 tbsp Vegetable oil
100g Fish fillet, diced in 1cm cubes
100g Prawns, peeled, de-veined and cut into 1cm cubes
20g Large red chillies, halved, seeded and sliced
50g White cabbage, sliced
3 tbsp Nasi Goreng sauce
2 tbsp Salty soy sauce
2 Eggs, beaten
300g Rice, cooked
30g Spinach, cleaned and roughly sliced
30g Leek or spring onions, sliced
20g Celery leaves, sliced
2 tbsp Fried shallots

Preparation
* Heat oil in heavy sauce pan or wok. Add fish and prawns and stir fry for one minute until both ingredients changed colour.
* Add chillies and cabbage and continue to saute one more minute.
* Add Nasi Goreng sauce and salty soy sauce and mix well until all ingredients are evenly coated.
* Add eggs and continue to cook over high heat until eggs are scrambled.
* Add rice and continue to stir fry for three minutes until all ingredients are well blended and hot.
* Finally add spinach, leek, and celery and continue to fry for one more minute.
* Season to taste with salt and pepper and garnish with fried shallots.