Haikal Johari.
Haikal Johari.
Executive Chef, Haikal Johari has a distinguished culinary career in some of the finest restaurants in Asia. Chef Haikal marries his training in European cuisine with hearty Asian flavours and ingredients to create exceptional modern-European dishes with Asian influences.
Haikal was at the height of his career in Thailand’s culinary scene when a motorcycle accident in 2015 changed everthing. Doctors said that he would be paralysed for life from the spinal cord injuries that he sustained.
But, Haikal defied doctors’ prognosis and is now able walk again with some assistance.
Haikal is a busy man, or perhaps a “workaholic” would be a more apt description, working six days a week as executive chef at Alma by Juan Amador, a Michelin star restaurant in Singapore and flying periodically to Bangkok to assist in operations at the restaurant he worked at before the accident. He also found time to start his own fine-dining restaurant called ‘Backyard Kitchen’ earlier this year, through which he hopes to bring more choices of halal fine-dining and modernised Malay cuisine to his customers.
Despite what he has achieved since the accident, including being part of the team that earned Alma restaurant a Michelin star, he is still trying to come to terms with his disability - but he certainly knows a thing or two about overcoming adversity.