Osaka & Mulu: Sarawak Takes Indigenous Gastronomy To The World

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Sarawak to dazzle nan world pinch Serumpun Sarawak, pinch a immense culinary-cultural activation to debut successful Osaka, Japan, this August, and a follow-up activation successful Mulu National Park, Sarawak travel October.

The brace of TASTES exhibits are bold testament to Sarawak’s committedness to embed its supremely royal indigenous repertoire to a modern and world communicative done food, craftsmanship and communicative telling.

Vision & Leadership: Indigenous Wisdom It’s going global

A associated inaugural of nan Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Sarawak (MTCP) and nan Sarawak Tourism Board (STB), Serumpun Sarawak is much than simply a level – it is simply a connection and a strategy. Led by renowned chef, James Won and inspired by section imaginative agency Atlas Collective, nan task intends to redefine nan indigenous personality and practice of Sarawak into a compelling rate connected nan world shape of productivity and tourism. Kuching’s UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy recognition:

More than a feather successful your headdress A elemental feather successful your headdress it was not,” Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, nan minister, said during nan announcement of nan inaugural erstwhile it was unveiled.

He said that done Serumpun Sarawak, “ancestral knowledge meets cutting‑edge creativity” and “native ingredients go narrative” that travels done cultures and continents.

Osaka Activation: 5–8 August 2025 astatine World Expo 2025 5–8 August 2025 astatine World Expo 2025

In conjunction pinch World Expo 2025, Sarawak will coming Serumpun Sarawak connected 5-8 August astatine Seaside Studio Caso, Osaka. This 4 time sensation and civilization show will showcase Sarawak’s multiplicity successful craft, culinary artistry and eco-conscious acquisition to some nan Japanese nationalist and world Expo audience.

The experience—consisting of curated tasting menus, ocular storytelling installations and taste performances—will beryllium interconnected to bespeak Sarawak’s surviving ecosystem and really nutrient weaves together land, group and civilization successful a very powerful way.

Experience At Mulu National Park: October 2025

Taking it location for their 2nd act, Serumpun Sarawak will rotation retired their activation astatine nan UNESCO World Heritage–listed Mulu National Park this October 2025. Now there, amid nan park’s unsoiled rainfall forest, streams and karst formations — and guaranteed to beryllium organization sounded and profoundly attuned to indigenous traditions — nan showcase will beryllium community-led. It’s a show that revolves astir nan respect of nan situation and its precious resources, each nan while keeping successful changeless mind nan accepted tribal contented and taste practice of nan Malaysians, truthful overmuch truthful that wrong nan featured workshops are tours of beautiful rainforests and utilisation of ancestral recipes and accepted farming techniques.

Collaborative Foundations: Enabling Grassroots Impact

The authenticity of Serumpun Sarawak flows done collaborations pinch section imaginative and taste organisations:

Earthlings Coffee Workshop (featured connected Sarawak’s artisanal java terroir)

Tanoti Crafts and The Tuyang Initiative (supporting accepted trade making)

Culinary Heritage & Arts Society Sarawak (CHASS) (main taste cooking displays). These collaborators present integrated programming — from taste cooking demonstrations and artisan workshops to short films and curated tastings — centered connected indigenous pridefulness and organization agency.

At nan motorboat property conference, a sneak peek astatine nan task was unveiled: a cooking showcase pinch CHASS arsenic its big and short-film premiere (The Serumpun Story) arsenic good arsenic a coffee-tasting convention by Earthlings Coffee—a sample objection of nan initiative’s multi-sensory storytelling.

Beyond nan Dinner Table: A Comprehensive Cultural Diplomacy

More than conscionable a nutrient show Serumpun Sarawak is conceived arsenic a shape of taste diplomacy-using autochthonal contented to nurture cross-cultural dialogue, economical sustainability and imaginative innovation.

Minister Abdul Karim said nan inaugural acts to spot Sarawak arsenic a surviving ecosystem, a assemblage of creativity, ancestral contented and biodiversity – “where nutrient is simply a bearer for stories, personality and relation”. Echoing nan aforesaid sentiment, BusinessToday highlighted that Serumpun Sarawak represents “a reinvention of heritage,” arsenic thing “living, dynamic, and cosmopolite” and that nan agency to toggle shape itself from a taste hub into a imaginative unit wrong nan world organization tin beryllium seen arsenic “a connection of intent”.

Economic & Tourism Significance

The move comes arsenic portion of Sarawak’s focused thrust to execute 5 cardinal tourer arrivals by 2025 done extent of civilization arsenic a cardinal attraction. By showcasing unsocial indigenous nutrient systems and nan imaginative industries—in deforestation-prone areas specified arsenic Mulu—MTCP and STB dream to heighten organization livelihoods, create caller visitant attractions, and further position Sarawak arsenic a progressive taste destination.

What’s Next: Beyond Osaka and Mulu

While nan debut of Serumpun Sarawak centers connected Osaka and Mulu, organizers bespeak that they intend to proceed its development. The activity is anticipated to continue—answering nan telephone to nurture caller indigenous talents for illustration (apprentice Chef Ramos Jalang Anak Nyawa), to deepen organization partnerships, and to research moreforeign activations to transportation nan momentum of Sarawak’s taste momentum forward.

In Summary

Serumpun Sarawak is ushering a caller era for Sarawak’s taste system that combines indigenous knowledge, biodiversity conservation and gastronomic productivity successful telling a coherent world story. From Osaka’s municipality level to Mulu’s wilderness, nan task positions Sarawak not arsenic an inert “heritage” artifact—but arsenic a living, evolving taste organism tin of inspiring a refreshed knowing of nan extent of Borneo.

As nan upcoming August opening successful Osaka and October arena successful Mulu approach, nan reside is difficult to miss: Sarawak has not only prepared to stock its tastes, it is astatine nan fresh to find really nan world connects pinch taste heritage, productivity and sustainable living.