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| Audee Cheah - President of the Penang Chefs Association (second from left) represents the association, while Ch’ng (third from left) stands for Ghee Hiang. Also celebrating the collaboration are Chow (second from right), Jordan Ooi (right), and Tian Hang (left). |
In George Town, where colonial façades meet bustling markets and street aromas linger in every alley, one name threads seamlessly through memory, flavor, and culture: Ghee Hiang 義香.
For 170 years, this Penang institution has borne witness to generations of kitchens, evolving cityscapes, and the rhythms of Malaysian life, while preserving the certainty of tradition. Founded in 1856 by Fujian-born artisans, Ghee Hiang’s earliest pastries and sesame oils carried more than flavor - they carried identity, ritual, and community.
Earlier this year, the brand marked its milestone with the relaunch of its Macalister Road boutique and a new Chinese New Year gift box, gestures that honor its history while engaging a contemporary audience.
As part of this anniversary year, a single initiative crystallises Ghee Hiang’s vision of legacy: a Collaborative Cookbook with the Penang Chefs Association, created to document the chefs and culinary practices shaping Penang’s food culture today.
Rooted in the island’s kitchens yet open to chefs beyond its shores, the project positions Penang not as a boundary, but as a cultural centre - one where knowledge is shared, skills are recorded, and culinary identity continues to grow.
The Penang Chefs Association, now in its 37th year, has long fostered mentorship, culinary excellence, and community collaboration. Its initiatives span professional development, public engagement, and signature platforms such as Battle of the Chefs, where technique, discipline, and creativity are tested in a professional arena that continues to raise standards across the local culinary industry. That Ghee Hiang, a brand older than the nation itself, would step into this ecosystem reflects more than partnership - it reflects a commitment to continuity, cultural resonance, and the archiving of culinary knowledge.
Chefs worldwide are invited to take part in this historic publication. This is more than a cookbook - it is an opportunity to share your craft, record your culinary vision, and contribute to 170 years of food heritage. Whether you are rooted in Penang or inspired by its culinary culture from afar, your recipes, stories, and perspective will become part of a cultural document that carries forward generations of learning, creativity, and tradition.
What gives this project its lasting significance is not the form of a cookbook, but its intent. Recipes are treated as living records - shaped by training, migration, mentorship, and time. By foregrounding chefs alongside their work, the publication recognises culinary labour as cultural authorship, and acknowledges that food heritage survives only when it is actively practiced, taught, and reinterpreted.
In choosing to mark 170 years through collaboration rather than commemoration alone, Ghee Hiang signals a confidence in the future of Penang’s food culture. The cookbook is less an anniversary object than a living reference, capturing a moment in the city’s evolving culinary life while inviting the next generation to carry it forward. Legacy is no longer something preserved behind glass; it is written, cooked, and shared - page by page, kitchen by kitchen, across time.
Submit Your Profile & Recipe HERE »
Enquiries:
WhatsApp Yoki +60 12-484 572
Be part of this living tradition - your recipes, your vision, your legacy can shape Penang’s culinary story.
References: Ghee Hiang, Penang Chefs Associaiton
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