From computers to catering, Hasni Ghazali proves that computer geeks can be great chefs too. He tells IRENE KIEW how he cooks up a Malaysian storm.

After five years in the software industry, Hasni Ghazali decided it was high time for a career change.

"Staring at a computer screen for hours every day gave me migraines. I would joke about being addicted to Tylenol (acetaminophen) because I had to take them every day. I had to take a pill every eight hours to make sure I didn?t get headaches," says the 39-year-old, who is also known as Jeff, a name given by his American friends while still in university.
Hasni Ghazali: ?If you 're going to do it (run a restaurant) for the money,you can forget it.'

Fresh out of Nebraska Wesleyan University in the United States with a degree in computer science, he found a job in the IT industry in New York almost immediately. He stuck with his job for as long as he could because it was the only thing he knew. Taking painkillers helped him get through the day, but it was certainly no way to live.

In 1992, he went from writing computer codes to catering, and eventually opened his own restaurant with a partner, William Christian. Now, he cannot imagine ever going back to the IT industry.

"Thank God the computer technology has progressed so far I no longer have to stare at a green screen," he says with feeling. Presently, maintaining his restaurant?s website and database is more than enough for him. He definitely gets a lot more gratification from cooking.

How it all started

Hasni is the fifth of seven children but the only one in the restaurant business. His love of cooking is a legacy from his mother, who used to make kuih to sell in the army barracks when he was very young. When he was 12, he would wake up at 3am to help his mother deliver nasi lemak to local coffee shops in Ketereh, Kelantan.

In 1980, when Hasni was 15, his mother opened the original Bentara Restaurant in their hometown. By then, Hasni was in boarding school, attending the Mara Junior Science College in Pengkalan Chepa, also in Kelantan. During the school breaks, he would help his mother in the restaurant.

"My mother taught me to get to know the customers, and made sure that they were taken care of when they came to the restaurant. That?s why my parents chose to call their restaurant ?Bentara?, which is a title held by one of the king?s servants," he explains. His mother?s restaurant is still operating in Ketereh today.

Then in 1992, while Hasni was at a New Haven, Connecticut, property auction hoping to buy a house or condominium, he met up with Christian, a real estate agent. Christian helped Hasni purchase "the condominium of his dreams". It was to be the start of a long-term partnership.

"Bill (Christian) had attended my housewarming party where I served Malaysian food. He was so taken by the taste that he asked me to cater for a few functions at his house," Hasni explains.

Hasni was then working as a petrol station manager, and treated catering as a sideline. As he was new to the business, he had much to learn about drawing up menus, estimating costs and setting prices. To learn more, he read books and talked to his friends in the restaurant business.

"Planning a catering menu can be pretty tedious. It entails getting to know the hosts and their guests, and meeting with the hosts on occasions. The food?s flavour has to be mild so that everyone can enjoy the dishes ? otherwise, some might find the food too spicy," he adds.

After three years, Hasni?s catering services were still in demand. That was when Christian approached him to ask if he would be interested in opening a restaurant serving Malaysian food.

"It was a total shock to me," Hasni admits.

Moreover, Christian proposed to put up all the financial capital.

The two then set out to look for a good location. They discovered a former restaurant that was vacant. All the furniture and fixtures were still intact. All they had to do was purchase cooking utensils and cutlery, and spruce up the place a little with a new coat of paint. With a capital of US$20,000 (RM76,000), Bentara Restaurant was up and running.

"It was funny because on the day we were going to open, we ran out of cash to buy meat. When you?re new to the business, most purveyors won?t give you any credit. I was panicking. How were we going to open the restaurant without any chicken or beef?

"In the end, Bill borrowed a few hundred dollars from a friend to take care of that, with the promise that his friend would get the first meal that came out of the kitchen. That night, the friend came with about nine others and we made good on our promise. Of course, we also repaid the loan soon after," Hasni reminisces.

The on-the-job training he received in his mother?s restaurant stood him in good stead when he opened his own Bentara. Hasni personally trains all of Bentara Restaurant and Central Steakhouse?s 50 employees.

From strength to strength

When the restaurant first opened, it only had 30 seats.

"Business took off when a major Connecticut newspaper, Hartford Courant, gave us a four-star review. We were in a small town in North Haven. After a couple of years of learning and perfecting traditional Malaysian dishes to suit the American palate, we decided we needed a bigger location," Hasni says.

They then moved to downtown New Haven, where Yale University is located, and spent US$450,000 (RM1.7 million) to set up a nicer, bigger restaurant. The location proved to be an inspired choice due to the international student population and the scores of travellers passing through the town. There were even customers all the way from New York, about 90 minutes? drive away.

As executive chef, his main responsibility is cooking the food and training the staff. Christian, on the other hand, takes care of the bills, paperwork and general administrative management of the restaurant.

Initially, Hasni?s dream was to cook Malaysian food to cater to people from all walks of life. Customers have a choice of dishes in mild, medium, regular, hot or extra-hot.

"A lot of regulars start at mild and then after a while they start complaining that it?s not hot enough!" he laughs. "They don?t realise that if you keep on eating chilli, you get immune to it."

Some have to be "taught" how to take spicy food.

"I tell them not to drink cold water because that would just make it worse. Drink hot coffee, I say, and they look at me like I?ve lost my mind!"

Customers have also asked him how to eat nasi lemak. "They ask whether they should mix up the anchovies, cucumber, hard-boiled egg, peanuts and rice, or whether they should just eat a tiny bit of each at a time. I tell them we?re not sure how to eat it either as everybody eats it differently. Some of them get scared when they see the anchovies, while others have commented that the belacan smells like old socks. I tell them nasi lemak is easy to eat; just close your eyes and don?t breathe."

However, he also knows customers who can out-eat Malaysian chilli-eaters. Some customers not only choose to have their dishes extra-hot, they even ask for more chilli.

The restaurant favourite is a dish called Bentara fillet, a steak fillet cooked like any ordinary steak, with a little coriander seed on top for flavour. It sells out every day. "That?s what put us on the map in Connecticut," Hasni says.

And then, last May, the two partners opened another restaurant offering more Asian fusion dishes. Since Bentara is a restaurant that serves Malaysian food, Hasni has not been able to experiment very much in his cooking. In fact, the menu is limited to about 30 traditional Asian dishes.

With the opening of Central Steakhouse, Hasni is free to develop new dishes. The menu changes every three months, and features a fusion of Malaysian, Latin, Mexican, American, Italian and French dishes. He is always on the lookout for new ideas and when he eats at other restaurants, he pays attention to the food to see if there?s any interesting idea he can adopt.

"You usually don?t make money during the first three years because profits go towards the bills and to pay for all the equipment you?ve bought. One of the things you need in order to run a restaurant is the passion. If you?re going to do it for the money, you can forget it," he adds.

He definitely has the passion. His restaurants are keeping him so busy that he has no time for relationships. "I?m pretty much running back and forth between Bentara and Central Steakhouse, and that?s all the time I have now."