S3 Ep12- From Heartbreak to a building a Global Brand

Now, because Malaysia is a Muslim country, I wanted to do something different that was gonna be organic food.

I wanted it to be a very fresh vibe that is a welcoming vibe when you came in, you could do anything you want, be who you are.

And I was wondering what the hell can I call this restaurant? So I was thinking for a long time and eventually I said, why don't we call the restaurant Naked? Now, naked in Muslim countries is a haram word because people take it the wrong way.

It's about taking your clothes off, but it's not.

The metaphor for basically fresh food, being yourself and uncovering layers and just doing what you want to do and partying and whatever it is, right? So anyway, I called it this name.

All my friends said, you can't call it that, you'll be banned.

So I said, it's the right name.

So I called it that name.

It got tons of PR attention.

And I remember on the first day of launch it was a thousand people queuing up for the launch.

It was insane, right? Now that was in 2000, just January, 2014 called Naked Restaurant.

And I really prided myself on the food first, the food quality.

I got a really amazing chef.

I did some recipes with them.

And in the first year, we actually won Tatler's Best Restaurants in Malaysia in 2014 and 15, which I'm still hugely proud of to this day because it's a phenomenal achievement for a first-time restaurant.

It was a fantastic place, fantastic vibe.

And I was able to do really unique events there, such as a singing competition where I gave 30,000 away for the first prize.

Are you willing to get naked for 30K? That was the tagline.

It got tons of attention and I've always been into music and obviously there's another story about that after.

But it was really good.

It was really well known and, you know, it got a lot of attention.