Sugen Gopal was raised in his parents’ restaurants in Malaysia’s Ipoh, but was adamant he didn’t want to become a chef – instead, he had his sights set on business. But as he spent school holidays in the kitchen, initially making drinks and cleaning, and later learning the ropes of roti-making from his mother, he realised his love for food could dovetail with his entrepreneurial visions. ‘I loved cooking and I have a good palate, and I didn’t know what business I wanted to do,’ he says. ‘I tried many things, but the only thing I knew about was food.’

In 2003 he moved to the UK, launching a business at Oriental City in Colindale, where he earned the nickname of Roti King. When that closed, he took the opportunity to open his restaurant Roti King in a permanent home in Euston, where its dishes, centred around hand-made roti canai, quickly became a favourite for Londoners. Today, Roti King has two more homes in Battersea and Waterloo, and Sugen has also opened Gopal’s Corner, named after his parents’ restaurant. There, he puts the focus on lesser-known Malaysian-Tamil cooking, serving a menu of banana leaf platters, mee goreng, roti canai and more. Throughout his career, Sugen's goal has remained the same: to teach us about the complexity of authentic Malaysian cooking.

Malaysian food is very fusion focused, and I don’t think everyone knows that. It’s mixed with Southeast Asian, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian and Portuguese – Malaysian food is a combination of flavours. People are starting to understand that now, and I would say we have been part of that change. In the past, people didn’t know – they would see curry and say ‘that’s Indian’, noodles and say ‘that’s Chinese’, but we have been explaining what Malaysian food really is.

Malaysia and Thailand, of course, and the next one I would like to go to is Japan. But now in the UK you get quality food from around the world. When I first came to this country, there was a lack of it, but now if you come to the UK you get access to all kinds of food; people are doing amazing things.

There’s a lot of steps involved to get it right; the balance of ingredients, the temperature, how much water you are putting in. Making the dough right is a big step, and the next one is making it thinner and bigger, but you can’t do that if the dough isn’t right. Making it bigger looks simple – and for me now it is – but if you ask someone to do it you are reminded that it isn’t. The best way to practice the movement is by using a wet towel – maybe that’s the secret.

It was definitely from my parents – my dad said people can take everything from you, but not your skill, so go and learn how to make roti. A piece of advice from my mum came when I did something wrong and an officer wanted to come and see me – I was scared. She said, ‘what’s the worst that could happen? Just say you did it and next time you won’t do it. Don’t repeat the same mistakes.’ My mum is a very strong person; her confidence is amazing and I carry that with me. 

If you asked me to go back to one particular place it would be with my friends when I was seventeen to this Chinese roadside restaurant in Malaysia. There was this amazing dish called ayam masak chilli kering, with pieces of chicken, soy sauce, ginger, dried chillies and a fried egg on top. We didn’t have much money at the time and I remember laughing and joking about who was paying – they are nice memories.

For me, cookbooks are restaurants – I believe in going to taste the food and look at the food. My mum is also like a cookbook to me – I’ll call her and talk to her about food and she’ll always try to tell me what I should be doing. I’ll say to her that ‘cooking isn’t about right or wrong’ and she’ll just laugh.

Never give up, and love what you are doing. It doesn’t matter what you do, but you have to love it, I believe. You also have to know where to bring your product and who your audience is, that’s important – I always had this vision for Roti King, even though nobody believed that roti could bring such a great success story.