When Rahel moved to London in 2013, she felt the same longing for Indonesian cooking that she had while living in Singapore. ‘I was nineteen and I was like ‘Indonesian food is incredible, everywhere in the world should know about it, so there’ll definitely be Indonesian restaurants in London’,’ she laughs. ‘And when I came over here there weren't many. It all came down to that lack of presence – I had to cook whatever it was that I missed.’ What representations she could find were often ‘diluted, misrepresented or appropriated and called something else’, she says, pointing to satay, which is commonly associated with the peanut-based sauce of Thailand here, but actually has its roots in Indonesia, where it refers to skewered meats, of which there are around 200 different types. She also talks about tempeh, which in the UK has become a popular meat substitute in many restaurants, but in Indonesia was born out of poverty – while that difference in itself isn’t a problem, she says, she feels the lack of understanding about its origins is.

Cookbooks and YouTube tutorials became the bedrock of Rahel’s learning, initially for her own cooking and, later, for dinner parties with friends. In 2019, those parties morphed into a supper club: Spoons. Her first ‘super, super DIY’ club came at the end of that year; Rahel cooked gado gado (blanched peanut salad), a rice platter with tofu in a caramelised red sambal, and banana fritters and coconut ice cream for dessert. It was in many ways a lightbulb moment – Rahel says she had butterflies in her stomach, having hit on what she wanted to do (at this point she'd studied a Master's in fashion marketing and was working for an architect's firm). A second and then third successful Spoons outing followed, before Covid hit and Rahel pivoted to making meal boxes for the NHS, the home cooking craze of lockdown causing her social media following to balloon.

Fast forward to summer 2022 and Rahel was ready to go it alone; Spoons transitioned from a supper club to residencies and pop-ups in esteemed London restaurants like The Sea The Sea (as part of its Untapped series of guest chefs) and Cadet, where she worked alongside chef Jamie Smart (‘he’s an incredible chef – I admire him so much’), as Rahel found herself appearing on TV shows like Channel 4's Sunday Brunch. It seems natural that Rahel might be considering opening her own restaurant, but, when I ask if that's on the cards, it's a confident no. ‘There are a lot of reasons why I don’t want to, but mostly I love the flexibility.’ she says. ‘I love travelling to cook; in the past year I’ve cooked across Indonesia and Bali, Jakarta, Melbourne, Paris and Berlin. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be invited to cook in those cities, and I’m able to do that because I don’t have a full-time role.’

Since those first pangs of longing for Indonesian cooking, Rahel’s goal of celebrating the cuisine's cultural context hasn’t wavered ('I’m not against fusion food,’ she says, 'but what’s more important is to give back and recognise where the dish comes from'), and she is settled in a style which doesn’t strive for perfection. Instead, she prioritises vibrancy, soul, personality and, she grins, never letting people leave hungry. Whether it’s through residencies, Instagram or talks, Rahel hopes to pioneer a new understanding of Indonesian cooking. ‘I really enjoy speaking about the things I’m passionate about,’ she says. ‘It comes quite naturally. It initially started as cooking to spread awareness, but I’m now able to go to different things, like panels or on TV, to really achieve that mission, and I think that’s beautiful. It’s still surreal to me, I get a lot of imposter syndrome, but I look back at that first supper club to see how far I’ve come – I just need to remind myself of that every now and then.’