In 2020, the world went quiet. Restaurants closed, kitchens fell still, and for the first time in three decades, I had no service to prepare for. I’d been a chef all my life. Suddenly, I was furloughed in a one-bedroom flat with a newly married working wife, restless, bored , scared, terrified, wondering what to do when the thing that defined me was gone. So, I did want I only knew what to do, I cooked. First few months for my wife who was still working. Then for Instagram who was always watching. Then for my neighbor's, who were hungry. Before I knew it, word spread, turning the house into a commercial kitchen, I was cooking for 250 people a week. Its first name was "Dinner from Valetta" fondly named after our road in west London, then several weeks later i named it " Kai by Matblak" kai meaning “food” in Māori, my heritage.
It wasn’t restaurant food. It was something honest. Meals for key workers, for friends, for strangers who needed comfort. Food that reminded me what I’d forgotten in 30 years of professional kitchens.... that food was about connection and cooking for people is love made tangible.
From those late nights in lockdown, something new began to take shape. Between long shifts, adrenalin and exhaustion, I started experimenting with seasonings, vinegars, and sauces, not to sell, but to understand the process. Over time, multiple rubs, vinegars and sauces emerged, each built from memory, nostalgia, and patience. After covid and having recently returned back from NZ after mum passed, i left professional kitchens started a food development business and in my spare time developed a sauce. Late 2023, I partnered with a lazy scientist, spending months refining recipes, testing and failing, learning how to build something that would last beyond a single run of production. I then partnered with an old friend, front of house legend who retrained during the great pandemic of 2020 as a graphic designer, he drove and guided me in the world of retail design and created the master piece which is our label.
On January 25th, 2024, my mother’s birthday, and the day of my wedding anniversary (much to my wife's delight), I launched BLAK FIRE, a spiced soy chilli sauce. We sold 24 bottles in the first month. It wasn’t a success story. I was about to cancel the next production run, Then one day, Selfridges called..... Then Fortnum & Mason.... By July, BLAK FIRE had won two stars at the Great Taste Awards. I like to think my recently deceased Mum had something to do with that.
Next came BLAK EMBER, a curried tomato hot sauce inspired by New Zealand summers, when Kiwi mums would fill jars of tomato relish to last the winter months. Then BLAK ELDUR, a chilli, pineapple, and cardamom sauce, bright, balanced, and unapologetic, my way of paying respect to the South East Asian flavours that taught me how to cook with wairua (soul). All of them are made by hand in London. No preservatives. Just honest hard earned flavour.
This journey was never about chasing trends or awards. It was about remembering why I started cooking in the first place. To bring people together. To turn nostalgia into flavour. To let food tell stories that word couldn't. I believe these sauces belong with you, because your food has always meant something to me. I’m not trying to change the world. I’m trying to change what flavour means to you.
