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These days, every meal made by chef Derrick Teh must be cherished; you might not get the chance to taste the same dish twice. The 2023 James Beard nominee runs a Malaysian pop-up restaurant in Boston called Sekali, named after the Malay word for “once.”
Each pop-up features distinct Malaysian and Southeast Asian flavors, often placed in conversation with the cuisine of the restaurant hosting that day. At his June Bug pop-up, Teh crafted a Bornean Bite pizza with crab, curry, Thai basil, and a Sarawak pepper garlic bechamel. Last year’s collaboration with Chef Peter Nguyen of Le Madeline conjured a Thanksgiving feast featuring dishes like “Cream of Phở” green bean casserole, Malaysian banana leaf roasted fish, and a turkey roulade on Vietnamese curry. Sekali’s menus are undeniably ambitious, imaginatively informed by the confluence of where Teh has been and where he is now.
“I, as a chef, get bored of doing the same thing,” he said in an interview with The Crimson. “So why don’t we change the menu each time we do a pop-up, which brings back your regulars?”
That same spontaneity is evident in his professional trajectory, a career defined by fortuitous opportunism. Born and raised in East Malaysia, Teh first moved to the U.S. in 2011 to finish culinary school. He picked Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island simply because it was the only school that would accept his transfer credits — and despite not initially intending to stay in the country, he soon found himself hopping from restaurant to restaurant across the Northeast.
From fine dining in Providence to a farm-to-table concept in small-town Pennsylvania, he recalls his path as a serendipitous one: friends reaching out with opportunities and a steady stream of kitchens that seemed to find him rather than the other way around.
Teh’s success hardly feels accidental. Beneath his humility is a self-professed “perfectionist.” At Pagu, where he served as executive sous chef, Teh poured himself into the work — arriving early, leaving “too late.”
“I just want everything to be done correctly,” he said.
His track record — James Beard Northeast Semifinalist, Boston Magazine’s Best Pop-Up in 2021 and 2023 — is a testament to that discipline. Now, accountable only to his own time, he allows himself a slower pace: “[It’s] much more relaxing,” he admitted.
In 2014, he landed in Cambridge, MA to open Café ArtScience, and has been in the city ever since. He subsequently headed up teams at Japanese-Spanish restaurant Pagu and worked as chef de cuisine at intimate omakase Momi Nonmi, until the COVID-19 pandemic hit and he was put on furlough.
“I thought, I already have a brand, I know my clientele. So why not start delivering?” he said.
He dropped off meals around Boston until 2021, when he began setting up in Bow Market on Sundays. That summer, lines snaked out the door and down the street an hour before opening.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, you guys are crazy,’” he said, still incredulous.
That public outpouring of enthusiasm validated a real appetite for Teh’s bold, layered Malaysian cooking in Boston, despite — or because of — the scarcity of Malaysian establishments. Many diners know little about Malaysia, its geography, or the multicultural melting pot that defines it.
“You say, ‘I’m from Malaysia,’ and people are like, ‘Oh, where is Malaysia?’” he said.
That unfamiliarity motivated him to commit to Sekali full-time, but he resists the idea of being a cultural ambassador or pioneer.
“I’m not trying to drive anything or recreate anything,” he said. “I just want to expose more people to Malaysian flavors, Southeast Asian flavors.”
Over time, Sekali’s focus has widened to encompass broader Southeast Asian influences and the techniques Teh has picked up throughout his career; something more hybridized and instinctive. When people from across Southeast Asia come to Sekali, they often tell him that it evokes home. Though his food imparts a taste of nostalgia, he’s adamant that he is not following tradition — you won’t find a canonical recipe for sambal online that tastes like his. For the sake of both innovation and efficiency, he employs a technical, rather than heritage-based, skillset, notably putting his sous vide machine to work.
Teh spoke with an easy sincerity, grateful and in admiration of friends in the restaurant community, and with a refreshing lack of interest in defining a movement.
When asked about his next steps, Teh answered with a shrug. He wants to make Sekali a full-fledged, brick-and-mortar restaurant, but is looking for the perfect location — a kitchen and dining room that has to be “just right.”
His dream sit-down space would empower his team to hone in on the libations. He started Sekali with two friends, both of whom are bartenders.
“They do great, great cocktails, so yeah. We’re looking forward to that,” he said.
Until then, Teh will keep doing what he loves on his own terms. One can’t help but wonder if a permanent restaurant might constrain the spontaneity that has come to be his hallmark, though perhaps some dishes (like his iconic lemongrass mortadella hot dog) deserve to be institutionalized. Wherever Sekali may land, it’s clear that Teh’s ingenuity will not be confined by walls — it already transcends them.
