At Home With London’s Hottest Chef, Mambow’s Abby Lee

Abby Lee is making waves. The chef’s modern Malaysian restaurant in East London’s Clapton has been one of the standout openings of the last 12 months: Mambow is a venue which through the singular vision its self-taught and prodigious chef-patron is at once mindful of preserving the culinary traditions of the home she left as a teenager while also pushing the boundaries of that cuisine in the realm of modern dining in an international metropolis in 2024.

One of Lee’s ingenious and seasonally-minded menus might feature a rich, deep-red Sarawak black pepper curry chicken, sticky, unctuous double-roasted pork, or a plate of crispy, moreish ayam goreng – Malaysian spiced fried chicken, which Mambow serves with turmeric cucumber pickle, sambal tumis, and a squeeze of Kewpie mayonnaise — the kinds of ambitious and delicious dishes that have recently earned the 40-cover restaurant praise in a Vittles restaurant review by the critic Jonathan Nunn, as well as top spot in Time Out’s list of the best restaurants in London.

Lee has been cooking (first in Shoreditch then Peckham before the move to Clapton) since 2020, but this summer has established herself as one of the capital’s hottest chefs with Mambow firmly registering as one of the most sought after reservations in town.

Lee, bare-footed with a shock of striking electric blue hair clipped at the sides, invited Something Curated‘s food editor Adam Coghlan and photographer Michaël Protin into her East London townhouse on a grey day in early July to share with us the things she cherishes most.

Ang ku kuih moulds

AL: These are used to make Malaysian ang ku kuihs – old-school small pastries and cakes. This is definitely an art form that I feel I ought to preserve and always try to have examples on the menu at Mambow. Hopefully, I’ll have a little shop one day, where I’ll be able to produce more, because even in Singapore and Malaysia it’s dying out.

Music

AL: Raves are the most important place for me. My third space, the place where I feel most myself. It was at a rave that I found how to express myself, with a community that was close to me. I found that the intensity of them gave me a release. I listen mostly to techno and jungle – the hard stuff. I moved to London from Singapore when I was 16 and got into DMZ dubstep nights. It was stagnant in Singapore then, though it’s not anymore.

Shrimp

AL: Shrimp is the base of every or curry or laksa, or sambal belachan – key dishes in Malaysian cuisine. I just love it and I like it in all its different forms. I especially love using it to make what is probably my favourite snack ever, pulut panggang, glutinous rice rolled with dried shrimp, sambal, and kefir lime leaf.

Painting by Arthur Laidlaw

AL: I often bid on auctions for art. This is my favourite piece, by Arthur Laidlaw, an artist based in Berlin, from one of his first exhibitions. It’s of mosques in the streets of Berlin – I love all the colours and it feels angry, which is me.

Furniture

AL: I love finding old furniture [as well as new objects like the one above] – and playing with interior design. It’s another mode of creative expression, as well as food. I love hunting for second-hand stuff and reupholstering chairs.

Studio Ghibli posters

AL: I love the food scenes in the films. They made them in the 1980s – so ahead of his time. I get transported to another world: an emotional one, all about family.


Header image and all photography by Michaël Protin.