Join us for a night of total collaboration with Chef Ange Branca of Kampar Kitchen & Saté Kampar
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Chef Ange Branca learnt cooking in her grandmother’s kitchen where she taught traditional Malaysian techniques, a cuisine that bears the influence of multiple cultures dating back to the 14th century when Malaysia was a spice trading hub. While food was always the center of her life growing up, she spent the first part of her career in business consulting for international corporations like Deloitte, Fujitsu and IBM, which landed her in the US. After years of living abroad, her nostalgia for the flavors of home coupled with what she perceived as a dying appreciation for humble Malaysian cuisine back home inspired Ange to open Saté Kampar, a restaurant focusing on sate (skewered meat grilled on coconut shell charcoal) and traditional Malaysian cooking made from scratch with unique ingredients specially grown for the restaurant or imported from Malaysia. The restaurant quickly became one of Philly’s top restaurants, voted Best of Philly each year and named by Craig Laban as one of the most important Philadelphia restaurants of the 2010s. Zagat called Saté Kampar the top 10 most important restaurant openings, and in 2017 Saté Kampar was a semi-finalist for the James Beard’s “Best New Restaurant” category. Ange was inducted into the Les Dames d’Escoffier and has cooked for several national audiences including the 2019 James Beard Media award ceremony and the recent 2021 Outstanding in the Field dinner series.
Besides running the restaurant, Ange is involved in philanthropy and promoting diversity of food and culture. Her charity dinner series, Muhibbah Dinners, brings together chefs of different backgrounds and cultures to celebrate diversity with diners in Philadelphia and raise funds for nonprofits that work with immigrants and refugees. Muhibbah— the Malay word for people of multiple cultures, races and religions coming together in peace and tolerance — is best appreciated when a good meal is shared.
Saté Kampar closed in the middle of the pandemic, and at the end of 2020 Ange founded Kampar Kitchen, a platform that shines a spotlight on underrepresented food makers, to bring back the vibrant and diverse restaurant scene Philly had before the pandemic. Kampar Kitchen is an extremely new concept. The platform supports the chefs beyond the kitchen, providing entrepreneurship support, community building and public relations support to help get our very diverse food scene noticed. It is a platform for Philadelphians to come and be part of the experience, to listen to the stories, to share in different cultures and have amazing delicious moments together.