They won over audiences on last year's series of My Kitchen Rules. Now "newlyweds" Uel and Shannelle Lim are bringing their cooking skills to the public with the launch of their first cafe, Kin.
The Sydney venue, which opens in Macquarie Park on Wednesday, February 25, will feature dishes inspired by their shared Indonesian and Singaporean heritage, including soft-shelled chilli crab, fried chicken wings and "snap crackle plop" (chicken rice with egg and chicken skin).
Asian favourites such as chicken congee and Singaporean Kaya toast with homemade coconut jam (a rarity on Sydney menus) will be among the all-day breakfast options alongside cafe staples with an Asian twist such as miso salmon with slow-cooked "onsen" eggs and sesame spinach. Coffee will be supplied by Reuben Hills.
"We wanted to reflect a bit about ourselves," Shannelle says. "We come from different backgrounds and we've travelled to a lot of Asian countries and love taking influences from different things here and there to make things we really like."
The couple finished among the final nine contestants during their reality-TV stint. Since filming finished, Uel and Shannelle have continued their youth work in between running charity dinners and cooking demonstrations. Plans for the cafe started in September.
"[My Kitchen Rules] definitely gave us a lot of insight into what it might be like to run our own place and be in a frantic cooking environment," Shannelle says.
"In the beginning [of the show] we got criticised for cooking things we didn't particularly like so we'd like to put on the menu things we love. It was a big learning experience and showed us it's tough but that both of can do it."
Kin, 1A/2 Saunders Close, Macquarie Park, Mon-Sat 7am-3pm (takeaway coffee from 6.30am), kinbyus.com
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