Mr. Pg Wahab is an educator and a chef who has been in the food and hospitality fields for over 20 years. His inspiration as a chef comes from his mother. When he was young, his mother always cooked different food that had a unique taste. This makes him appreciate how food can be transformed in different ways and want to learn more.

After he returned from Birmingham College of Food and Tourism Studies, UK, he teaches at School of Hospitality and Tourism, IBTE Sultan Saiful Rijal Campus. His areas of expertise are food service and table etiquette. He also works with the Department of School, Ministry of Education as well as Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Tourism in Brunei Darussalam on promoting food and tourism.

During his 20 years’ journey, he put efforts into changing community perception of cooking school as a second-class education. He changes the community’s mindsets through awareness raising activities. He brings the students to have hands-on experiences in high class hotels, and to demonstrate what they can do to the community. This has enabled the community to gain better understanding about the cooking school.

He teaches with heart. He said that the art of cooking is to cook with your heart. His teaching technique focuses on hands-on experiences by doing the practical parts together with his students. When he encounters difficult students, he would ask his students what they know first and when there is a conflict, he will exchange the information and learn from them. His passion is with the students, all of whom he learns a lot from. He learns different attitudes and behaviors because his students come from diverse backgrounds.

He views parents’ negative perception towards sending their children to attend a cooking school is the biggest challenge. He has to persuade the parents to keep the students in school. He organizes a teacher- parent week. He also advocates for the parents to give the students a chance to pursue a career based on their interests and skills after they graduate. Eventually the parents understand and support their children.

Mr. Wahab contributes to the community through helping the vulnerable and the poor who need to reskill to get a job. He develops a cooking course for job seekers to enhance their skills in cooking and make them employable. He dreams of opening a cooking school to help the disadvantage in the rural areas so that they can earn their living and sustainably support themselves.