Jimmy Choo on his London life, from Mayfair club nights to the best Malaysian food
This interview with Jimmy Choo is published in Morning Wire The Magazine, Winter edition, distributed at major Tube stations and available to pick up from The Royal Exchange
Photos by Gretel Ensignia
Jimmy Choo: Last night was a good party…
Med Pang: Yeah, we went clubbing! Did we leave Park Chinois about two in the morning?
JC: Yes! When I go partying I get so hungry, you’ve got to fill your tummy first, so I’m glad we had dinner here before we went out. It was a great night. We had guests from Canada, China, Hong Kong. We were out so late.
MP: It reminds me of the birthday parties we’ve thrown for you here, Jimmy. Where we dance to disco, especially the song you love, Saturday Night Fever. One year we all wore wigs!
JC: I’m still young, I don’t feel old. It all depends how you look at yourself. Age is just a number, it’s nothing special. Plus, I just love it here.
I remember three years ago coming to say hello when you opened the restaurant as I live nearby. We hadn’t seen each other in 20 years, but I reminded you that we’d met all those years ago. You’re always so kind to me, and it’s nice to have a Malaysian community in London.
MP: Yes – I didn’t remember us meeting! But I’m glad you reminded me, look at us now, we’re great friends.
JC: I come for breakfast, lunch and dinner and eat in my ‘Jimmy Choo Dining Room’! We worked together to make this room look great: my original sketches, the colouring. All the images have their own stories. It feels like home to me.
When I arrive from the airport I come here, leave my luggage, and have breakfast. I can just tell how much you care. Some restaurants charge a million pounds for food, but it doesn’t matter if you can’t feel heart and soul in the cooking. You have to put everything into cooking: your feelings, your taste, your manners…
Read more: Jimmy Choo on the shoes I still haven’t designed, and my fight to save London’s creative industry
MP: Now you’re our supporter, our ambassador, everyone who comes here asks for Jimmy Choo! And you always have the same dish: soup with chicken, vegetables, steamed egg, noodles, a little bit of spice. We look after you whenever you’re in town.
JC: I return the favour when you go to Malaysia. My driver is waiting for you when you land! But I want people to know that in London at Med Salleh, the ‘Jimmy Choo’ room is for everyone. If someone else books it I will go and sit in the main restaurant.
MP: I’m actually going back to Malaysia for the first time in five years this winter. I don’t go back so often these days, and I’m very excited and grateful to you for your driver! It’s also kind that you take pictures with guests here, and let them sit in your private room to enjoy the shoe illustrations on the walls.
JC: It’s so intimate. When I’m at home in Kuala Lumpur I invite 500 people to my birthday but in London I have 30 here. We dress up, do cool hairstyles. It’s good to have lots but then you can’t talk to each other. It’s a different feeling here.
Koi Lee: It’s fun throwing events like that. In Med Salleh it’s family, it doesn’t matter if you’re Chinese, Malay, Indian or British. We love hot and spicy food. And our Malaysian food is inspired from different cultures: Malay, Indian, all mixed together. The food is inspired from our childhood memories: chicken my grandmother made, and our very simple fried rice dishes with prawn, chicken and vegetables are my favourites.
JC: When I first came to England 40 years ago I remember someone gave me pie and mash and I said ‘I cannot eat this, I want egg fried rice every day!’ But now I’m used to it. It takes some time to understand, but I love fish and chips now.
KL: We’re particularly proud of our Nasi Lemak, the Malaysian national dish with coconut rice. The blue colour comes from pea flower, dyed with natural ingredients. Presentation is really important to us so we can promote Malaysian food. People like to share the blue rice on Instagram.
JC: If you go to a Michelin star restaurant, you don’t pay for the food, it’s the art and design. It’s like designing shoes, with food you also have to come up with ideas. Next time I design a new pair of shoes I’ll bring youtwo along to help me!
KL: Yes of course, we’re creatives too. We’re cooking food but we still see ourselves as creatives. We love visiting other restaurants to learn and bring ideas back here.
MP: We need more Malaysian restaurants in London but it’s getting better. Anyway Jimmy, do you remember when you first took us to a fashion party? At Claridge’s in Mayfair? It was so fancy!
JC: Yes, you were my celebrity guests!
MP: We posed for press photos and you introduced us to a lot of people. It was my first experience with hundreds of cameras flashing, so now I know why Jimmy always has sunglasses. I felt like I was a star.
JC: Hahaha. Those events can be fun, but real friends like you, I can feel in my heart. It feels very nice to bring my friends to Claridge’s. They wear my shoes! You wore them out last night to the club.
MP: That was a rare occasion. My wife wears the shoes and she feels amazing, but she only wears them inside the house. She values them too much to get them dirty!
JC: Even after 40 years in the industry, I still love shoemaking. My father was a shoe designer, so craftsmanship is what I know.
The main things are that they have to be comfortable, you have to understand the shape of the foot, and they have to be balanced to the foot. When you create something, you have to feel it inside your heart.
It’s the same with writing, food or shoes. It’s also important to me to train the next generation through my fashion foundation college, and to realise that not everyone has money: sometimes people say they love me but they can’t afford my shoes, so I design a shoe for her. You have to care for people.
KL: Yes, and it’s also important to promote young people in the restaurant. We give them apprenticeships, train them so the food has the Med Salleh taste after they’ve worked closely with our chefs. Some of the young people who train here might go back to Malaysia to open their restaurants.
JC: That’s amazing. I can go to Paris, Italy or New York for work, but wherever I go I want to return here. I even have the business card for Med Salleh in my phone case so if I lose it on a plane, they bring it back here. Sometimes I also stay here in a room upstairs. I stayed last night, after our big night out. I said I would come down for breakfast early but I came down at ten o’clock! It was a late night!
Go to medsalleh.co.uk