The 34-year-old, who has been living in Italy for 11 years, embarked on his food truck journey four years ago on the streets of Turin. Hoping to introduce the rich flavours of Malaysian food to the Italian people, he started a business, Sate & Sake.
“I felt like authentic Malaysian and Asian food was missing in the Turin food scene, and I thought there could be a market here for it,” Yip tells FMT.
“Even though Malaysian food is very different from Italian food, I was confident I could educate my customers to enjoy new flavours and textures.”
Yip operates his business from an Ape Piaggio, a tiny classic Italian car. Given the limited space, Sate & Sake has only three dishes on its menu: satay with rice, cucumber and peanut sauce; rice with curry; and the Vietnamese sandwich Banh Mi.
Yip was born in Muar, Johor, and raised in Melaka, which is known for some of the best satay in Malaysia. Hence, it was a no-brainer that he chose satay as the first dish to be sold at his food truck.
He introduced Banh Mi to the menu as “it is basically a panini with southeast Asian flavours, and is a format that would be familiar to the Italians”.
And his rice and curry dishes include weekly specials such as rendang, masak merah and green curry.
Before Sate & Sake, Yip worked for a small startup promoting Japanese cuisine and culture to Europeans. “I became fascinated with sake and did a couple of sommelier courses,” he says.
“When I started my own business, I decided to combine the two as an interesting and catchy concept.”
He set up shop outside a university in 2017, but things started off slow as it was the end of the school year. Once classes were back in full swing, however, business began to thrive.
Yip says while the average Italian would struggle with the spiciness of Malaysian cuisine, those who are curious or are well-travelled tend to really enjoy it. “I can’t speak for all Italians, but my customers certainly like Malaysian food.”
Sadly, when the pandemic hit, Sate & Sake had to go on hiatus as classes at the university went online. He delivered his food for a while but ultimately decided to put the business on hold.
On the bright side, as restaurants in Italy have slowly been reopening since April, Yip plans to get back into the swing of things.
“From next month I will be collaborating with a friend who has a well-known kiosk in the city. I will be serving Malaysian food from my truck while he will serve paninis and cocktails,” he shares.
As for the future, Yip is working towards expanding Sate & Sake into a restaurant so he can introduce more items to the menu.
“Hopefully soon. I have been trying to start a restaurant for some time, but nothing in Italy happens fast,” he jokes.
Check out Sate & Sake on Instagram and Facebook.