Welcome To
Salt To Taste
If the Corona pandemic wouldn’t have happened, this may have never came to fruition. “With every door that closes, one opens.” Meet Austin and Alan. The masterminds behind Salt To Taste. Two young up and coming chefs that lost their jobs during the height of Corona and made something of themselves.
How it all began....
Both on the rise, Austin and Alan’s paths crossed at Bikini Restaurant, one of Seminyak’s top fine dining restaurants.
After long shifts in the kitchen, they would kick back and end the day with stories of coming to Bali and their dreams to be top chefs and run their own business one day.
After just one year of working together, following opportunity meant splitting up and working in different restaurants, where they later achieved big promotions.
Just as their careers started heating up… Covid-19 came knocking, restaurants got shut down, and overnight they lost it all.
With no income, Austin started selling rice boxes just to get by. Very quickly his customers started asking for more than just rice boxes, and an enquiry for a cooking class experience came up. Austin reached out to Alan for help and pulled the new venture off brilliantly. With those happy customers, an idea was born….
Austin and Alan decided to officially join forces and take the leap to start that business they had always dreamed of. They decided they weren’t going to let Corona tell them what to do, and instead use it as the kick in the butt to take a leap of faith.
"Always have a unique character like SALT. It's presence is not felt but its ABSENCE makes everything TASTELESS."
Meet the chefs
Austin Milana
Originally from Surabaya in East Java, Austin’s passion for cooking and his dream of being a top Chef in Bali have been around since he was running the show at family barbecues as a kid in his underwear.
Even though it wasn’t exactly the career his family had in mind, he kept on pursuing the dream of being a chef in hopes to one day gain their career approval.
Austine landed a spot in Culinary college – where he received top marks and won countless competitions. He later trained at the 5 star St. Regis Resort in Bali, and then made the move to Amsterdam to pursue 6 months international training at a top restaurant.
Returning to Indonesia he worked on Java and Bali for the next few years (at well-recognized places like Bikini restaurant), working his way up to the milestone position on the way to being a credible chef, a senior CDP.
A hot chef on the rise, about to start a big new job! And then Corona came along and shut down all restaurants in Bali the very day before he was due to start – talk about rubbing Salt in the wound. 😉
In a matter of a day, Austin’s new job was crushed, but not his perseverance. It was at this moment where he shifted and Salt To Taste was born.
Meet the chefs
Denny alan Syaifullah
Jakarta born and bred, Alan moved to Bali in 2011 and has been in the hospitality industry ever since.
He worked his way up from humble beginnings as a dishwasher in the kitchen, then the bar of Ultimo in Seminyak, then moved to Jakarta to be a cocktail barman at Toscana.
It was while working as a barman, that he realized his passion lay in food, so he headed back to the bright lights of Bali where spent a few years working at a range of restaurants, eventually ending up at Bikini restaurant, where he later met Austin and became good friends.
Opportunity came knocking in 2019 to become CDP in Noaa. At the start of January 2020 he landed the credible position of Junior Sous Chef.
Another chef on the rise with a promising career! And then boom, Corona came knocking.
Austin reached out about a potential cooking class, he took about 1 second to think about it, and now hasn’t looked back. Salt To Taste was born!
