From My Kitchen to Yours — Sandra Djohan
Before I continue sharing my journey through Beijing and Shanghai, I want to take a moment to look back at another unforgettable chapter of my 2025 travels: my small but incredibly meaningful involvement at the Indonesia Pavilion during Expo 2025 Osaka, Japan, where I worked alongside Kapal Api.
It was an experience that brought me back to something I have always loved, something that has been at the heart of so much of my life: being in the kitchen, working with a team, and creating something for people to enjoy.
A Little Part of Something Much Bigger
Expo 2025 Osaka ran from 13 April to 13 October 2025, under the theme Designing Future Society for Our Lives. It brought together countries from around the world to share their cultures, innovations, and visions for the future.
The Indonesia Pavilion carried the theme Thriving in Harmony: Nature, Culture, Future, celebrating the richness of our heritage, our relationship with nature, and our hopes for generations to come.
Being part of this international event, even in a small capacity, was something I truly appreciated. But what made the experience especially memorable for me was not the scale of the Expo or the number of people who walked through its doors. It was what happened behind the scenes, inside our kitchen.
That was where my little adventure really began.
Four People, One Kitchen, and Hundreds of Hungry Guests
Together with Kapal Api, I had the opportunity to run a kitchen at the Indonesia Pavilion, preparing food for hundreds of people every day. I had a small team of just four, and we were responsible for making sure everything ran as smoothly as possible.
It was gruelling, to say the least.
We worked day and night, often with barely a moment to stop. We managed our own kitchen, arranged our supplies, sourced our ingredients, and dealt with all the little challenges that come with running a food operation in a foreign country. Every day brought something new, and there was always another task waiting to be done.
I still remember carrying 30 kilograms of rice from the market to the kitchen. Thirty kilograms! It was hardly the glamorous side of being a chef, but it was part of the job, and we simply got on with it.
Then there was the adventure of dealing with local suppliers. Communication could be quite a challenge, especially when our supplier spoke very limited English and our Japanese was far from sufficient. Thank goodness for our translator! Without that help, some of our daily negotiations might have been considerably more complicated.
Looking back, those little moments make me smile. We learned to navigate the local markets, communicate across language barriers, manage our supplies, and find our way around a completely different working environment. Before long, we were doing things that had initially seemed unfamiliar as if we had been there for years.
In a matter of months, we had practically become locals.
And the best part? My team loved it.
Back to the Kitchen, Back to Myself
It had been a while since I had worked such long hours in a kitchen, from day into night, with hardly any stopping. After years of building my career, exploring new interests, travelling, and focusing on photography and family, I found myself right back in the thick of kitchen life.
The heat, the pace, the endless preparation, the constant movement, the pressure of getting everything ready on time — it was all familiar, yet somehow felt new again.
There is a particular rhythm to a busy kitchen that only those who have worked in one can truly understand. Everyone has a role to play. Every pair of hands matters. When the orders keep coming and the clock never seems to slow down, you learn to trust your team, communicate quickly, solve problems on the spot, and keep moving forward.
There is little room for ego in a kitchen like that. What matters is showing up, doing your part, and helping one another get through the day.
And despite the exhaustion, I found myself feeling incredibly happy.
I was ecstatic to be back doing what I love, working with my hands, solving problems, creating food, and sharing the experience with a team that was just as committed as I was. We were tired, of course. There were difficult days, long nights, and moments when we probably wondered how we were going to get everything done.
But we kept going.
I couldn’t complain, because deep down, we loved every minute of it.
Perhaps that is something you never truly lose when cooking is part of who you are. No matter how much time passes or how life takes you in different directions, the moment you step back into a working kitchen, something inside you comes alive again.
For me, it was a reminder that being a chef is not simply about creating beautiful dishes or developing recipes. It is also about the hard work that people rarely see: the preparation, the planning, the carrying, the cleaning, the sourcing, the improvisation, and the countless decisions that make everything come together.
Sometimes, the most satisfying moments happen far away from the dining table, long before the food reaches the people who will enjoy it.The Beauty of Working Together
What I treasure most about this experience is the team.
With only four of us, we had to rely on one another. We learned together, worked through challenges together, and found ways to make things happen even when the circumstances were less than ideal.
There is something very special about building a little working family in an unfamiliar place. You begin with a job to do, but somewhere along the way, the shared experiences become memories that stay with you long after the work is finished.
I was proud of what we accomplished, not because everything was easy or perfect, but because we made it work. We adapted to a new environment, took responsibility for our kitchen, and gave our best even when we were exhausted.
That, to me, is the heart of hospitality.
It is not always about having the biggest kitchen, the most sophisticated equipment, or the perfect circumstances. Sometimes, it is about having the right people beside you, a shared purpose, and the willingness to give a little more when it matters.
More Than Just Another Chapter
Looking back, my involvement at Expo 2025 Osaka was much more than a short working assignment. It was a chance to reconnect with the part of myself that has always found joy in the kitchen.
It reminded me that, after all these years, I still love the energy of service, the satisfaction of a job well done, and the feeling of working alongside people who share the same passion.
It also reminded me that growth does not always mean moving away from where we started. Sometimes, growth means returning to our roots and discovering that the things we loved all along still have the power to make us happy.
My life has taken me through many different chapters, from my early days in business to building my career as a chef, from exploring new cultures to discovering the world through my camera. Each experience has taught me something different, and each has contributed to the person I am today.
At Osaka, I was reminded that I could still roll up my sleeves, work through the exhaustion, carry those 30 kilograms of rice, laugh at our communication mishaps, and find genuine satisfaction in the simplest things.
And perhaps that is one of the greatest gifts of doing something you love: even when the work is difficult, it still feels worthwhile.
As I look back on 2025, I realise that some of my most meaningful experiences were not necessarily the most glamorous ones. They were the moments when I was fully immersed in what I was doing, surrounded by good people, learning something new, and giving my best.
That is what I want to carry forward — not only in my cooking, but also in my photography, my travels, and my life.
Because for me, the journey has never been just about the places I visit. It is about the experiences that bring me back to myself, the people who walk alongside me, and the memories that remind me why I started in the first place.
And with that, my Osaka chapter comes to a close — leaving me with a full heart, a few tired muscles, countless memories, and an even greater appreciation for the work I love.
Now, let us continue the journey to China, a country that holds a special place in my heart, and discover how returning to a familiar place after nearly two decades would give me an entirely new perspective on the world — and on myself.
From My Kitchen to Yours,
Sandra Djohan Clarify my four-person team’s rolesTrim repeated reflections about kitchen life
