In person, Ng is very pleasant and well-spoken and doesn’t sound anything like his persona Uncle Roger. — ART CHEN/The Star
Have you ever met someone in real life who was nothing like what you thought they would be? For me, that person is Nigel Ng.
But to be fair to Ng, that’s also because he is better known as his alter-ego Uncle Roger – an archetypal Malaysian Chinese uncle with a penchant for raw, unflinching honesty.
Uncle Roger’s trademark ‘Haiya’, his predilection for grammatically inaccurate words and sentences, his casual slouch and the way he nonchalantly takes down culinary icons like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver (a favourite target of his) are nowhere to be seen in Ng – who is quite possibly the stark opposite of the character he plays.
In person, the 33-year-old Ng is pleasant and perhaps even a little subdued – at least in comparison to Uncle Roger. For our interview, he wears a grey shirt and formal black pants, a direct contrast from the fiesty orange shirts and shorts that have become Uncle Roger’s uniform.
story on YouTube phenomenon Nigel Ng. (September 11 2024) — ART CHEN/The Star (JUNE 26 2024) — ART CHEN/The Star # Metro Backpages
Ng speaks with an indeterminate accent – some Americana, perhaps a slight British inflection but by and large, he sounds like an articulate, middle-class Malaysian.
Uncle Roger, he says, is a composite of all the Asian uncles he grew up with. Ng himself may not sound or behave like any of these uncles but he knows them all too well.
“The character is based off of those uncles who would sit at the kopitiam and talk a lot of crap. And they have an opinion on everything and will roast you to your face. But ultimately, I think that they’re just kind people on the inside, although they are stuck in their ways,” he says.
Ng hit the big time after a YouTube video of his alter-ego Uncle Roger criticising a tutorial of egg fried rice went viral in 2020. — YOUTUBE
Creating Uncle Roger
How did Uncle Roger come into being? By all accounts, Ng showed no indication of pursuing a career so heavily reliant on portraying another persona altogether. Nor did he show any particular affinity for becoming a subject specialist on cooking Asian food. And yet he has become a mega star off of both.
Ng spent his formative years in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur before eventually moving to America to pursue a degree in engineering. He says that as a kid, he loved going out to eat with his parents but only learnt to cook in a functional way when he was studying in America.
“Most Malaysians, we cook out of necessity. When we hang out here, it’s always eating out. I think that’s because hawker food here is so affordable and it’s so good because the hawkers spend their whole lives making one dish.
“Which is why in Malaysia, I think cooking at home is kind of arrogant. You think you can do better than the uncle at the hawker stall? You think you can do better than the Ramly Burger cart?
“So growing up here, I never really cooked that much. Maybe I’d help out my mom in the kitchen at Chinese New Year, rolling some dumplings, that kind of thing.
“I started teaching myself how to cook when I went to university in the US because eating out in the US is expensive, and it’s not that great. The winters are cold, so you just stay at home, buy a rice cooker and just make rice,” he says.
On his YouTube videos, Ng regularly makes fun of the cooking techniques and style of celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver. — YOUTUBE
Ng eventually moved to England and became a data scientist but soon began a bourgeoning love affair with stand-up comedy. He pulled long hours five days a week, rotating between a stable 9am to 5pm full-time job, then taking a train to another city to do comedy shows and going to bed at 1am every night.
Eventually, he quit being a data scientist to become a full-time comedian. And then six months later, the Covid-19 pandemic happened and that is how Uncle Roger was born.
“I became a full-time stand-up comedian at the worst time in the world – that was a big risk. But the big risk led to me creating Uncle Roger. It was Covid time, I had nothing to do, my money was running out, I was like, ‘Let’s see what I can do in this online world!’” he says.
Ng, or rather his character Uncle Roger, became a viral sensation in 2020 off the back of a video where he criticised and lampooned a BBC recipe tutorial on how to make egg fried rice. The YouTube video, titled ‘Uncle Roger Disgusted by This Egg Fried Rice Video’ sees a scandalised Uncle Roger dissecting everything that is wrong with chef Hersha Patel’s egg fried rice.
That video now has 38 million views while Ng’s YouTube channel has ballooned from 9,000 subscribers at the start of 2020 to 9.3 million subscribers today. His videos regularly use comedy as an agent to lambast chefs attempting to make Asian food, from Nigella Lawson to Rachael Ray.
Over the years, Ng has also amassed his fair share of supporters as well as detractors. He has been accused of perpetuating Asian stereotypes in the Western world, called a sell-out and even had his social media accounts in China cancelled.
And yet, Ng says that he feels his character has been able to reach people in a way he himself wouldn’t be able to if he was complaining about food or posting his own reactions to cooking videos. He has also been able to use comedy to educate people – especially those in the West – about misconceptions related to Malaysian food and other Asian dishes.
It is this connection with audiences – both in the East and West – that he feels has given his content relatability and an edge.
“So I view Uncle Roger as a character that allows me to reach more people than I would be able to. Stand-up is great, you know, it has its own audience, it’s a different art form. But playing a character, it’s easier to lead your comedy into a certain niche, right?
“So Uncle Roger is known as this guy who talks about food a lot. And I feel like if I talk about food as myself, it will come across a little less credible because I didn’t go to a culinary school. I just learned how to cook by myself. I just researched dishes.
“But Uncle Roger is a character who’s very opinionated about food and when he talks about food, it’s more entertaining and it’s more authoritative,” he says.
Ng’s first restaurant is swathed in shades of orange and is a tribute to fried rice, the dish that gave him his claim to fame. — Photos: UNCLE ROGER
The restaurant
This past week, Ng opened his first restaurant, an ode to fried rice called Fuiyoh! It’s Uncle Roger in the salubrious surrounds of Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. The restaurant’s tagline? ‘The best fried rice in town’.
Since it opened, the neon orange eatery has been teeming with people – long, serpentine queues trailing out of the space and wrapping around the corner.
According to Ng, this restaurant project was a year in the making and began germinating when he got to know some people who ran restaurants in Malaysia and thought it was a cool proposition to have his own imprint in the F&B world.
“Uncle Roger as a character, I think, lends itself well to make it a very stylised restaurant with a cohesive theme.
“So I started talking with the restaurant operator. And we just kept bouncing ideas back and forth. And then the restaurant idea was born. And we just decided to give it a go and see where it takes us,” he says.
Ng says that he feels his character has been able to reach people in a way he himself wouldn’t be able to if he was complaining about food or posting his own reactions to cooking videos.
Given that he has made a name and a career for himself out of roasting celebrity chefs, why on God’s green earth would Ng choose to open a restaurant and jeopardise everything he has built, especially his reputation as a pseudo food critic?
“There’s always a chance to tarnish your success if you’re trying something new, right? But I feel like taking the risk anyway.
“So in a sense, yeah, I think there’s always going to be people criticising, you know, and that’s just a normal part of being a creator online.
“So when I was doing stand-up, you know, people were like, ‘Yeah, it’s good, but you talk about Asian stuff too much.’ But then when I created Uncle Roger, people were like, ‘Okay, well, this is not really stand-up. Why are you making these cringe videos?’
“And then now when I open a restaurant, they’re like, ‘Don’t open a restaurant, stick to YouTube.’ People are always gonna say things, but as long as I put out a good product, whether it’s a book I’m working on or my videos or this restaurant, if I believe the food is good – and we really do believe the food is good – as long as I’m putting out good products, then I can breathe happy,” he says.
Uncle Roger’s spicy fried rice is actually pretty good and has that all important wok hei essence.
Ng says he has worked on the restaurant very closely, from ideation to inception, and his input is everywhere – from the restaurant concept to the menu development.
“I think I’ve eaten more than a hundred plates of fried rice and not just here, but all over the world too. So I think if there’s a title called Fried Rice Scholar, I think I’m deserving of one, because I’ve eaten fried rice from all different countries. I even tried fried quinoa!
“So yeah, every restaurant I go to, even though I’m full, I get their fried rice. And I pick the parts that I like in each type of fried rice and combine to make this ultimate menu at my restaurant,” he says.
In terms of opening in Pavilion KL, Ng says the decision was a no-brainer.
“It’s nice, it’s bougie, it’s classy, it’s above a Chanel, you know. It’s good for the brand and Pavilion, because it’s such an atas mall, I think we can come in with a dish that’s competitively priced,” he says.
So what is the fried rice like at Uncle Roger’s debut restaurant? Well, it’s actually pretty good. I tried a few options, including Uncle Roger’s Special Fry Rice (Spicy) with smoked duck breast and Uncle Roger’s Egg Fry Rice with grilled unagi.
The basic idea is that you can pimp up your fried rice with premium additions like unagi, pan-seared salmon, garlic shrimp and even satay to give it an edge.
The spicy fried rice with smoked duck breast is my favourite – it’s admittedly a little on the oily side, but nothing too sacrilegious. The rice has that distinct wok hei essence and the spicy sambal has permeated throughout, giving it a pleasant dispersion of heat throughout. Including the option for premium additions like duck breast is actually sort of an inspired idea because it takes something simple and elevates it to a whole new – expensive – level.
The egg fried rice meanwhile is a little more basic. The rice is fried well, each kernel distinct and fragrant with just enough oil to coat its crevices and hollows. The eggs have been added to the rice with equilibrium and a gentle finish. On another note, the MSG game is very strong in this classic dish, so be forewarned.
Prices start at RM16 for the egg fried rice and RM18 for the spicy fried rice with top-ups ranging from RM6 for two sunny-side up eggs to RM29 for grilled unagi. Ng believes the pricing is competitive given that they are in a central Kuala Lumpur mall with high traffic and equally high rental prices.
“I think that my character (Uncle Roger) will think RM16 in Pavilion KL – that’s good. What else can you get for RM16 in Pavilion KL? One sock. Not a pair of socks, one sock.
“So I think it’s good value. And of course, it will be more expensive than a mamak or a gerai. But it’s just got to make the business sustainable and we stand by our pricing. I think it’s fair,” he says.
The only thing that may be a touch too ambitious is the tongue-in-cheek ‘Best fried rice in town’ moniker. Is it good? Yes. Is it the best fried rice in town? Probably not.
Since opening, opinions on the restaurant have been divided. People have given both thumbs-up and thumbs-down for everything from pricing to location choice to wait times and the food itself. The day before the restaurant’s official launch, there was a pre-opening event that was chaotic and went badly, with one attendee writing a lengthy review about how the food was oily, full of MSG and wasn’t worth paying for.
Ng says he takes all the comments and criticism in stride and stands by his product.
“Oh, that’s another thing, too. Usually I review people and talk a lot of crap, right? So I need to be able to take it in return.
“So my lunch today was a plate of Uncle Roger’s special fried rice with two sunny-side up eggs. I just finished the whole plate right before coming here, so I do stand by my conviction.
“And in terms of the people saying the fried rice has too much MSG or is too oily, it’s like, yes, I can see everybody has a subjective opinion about food, I won’t be able to please everyone, right? But I think we did that for a reason because that fits our palate and we like that.
“And with fried rice, yeah, you need oil to fry rice. And MSG, yes, that’s the brand. I personally love MSG, I think it’s the brand, it’s the Uncle Roger persona. He’s going to use MSG.
“There’s also a lot of people who like the fried rice and enjoy it. So, yeah, you just need to be able to roll with the punches, take the positive comments and read the negative comments, but analyse where the constructive parts of the negative comments are, learn from them, and just move on,” he says.
In any case, Ng will probably have to learn how to take this criticism and keep learning because plans are already afoot to expand the Uncle Roger restaurant empire.
“I think because the food here in Malaysia is so good, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. So if I can nail the concept here, then we can continue expanding in Asia and then hopefully Australia as well as the US and the UK – that’s our future plans,” he says.
