A rice cooker, a Chinese proverb, and a career change prompted Kimchi Lai to create two award-winning cocktails. The 26-year-old Kuala Lumpur bartender has become the first woman to win the Giffard West Cup in its nearly three-decade history.
There are plenty of ways to celebrate rice in Malaysia, from a plate of fragrant nasi lemak to a comforting bowl of congee. Turning it into a pair of world-class cocktails, however, probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But that’s exactly what one KL-area bartender did, and her efforts brought a bit of liquid glory to Malaysia.
For Kimchi Lai, inspiration came from a rather ordinary place: the rice cooker in her home. The 26-year-old Malaysian bartender recently claimed the top prize at the Giffard West Cup 2026 in France, impressing the judges with two creations called “Grain Potential” and “You’ll Be All Rice.”
Even more remarkably, Lai is the first woman to win the international competition since it was established in 1997. She is also only the second Malaysian to ever take the title, following David Hans, who won in 2017.
The competition’s grand final took place in Angers, France, where 19 bartenders from around the world went head-to-head. After progressing through national and regional rounds in Kuala Lumpur and Manila, Lai found herself representing Malaysia on a stage filled with some seriously talented competition.
The brief was to create two complementary cocktails inspired by “sunrise” and “moonlight,” under the theme “Sip the Moments.”
Lai’s response? Rice, naturally.
“I was looking for inspiration when I spotted a rice cooker in my house. I thought, what do I do from sunrise to moonlight? I eat rice,” she told local news outlet FMT Lifestyle, laughing.
She also drew on a Chinese proverb, “the rice has already been cooked,” which carries a similar sense of inevitability to the Malay expression nasi sudah menjadi bubur. Rather than simply putting rice into a glass, she built the idea into two drinks that use familiar ingredients in unexpected ways.
“Grain Potential” features a toasted glutinous rice cordial, while “You’ll Be All Rice” incorporates cardamom rice milk. The result is a distinctly personal take on local food culture, translated into the language of contemporary cocktails.
FROM WORDS TO WHISKY? NOT QUITE
Lai’s route into bartending was anything but conventional. Before stepping behind the bar full-time, she worked as a translator and interpreter. As artificial intelligence began changing the landscape of language work, she decided it was time to explore another direction.
A part-time job at an ice cream bar came first. A friend then introduced her to bartending, and what began as a change of career soon became something considerably bigger.
She has been working as a full-time bartender for only about a year, and the Giffard West Cup was the first bartending competition she had ever entered. Not a bad debut.
The road to France wasn’t entirely glamorous, either. Lai said that she struggled with the cold weather in France and an especially frustrating administrative mix-up, and the night before the final proved particularly difficult. She later recalled sobbing in her hotel room in the run-up to the competition.
Strangely enough, hitting that emotional low may have helped. By the time she stepped onstage, she felt unexpectedly calm, even as other contestants delivered elaborate presentations packed with theatrical flourishes and clever ideas.
She recounted being quite emotionally drained as she went through the steps of the competition, which led to a more reserved approach, rather than one fraught with nerves and anxiety. Nevertheless, it’s not something she’d suggest to anyone else. “I do not recommend this,” Lai joked about the rather unconventional route to finding her composure.
Her mentor had advised her to concentrate on the story behind her drinks, drawing on her previous experience as a performance poet. It was advice that played to her strengths.
The result was a first-place finish, ahead of Indonesia’s Ketut Masdana in second and Spain’s Liv Rosengren in third.
The victory also earns her a trip to Antigua, Guatemala, where she will explore the country’s coffee and cocktail culture.
“It still feels very surreal,” she said. “Just making it to France felt very unreal.”
BACK BEHIND THE BAR IN KL
These days, Lai is back in Kuala Lumpur, working at Reka Bar, where her award-winning cocktails can be requested by guests who want to taste the creations for themselves.
Despite the international recognition, she is quick to acknowledge the people who helped her get there. Bartending may look like an individual pursuit, particularly when one person is standing alone behind a bar, but Lai believes a strong community is essential for anyone hoping to make a name in the industry.
“The quality of bartending in Malaysia now is really high,” she said. “But you need friends, a community, who will support you if you want to go all the way.”
Her final piece of advice is simple, if a little more philosophical: “And you have to love if you want to be loved.”
For someone whose first competition has already taken her to the top of an international podium, it’s a fitting sentiment. Lai’s story is a reminder that inspiration can turn up in the most ordinary places, that an unexpected career change can lead somewhere wonderful, and that sometimes all it takes to create something extraordinary is a fresh way of looking at something familiar.
In this case, that something happens to be the humble rice cooker!
Sources: Free Malaysia Today, Giffard West Cup media information, Drinking Lenses
