How Daisy Orlana Ramli Kirschen Holds Down a Design Job While Hosting the Perfect Indonesian Pop-Up
In our series Office Crush, we're asking people with the coolest jobs to take us to work. Up next, Daisy Orlana Ramli Kirschen, a designer at Home Studios, lets us shadow her for a day of drawing restaurant interiors and spice blending for her Indonesian pop-up Sayang.
Daisy Orlana Ramli Kirschen has a keen eye for aesthetics. As a designer at the Brooklyn-based Home Studios Kirschen brings some of the most innovative hospitality concepts to life; from Hu. hotel in Memphis to Giuseppe & Sons in Philadelphia. “I went to school for architecture but I’ve always felt closer to interior design,” Kirschen says, “I wanted to design small-scale spaces that people could be in and touch.”
It’s a job that demands a knack for fabricating custom lighting, furniture and millwork and for spotting unique vintage and reclaimed pieces. No two projects are alike, and the smallest details (think, the ball feet of a sofa or the subtle swirls on a slab of Carrara marble) are precisely considered by the collaborative team. “As a creative person,” she says, “I’m always seeking to learn new things and challenge myself so I love being in such a stimulating environment.”
Kirschen’s penchant for designing epicurean experiences extends outside of the office, where she is the creator of Sayang: a pop-up that explores the “flavor rich” food she grew up eating in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. After moving to New York City a decade ago, she found these aromatic dishes—often packed with spices and cooked over days—harder to come by. As a quick fix, her family would send her sachets of spices to add to water, a protein, or vegetables, but “they weren’t quite the real thing,” she says.
With a little help from the Internet, Kirschen went from being “even only okay at making rice” to hosting convivial dinner parties for dozens of friends. “Sayang is a term of endearment, although it’s not necessarily romantic,” Kirschen explains, “I thought it was fitting because I wanted it to be an intimate meal with a bunch of people you don’t know.” For her, cooking is now a way to ease homesickness and connect more deeply with her native food culture: “When I look up recipes for certain dishes, I find out how they were invented in the first place,” she says, “It’s a way for me to go back to my roots to better understand them.”
Photo by Emma Fishman1/5Morning planning to Midnight Runners
When I get up, I listen to a lot of radio. NPR used to be my jam, but recently I discovered BBC Radio 2. I love how soothing the English accents are, even when they’re talking about traffic or issues with farm animals in the countryside, and they play ’90s pop like the Sugababes. For breakfast, I’ll either eat bananas with lime, yogurt, or pick up a chocolate croissant from Homecoming by the studio in Greenpoint. I try to read on the subway to work because it takes me about 30 minutes from my house in Cobble Hill. I’m in the middle of Kitchen Confidential for the first time. It just makes me miss Anthony Bourdain and his voice so much—I don’t feel that way about any other celebrity.
When I get to work, I do emails first and then make a plan for tackling the week’s different projects. Later on, I’ll focus on more design intensive work such as drawing details. I spend a lot of time in the material library, which has a bunch of marble, tile, fabric and wood samples for us to reference.
I’m terrible at changing up my music and I will listen to something until I’m sick of it. When I was looking for music for the first pop-up, I discovered this group from Indonesia called Midnight Runners that does a lot of cool disco, funk, tropical music; their songs are currently on repeat.
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Photo courtesy of Cafe Alula2/5'I don't do a light lunch'
A lot of the people in my office have salads for lunch, but I’m honestly not a salad kind of girl. I didn’t grow up eating a ton of raw vegetables so when I want vegetables, they’re always warm or cooked. I don’t do a light lunch, and I’m definitely always bringing the smelly thing to work.
When I buy lunch, there’s an amazing Lebanese place nearby called Cafe Alula. They do a Muhammara sandwich with red pepper paste, a ton of goat cheese, walnuts and purple cabbage on the most perfect, crispy, grilled bread.
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Photo by Emma Fishman3/5Shopping for Sayang
For this Sayang, I wanted to isolate by region so I’m focusing on Padang, where my dad is from. It’s a more hilly part of the country with a lot of lakes and the food reflects that; it’s slightly denser with a lot of heat and dry curries.
Since I’m in major prep mode, I go to Chinatown to scavenge for ingredients. I make a list of everything I need in advance, then I go scope out what I can get where so that the week of I can go back to that place. Bangkok Center Grocery has a ton of the things I’m looking for like kaffir lime leaves, tamarind, candlenuts, galangal, and stink beans.
Photo by Emma Fishman4/5Prep time
A ton of chopping and spice blending happens pre– cooking day. I prep a few different sambals, our condiment that’s made from spicy peppers and eaten with every meal. I try to balance out the menu: I’m not trying to kill everyone, though there will be spice.
There will be some more adventurous dishes like Gullai Kepala Ikan (fish head curry) because I think they’re really important to understanding the cuisine. We love the cheek portion of the fish—it’s one of the best parts—so I wanted people to try it if they’re feeling brave. I also put Sate Padang (beef tongue skewers), which are served with a thick, brown, curry-like sauce and topped with fried shallots, on the menu. I’m going to serve the whole meal as it would be traditionally, in small dishes and all at once, and encourage people to eat with their hands by putting out kobokans (bowls of water with lime) for rinsing sticky fingers.
Photo by Emma Fishman5/5Trying to wind down
When I get home at night, it takes me some time to unwind—I can’t just switch my brain. Right now, I’m in the thick of Sayang planning: I’m calculating quantities of ingredients that I need, pulling together visual inspiration for the space, and sourcing tabletop decor. I’ll call different friends asking, “so I need help with this. Can you help me?” I’m still trying to figure everything out, but it’s been really fun to do on the side—I’m just so excited that people like the food having not had it before.
