SHAH ALAM, Oct 13 — The soft, buttery brioche roll is loaded with thick chunks of white meat. Not chicken, this, but the other white meat.

Freshly shucked flesh from just-steamed lobsters. Their shells rose-red, their meat snow-white... and if there is a gleam of midnight black, that is probably the beads of caviar. Gold the colour of an afternoon sun? Sweet, briny uni, the corals of sea urchins.

This is decadence as defined by NOX Everything Lobster, a local purveyor of lobster rolls and other luxurious foods. (Care for some black summer truffles to go with your Foie Gras Lobster Roll?)

NOX was founded by two best friends, Tengku Azaro and Michelle Leong, in April 2020, not long after the Covid-19 pandemic began.

Having been classmates since they were 12, the now 25-year-olds pursued hospitality training in Le Cordon Bleu Melbourne, Australia together in 2015.

Azaro shares, "While I focused more on culinary cuisine, Michelle chose to pursue pâtisserie which was her main passion. After completing our training and having worked in Melbourne for a short period of time, we returned to Malaysia to further our careers.”

After coming back to KL, the duo established a small catering company focusing on premium finger food for corporate events and gatherings. Their first business was in operation for slightly over a year when the pandemic hit.

Azaro recalls, "We had to immediately cease all operations. We were in a dilemma on what to do with the situation as we already had a small central kitchen set up. With society adjusting to the new norm and structure of primarily sourcing food through deliveries, we had an epiphany.”

Despite the ongoing crisis of the pandemic, the pair realised that people — their prospective customers, they hoped — were endlessly searching for gourmet food.

"We had to be different, something unique yet elegant,” Azaro says. "Something of gourmet quality yet nothing that would alienate people. Exactly one month into the first lockdown, Michelle and I came up with the idea of NOX Everything Lobster — offering fresh lobster meals with a premium food delivery concept.”

There was a lot of research and development before launching the official product. Azaro shares, "We basically sunk all our savings — which were not even that much to begin with — into developing the whole operation. We won’t lie, we faced numerous challenges and obstacles including financial and product/equipment resources.”

When NOX finally launched, it was with a simple menu of just three items: a Grilled Whole Lobster, a Lobster Roll and a Wagyu Burger. Less is more, as it turns out, for they could clearly market their offerings without too many confusing options, at least at the beginning.

Azaro says, "The response was immediately overwhelming as we had orders pouring in from everywhere demanding a taste of our products. As we were only a two-person team in the kitchen, we struggled to keep up with the shortage of manpower and equipment.”

Encouraged by the higher-than-expected customer demand, they decided to roll back all their earnings and savings to establish a bigger central kitchen to accommodate more orders and develop more new products.

Duties were split evenly: Azaro developed the majority of the products and recipes whilst Michelle took charge of their Signature Brioche Bread, which is baked fresh daily, as well as overseeing the kitchen operations.

In recipe development, creativity was tempered by care for the product: "We want to serve lobster in as many ways as possible without insulting or changing its actual flavour. So rather than masking the fresh sweet succulent flavours of the lobster, we want to enhance them.”

Since lobster conjures up visions of dining luxury, the NOX pair took this notion and ran with it.

Azaro says, "We decided to pile on more luxury on top of luxury, experimenting with ingredients air-flown from all over the world. We’d get weekly shipments from Canada, France, Japan and Italy for most of our products.”

As a result, the expanded menu now includes new flavours of lobster rolls such as the impressive King Crab Roll; the Mentai Lobster Roll with mentaiko (pollock fish roe), tobiko (flying fish roe) and nori (dried seaweed); a Chilli Lobster Roll doused with a sweet and spicy tomato sauce; and a Breakfast Lobster Roll with sesame avocado, ikura (salmon roe) and creamy scrambled eggs.

There is even a Malaysian-inspired Salted Egg Lobster Roll, complete with sambal ikan bilis! The full-sized rolls are also available as Mini Lobster Rolls; a box of eight different flavours makes for a great lobster feast party at home or at the office.

"We believe we have created a line of lobster rolls and related dishes that you can’t really get anywhere else in one place. We pride ourselves in making our products from scratch — from steaming and breaking down 'live' lobsters to fresh daily baked brioche, homemade sauces and the best ingredients from all over the world.”

Sourcing is indeed a global effort, with the lobsters flown in from Canada, the foie gras from France and the seasonal truffles from Italy. Japan is another key provider of ingredients such as the uni, tobiko and ikura.

These premium ingredients find their ways to dishes other than their lobster rolls: gourmet burgers loaded with forest mushrooms, truffle mayonnaise and Gouda cheese; Truffle Mac & Cheese topped with either lobster or foie gras; fried oysters with fresh tartare sauce; and for those who must have rice, a Lobster Mentai Rice, brimful of the ocean’s bounty.

Despite such high ambitions, NOX Everything Lobster is still modestly run from a small central kitchen based in Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam. Eschewing dine-in for the time being, they only offer takeaways and deliveries for the time being.

Azaro says, "From just Michelle and me, we have grown to an amazing team of five. It’s a dream of ours to open a full fledged restaurant in the city centre one day. Till then, we strive to continue developing the best and most unique lobster dishes that KL has to offer.”

Lobster, being a premium ingredient, presents its own set of challenges. When dealing with air-flown gourmet food, the NOX partners struggle with the sometimes fluctuating availability of their imported items whilst trying to maintain the most affordable prices.

Azaro adds, "We deal with regular logistic issues which may put a halt to our operations. Even with such situations occurring, we never compromise on our quality and vow to always deliver the best to our customers.”

With the current state of the economy, where many F&B (food and beverage) businesses are facing a worsening labour shortage situation, the duo admits that they occasionally do find themselves in a rut where planning an expansion is concerned.

However, Azaro cheerfully notes: "Being in F&B requires a little more perseverance than other industries. It’s not only a passion, it’s a way of life, where one enjoys the fruit of their labour through another person’s experience. Let NOX be not the last, but the first of many brands to come from us!”

Nox Everything Lobster

UG-06 Radia Bukit Jelutong (Block A), Shah Alam, Selangor

IG: instagram.com/noxeverythinglobster/

FB: facebook.com/noxeverythinglobster/