KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 — “Aiya, wait, wait, I forgot to change,” Teh said in a rush. 

The 51-year-old beckoned me into her home in Bangsar, dressed in a typically Malaysian errand-running outfit of a crumpled shirt, baggy shorts, and flip-flops. 

“I went to get an espresso and then…” she continued, her voice trailing off as she turned a corner.

A native of Penang but raised in Bangsar Baru, Madeline Teh spent most of her adult life running a successful nail and wax salon with multiple locations in Kuala Lumpur, all while raising a family and splitting her time between Malaysia and the United States. 

She, like many others, had followed the path laid out for her, reaching her station in life as a mother, wife, and entrepreneur.

Just then, Teh reappeared, unrecognisable in a smart grey suit, brandishing a waiter’s friend, also known as a wine key, and a chilled bottle of Roc de Cambes. 

She had donned the uniform of the second phase of her life, which began during the pandemic, when a lifelong interest in wine finally became a serious pursuit. 

In the span of just three years, she went from taking her first Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) qualification course to working as a sommelier at Per Se, the three-Michelin-starred New York flagship of acclaimed American chef Thomas Keller. 

It was a meteoric first chapter in a journey that continues today as she pursues a Master of Science in Vineyard and Winery Management at Bordeaux Sciences Agro, and a Master of Wine (MW) at the Institute of Masters of Wine.

As Teh remembers it, after completing school, she wanted to study abroad and earn a degree in marketing. 

She felt it suited her character, but faced opposition. “You couldn’t tell your parents you wanted to do a marketing degree in those days,” she said. 

“The whole family was like, ‘No, you’re a girl, you’re doing accounting or finance. It’s safer.’ So I did accounting and finance because it was the only way I could go overseas.”

Teh studied at Monash University in Melbourne, where she had her first professional experience with wine while working at an upmarket Thai restaurant. 

After graduating, she spent a year and a half in the US, later returning to Kuala Lumpur to work as an accountant. 

She quickly realised it wasn’t for her and, inspired by her time in the US, started a nail and wax salon business that would grow to eight locations over the next 16 years, all while raising her two sons between Kuala Lumpur and the United States, where her husband is based. 

Amid all that, her fascination with wine continued to grow. “I have a cousin who loves wine, and whenever I visited him in Hong Kong he would open iconic bottles for me to try. He once opened a 1950 Château Cheval Blanc, and lots of Château d’Yquem, even a 1996,” she recalled. 

“All those wines probably cost 10 times our house loans! I was just blown away, like, ‘How can a wine taste like that?’”

She was hooked. Teh knew she wanted to understand wine better, but it would have to wait. 

“I was still busy, raising the kids, making ends meet,” she said. “But by 2019, the business was more stable, I had more time, and the kids were grown up.” 

Living in New Jersey at the time, she dove headfirst into wine, completing the WSET Level 1, 2 and 3 Awards in Wines in just one year. In the same month, she enrolled in the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines and began juggling three part-time jobs.

“My first job was as a tasting associate for Tomasello Winery, and they are famous for sweet wine,” Teh laughed. “After all that thinking about Burgundy and French wines, I was selling sweet, flavoured moscatos.”

She worked six days a week, dividing her time evenly between roles, including a tasting room position at Unionville Winery and shifts at a supermarket. 

This routine continued for eight to nine months and later included a short stint as a server at Elements, chef Scott Anderson’s New American fine dining restaurant in Princeton. 

The total rose to four jobs, but more importantly, the experience informed her next move. “I wanted to try more wines,” she said. “And I needed a full-time restaurant job to do that.”

Teh began applying to restaurants in New York and was hired at Aldo Sohm Wine Bar, owned by Aldo Sohm, the wine director of Le Bernardin, the iconic three Michelin-starred restaurant in Manhattan.

“That was my first job in New York. He [Sohm] gave me an in — he reminded me many times in my life, ‘I gave you an in to New York’, and I’m always going, ‘Thank you very much,Aldo’,” she chuckled. 

“He said he wanted to interview this woman who has four jobs — he saw my résumé and couldn’t understand how I was juggling so many things at the same time. We had a video interview, and next thing you know, I got hired!”

“The first day there, I was in love,” Teh said. “I knew I needed to be there, because it was the only way I would get to taste those types of wines.” 

On some occasions, Sohm would bring over the remaining pours from special bottles opened at Le Bernardin for the team to taste. “My first few months there, this guy ordered Château Rayas for a thousand bucks!”

“I was still very green. It was daunting, I had imposter syndrome every day going to work. But all the other sommeliers told me they felt the same thing.” 

After six months, Teh left to join the now-closed Gotham Restaurant, having by then completed and received sommelier training and accreditation from both the Court of Master Sommeliers and the Institute of Culinary Education.

As a sommelier at Gotham, Teh attended trade events and tastings, where she often met fellow sommeliers from across the city. 

“It was one of the perks of the job,” she explained. “The wine directors didn’t really want to go, so they’d send me and I’d get to go and try different wines.”

One such event was the annual Ruinart Sommelier Challenge in New York, where Teh met John Jansma, then the assistant head sommelier at Per Se.

“I was chatting with him, and he told me, ‘Why don’t you come interview with my boss, send in your résumé, just come to Per Se’,” she recalled, beginning to sound flustered. 

“I thought it was a bit far-fetched. I had no experience, I had just started at Gotham, I had only been there for about five or six months! I felt like I couldn’t just leave and go there.”

Teh accepted the invitation and was interviewed by the head sommelier at the time, Hak Soo Kim. “They asked me to come in and start as a cellar sommelier,” she explained. 

“As the cellar sommelier, I handled all the deliveries, opened every bottle for the floor sommeliers but the perk was I got to try different wines every night. It was a good thing because my mind at the time was only about tasting wine. That was the most important thing for me.”

In July 2022, at the age of 47, Teh became the cellar sommelier at Per Se, a mere 12 months removed from her first ever sommelier job at Aldo Sohm Wine Bar, and only two years since she took her first WSET courses. 

“I know, it’s crazy. I couldn’t believe it,” she exclaimed. “I was like, ‘Maybe after Covid everybody’s short on staff, so they’re hiring any Tom, Dick, and Harry now!’”

Ironically, it was Teh’s eldest son who reminded her of how far she had come, even when she was just starting out at Aldo Sohm Wine Bar. 

“One day we had lunch, and he was walking me to work, looking around at Le Bernardin on 51st Street and taking it all in,” she reminisced. “He said, ‘Mom, don’t forget, you’re from Lucky Garden.’ I said, ‘Yes, I know. I can’t believe it, too.’”

The following year, Teh was promoted to the floor. “It was stressful. I asked for it because I thought I was ready, but I was scared,” she admitted.

“But I had one or two co-workers who really encouraged me. They’d ask me to take over a wine pairing and come up with pairings while I was a cellar sommelier, so by the time I was promoted to the floor I had already done all these things.”

In 2023, she returned to the Ruinart Sommelier Challenge and won. Later that year, she completed her WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines.

“In Per Se, everybody observes everybody. You’re on your best behaviour. That’s what I like about it. Everybody goes to work dedicated, like your whole life depends on it. 

“You don’t get that feeling in other restaurants. Everybody is focused, on the ball, and you look at Chef Keller and wonder how he motivates everyone even when he’s not there.”

But after two years at Per Se, Teh found herself at a crossroads. “I was doing very well there, I had my own section every night,” she sighed. “But this thing came about, and I knew if I didn’t go for it, I would be missing out.” 

The opportunity required her to leave Per Se altogether and relocate to Bordeaux for a year to further her studies, a decision that aligned directly with her long-term goal of becoming a Master of Wine.

“When you work in Per Se, you always want to do more. Everybody does,” she said. “Like it or not, there is this competitive streak in each of us, and I would be sitting down and doing tastings with all these people who were always pursuing the next certification or accreditation. I want to do both, but I think I cannot do both at the same time.”

Teh spent her first year in Bordeaux pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Viticulture and Enology at Bordeaux Sciences Agro. 

Upon completion, she earned a scholarship to undertake a Master of Science in Vineyard and Winery Management, which she is now pursuing alongside the Master of Wine. 

“I’m surprised that I’m even doing both in the first place, but it happened at the same time and I felt that I had to take it,” she said. “It’s going to be very challenging for me.”

The Master of Wine exam is notoriously difficult to pass. There are currently 418 Masters of Wine across 30 countries; if successful, Teh would become just the second Malaysian-born MW, and the first Malaysian woman to do so.

Going back to school at 50, Teh insists, is not as daunting as it sounds. “I enjoy sleeping at 11pm instead of 2am,” she smiles. “Class is nine to five, four days a week. There’s lots of research involved.”

“I just need to get through stage one and stage two [of the MW], which is going to take me four or five years, so let me worry about it in five years,” Teh said. 

“At the same time, I need something to do — I’m probably going to look into making a small amount of wine. I’m there, right? I should make full use of it.”

It is only now, with distance from the restaurant floor, that Teh has begun to reflect on how far she has come. 

“I don’t know, it all just happened one after another. Once I got to Per Se, it was express learning,” she said. “I didn’t have time to reflect. All I need is to go to work. Go to work, I come back and I’m so tired, I just need to go to sleep.”

Even now, the momentum has not entirely eased. “But it is crazy, right? Sometimes, like I’m holding back about this next step, because I’m like, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t do anything yet?’” she mused. 

“My friends and family questioned me in the beginning, but they know my nature. I want to do everything under the sun.”

Self-belief, she admits, did not come easily. “It’s a funny thing — I found it really hard to tell people, even about working in New York. I think the defining moment came when I won the Ruinart Sommelier Challenge. It was like saying to myself, ‘You’re not so bad. You can actually do this.’”

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* Follow Ethan Lau on Instagram @eatenlau for more musings on food and mildly self-deprecating attempts at humour.