Interview with chef ROBERT CHIEUW

Robert Chieuw is a chef of great experience who has worked all over the world. He currently runs WORM’s kitchen under his company name Daily Fresh at Wunderbar. Robert is best known for introducing the highly popular vegan sushi dishes to WORM in 2024, and a range of low waste and affordable vegan dishes based on Southeast Asian cuisine and snack bar classics. We sat down with Robert, to tell us about his time here, and his many adventures.

What’s in the name, Daily Fresh?
That’s what it is! I do my groceries every day. That doesn’t mean I choose the cheapest option by the way, that is irrelevant, as I only pick up what I need for the day. What I use is always fresh.

Can you explain what brought you to WORM?
Well, my family was already connected with WORM; my sister Angela was working here in the space, making cakes for her business, Boaz Brownies. I came here after working for seven years in Norway. I was on the point of taking retirement, but I came back here, initially to visit my mother. And, you know, I wanted to bring my knowledge back to Rotterdam.

Two photographs, the one on the left a wooden platter with sushi with chopsticks and sauce on a red painted surface, the one on the right a colour photograph of a Chinese man standing arms folded and facing the camera, wearing a dark blue chef's jacket with white buttons. The photograph is of Robert Chieuw, WORM's Wunderbar chef.

Why were you in Norway?
I was working for an agency there to introduce Asian fast food and sushi. I was training people as chefs up in the north of Norway. The plan was to open up the concept of sushi for the Norwegian people, especially in the provinces. In Norway there are many, many islands. And the venture was successful. The news about my sushi would travel from island to island, so I would travel around and teach people. I became very popular up in the north of Norway in places like Hammerfest, places not far from the Arctic Circle.

When I came back, I got offered a position at The Hilton in Den Haag, as the head chef of the sushi department. That’s my profession. And while I was at The Hilton I thought, why not carry on and do something somewhere else alongside it, while I still have the power. So I came here to do the summer and do vegan sushi and that was an instant hit. I started to learn how the place worked here, and what its principles were. And at one point I got asked by management; did I want to run the kitchen? It was a time of change at WORM and the kitchen was run on a volunteer basis; not really professionally.

So I got an offer from WORM and I needed to think about it because it was a big challenge to turn WORM’s kitchen around, plus I had a nice job at The Hilton. But I thought, you know what Robert, you have worked for so many people and this is a chance to do something different in the middle of downtown Rotterdam.

Two images: the one on the left a colour photograph of a Chinese man sitting and leaning against the colourful Wunderbar bar, arms folded and facing the camera, and wearing a dark blue chef's jacket with white buttons. The photograph is of Robert Chieuw, WORM's Wunderbar chef. The one on the right a colour photograph taken from above of table with for plates full of snacks, bitterballen and other fried snacks, and sauces, with two tattooed hands at the image's top.

So quite a leap from one world to another.
In the beginning it was slow to build up – I had to think about a menu that would be suitable for WORM and what could also be commercial. But you know, I know this area and what it eats: it’s in my bones. I grew up in my mum’s restaurant. My sister lives on this street. I know this area really well, way before WORM was here. I remember when I was a newspaper boy, there were the newspapers, freshly printed and piled up outside what is now the Wunderbar window, here on the Witte de Withstraat.

What do you think was the big challenge here?
Well, I have a lot of experience: I worked with a lot of chefs, in Malta, Ibiza, Barcelona, Austria, Norway and Sweden, I also learned a lot about the ingredients from South East Asia. I was on a cruise ship too, I worked on the Holland-America line for a while. I don’t have a CV. I would go to a restaurant and offer to cook for free for a day. And I promise you, nearly all of the time I would be taken on, and this happened all around the world. My mother also used to run the first Surinamese broodjes outlet on the Kruiskade: the first one in the city, actually! So I have a lot of knowledge from different styles, from fine dining and even pizza, and cafeteria-style menus.

I looked around and I thought, given what I know, what could we do here? And I thought, let’s push the concept of vegan sushi. Because yes, sushi is a hype, but it would be good to combine that hype with WORM’s principles of a vegan and low waste menu. I could immediately see that this idea would be a completely different concept to anything else on this street. Even so, it was a challenge to figure out a totally vegan menu. But slowly, over a year, things picked up. I know that the artists and crew are very happy with the food. I see people coming back to order too; it’s nice seeing happy people. I have no complaints after eighteen months!

Tell us a bit more about the menu.
I create my own sauce for the noodles and my own style in the ramen. The chow mien is not like the chow mien you’d expect from a Chinese restaurant. My style is a little bit Surinamese and a little bit Japanese with the sauce, to give “my” touch. People notice that. For vegans, we look to make a small paradise here at WORM. Many restaurants don’t really focus on vegan food, they don’t pay full attention to their dishes. Their focus is normally on meat. You may get one or two vegan dishes on a standard menu, but that is all. The difference here is, I have to focus on vegan! And I look to build up a clientele, and, as I said, I see it’s steadily growing, both with orders for the terrace and foyer here, and online. Over time, I have really begun to think more and more about the advantages of having a vegan menu. If you did traditional sushi, for example, the smell of fish would be noticeable, and you would attract flies, purely because we are underground. Getting rid of meat and fish waste is also a big problem.

Robert’s 2025 food menu can be found here!

WORM as a place; what do you think about it?
I’m gonna tell you true: I have had to adapt to the people here, both guests and colleagues. Because these are different generations. I mean, I’m a bit old fashioned but I’ve been around the world and have seen a lot of cultures. And for me, working here brings me into contact with yet another culture and it’s an intelligent and open one. And I have to adapt. Every day is a negotiation. There is no corporate thinking here, like The Hilton. So I have to become a chameleon and change my colours and adapt. I mean for some of my colleagues, I could have been their grandpa! The new generations, they have grown up with a phone in their hand and that affects everything they do.

What is the weirdest place you had to cook in?
You know, that was in Ibiza. Because Ibiza is a party island. I used to be much younger and when I finished my shift I would go and party. And my afterparty was actually back in my kitchen! So that was the most challenging one and a bit strange. But I was much younger.

What is your legacy?
Actually the whole idea is – apart from making some money, which is nothing like what I could make with the same hours at The Hilton – to let people remember there was a Chinese guy here that put high quality vegan food on the map.

Colour photograph of a Chinese man standing arms folded and facing the camera, wearing a dark blue chef's jacket with white buttons. The photograph is of Robert Chieuw, WORM's Wunderbar chef.