Khim Teoh
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Khim Teoh, mastermind chef at SEASONS KITCHEN USA has a passion to share the exciting culinary delights from his home country, Malaysia. His secret recipe of well known South East Asian (S.E.A.) dishes are Crispy Skin Roast Pork, Barbecue Pork Belly, Hainan Chicken, Nasi Lemak Chicken Curry, and Beef Rendang. The special spices are specially imported from Malaysia making Seasons Kitchen the only place you can enjoy this delicious cuisine. His dream is to make the Malaysian Chinese cuisine a part of Southern California food culture!
Co-Owner and wife Khim Teoh loves to share her gift and passion for music with her customers. She offers free beginner ukulele lessons by appointment and entertains her diners with songs sung from her heart to nourish their souls. She also leads the front of the house to share the warm Malaysian hospitality that she grew up with. You can also request for Khim to sing at your catering event. Khim is also a volunteer teacher at a non-profit school for blind children in Whittier, Academy of Music for the Blind (www.ouramb.org)
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S01E12 Khim Teoh.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe
Welcome to the Enable Disabled podcast. I'm your host, Gustavo Seraphine. I was born with a rare physical disability called PFG. My journey has been about self acceptance, persistence and adaptation. On the show, we'll explore how people experience disability. The stories we tell ourselves can both enable and disable our vulnerability is the foundation for strength and why people with disabilities can contribute more than we imagined. I hope that leaders, companies, clinicians, families and friends will better understand our capacity to contribute to the world and help enable us to improve it.
Kim Tiao is an entrepreneur, restaurant owner, music teacher and the former assistant director at the Academy of Music for the Blind in California. Kim's perspective on working with children with a disability is insightful. What started out as emotionally challenging transformed into a deep appreciation of human adaptation. The ability to participate and empower children with a disability doesn't just help the children. Turns out it helps the people who work with them, too. If you like the podcast so far.
Please leave us a good review on the podcast platform of your choice and share it with anyone you think would like it as well. It will really, really help us. Thank you.
Kim, thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciate you taking the time and you welcome. So I would love to dig into your experience, the Academy of Music for the Blind. Can you talk a little bit about how you got involved with them and what they do, what they're about?
Yes, most definitely. Thank you for having me on the show. I've always been very intrigued with with music, of course. And I was looking for a volunteer opportunity. This is about four years back and I always enjoyed working with children. So the first I don't know how I connected the dots on on on wanting to basically do something that's, you know, pertaining to music and kids. I think the the the volunteering at it was actually volunteering at a blind children's learning center here in Orange County.
So it's a bit of a preschool. I started there first and I thought that's the least I can do, is sing nursery rhyme for kids. And, you know, because I'm not exactly a trained teacher, but I've always wanted to be a teacher. So I started there first. And and and because I've learned my music without using much vision, definitely heavily using just my ears. So that's why I thought, OK, this this could be a good way to to impart my knowledge on music to blind children, because that's pretty much how I learn music.
I don't read notes or that I've never taken lessons. So. So that's how. Yeah, that's how I started with Blind Children Learning Center and then going forth from there, the opportunity with Academy of Music for the Blind opened up and yeah, it definitely led me there.
So you're a self-taught musician and worker. Can you talk a little bit about your experience at the at the preschool, what that was like, what you were kind of some of your key takeaways from it?
So, yes, definitely. It was a very unique experience because first of all, it was my first experience in a school setting, working with children and working with particularly it was a blind children's learning center. So that itself was very overwhelmingly challenging. I would say. However, it was. It. It was. It was challenging at the same time, rewarding because I felt like when I was there volunteering and singing during what they call their their music time for 30 minutes, the children would sort of gather in a circle in the hall.
And this is my opportunity to get them involved in singing nursery rhymes like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Wheels on the Bus, things like that. But I really saw them light up. And I think that was it brought me tremendous joy and that motivated me to overcome whatever challenges that I had working one on one with blind children as well. So so that's that's in a nutshell. That was that experience.
And so can you talk a little bit about some of those challenges? I heard your interview with with Faye on her podcast, which was great. And I know you said that you were a little bit overwhelmed at first, but then eventually you kind of you started to see what your impact and started to see what the children were capable of doing as you as you got used to it and as you got more involved. Is that correct?
Yes, that's correct. I think one of the main challenges was to really understand the non visual world. So we. For me, being a sighted person, I rely heavily on vision. So in order to impart. Asserting that part of knowledge, I had to sort of put myself in these children's shoes and, for example, teaching them the ukulele instead of just pointing, put your finger here, it's more of actually describing where the frets are, which string so often adapting to using a lot of narrative in my description.
So that was one of the challenges I had to overcome instead of just just using commonly when when you're with younger kids. Oh, look at look at that. Look at this. I would often have to sort of describe things much more, you know, and that that sort of evolved me as a teacher is is is just finding a way to teach differently because my students are seeing differently. It's not that they don't see they just see differently.
So you taught music at the academy as well?
Correct. So at the Blind Children Learning Center, it was very it was more of just me singing to the kids and maybe just introducing the instrument. There wasn't the opportunity to sit down and say, have a lesson, teach them chords and things like that, because that was the extent of my responsibility as a volunteer. So where it led me to the academy because I met a incredibly talented student at the Blind Children Learning Center. His name was Nathan and he was five years old at the time.
And I felt like, you know, on my own free time, I visited him in his home and taught him what I knew about the piano, the ukulele. And I just felt like this. This child is is a sponge ready to absorb more and more and more. However, I ran out of things to teach him because he was such a fast learner and he was so brilliant that I felt, you know, he needs he needs he needs somewhere.
He needs a place that he can go to and comfortably learn the way that he learns. Because it is it was just a regular if he if he had just gone to regular piano lessons with a regular sighted teacher that's used to teaching sighted children, I think that that would be a bit frustrating for him and for both parties. So I felt like, you know, that that was the calling is to search for a school, particularly for this child, that that was so talented that I felt he deserved the opportunity to learn and to to keep growing.
So I searched the Internet and stumbled upon academy music for the blind and the directors. Mr. David Pinto, he founded the institution and he was a musician that worked with famous musicians such as Ray Charles. So I was intrigued with his organization. So I reached out to him and and took it upon myself to actually bring those talents at five year old boy Nathan to this institution along with his parents, to sort of see if he is a good fit.
And of course, amazingly, he was. And he was basically this institution serves students like him where they're not they're they're the main goal of academy music for the blind is to is to develop not just one instrument, multiple instruments, and also just develop this knowledge of music and expertize and music as much as we can. And in an environment that is that that encourages learning with non sighted children. So, yeah, that's pretty much that history of that.
That's an amazing story that you actually you know, you took several extra steps beyond what most people would do to help to help Nathan. And then you found yourself in this whole new world, in this academy, so. The academy, I'm assuming you have to apply, and they're only looking for children who have some musical ability.
Correct, correct. So typically it's more of assessing that they have the ability to learn. So they may not, you know, let's say a four year old or five year old child who goes in there may not be pitch perfect or may not necessarily already be as talented as someone like Nathan, because sometimes you just don't know. But as long as they have the interest in music and they the ability to learn, because sometimes visually impaired or blind children come with other disabilities, that may be that they be much more of a hindrance to autism or what other disabilities that may be much more of a learning hindrance.
So usually Mr. Davis would assess them and and make sure that they are in they are a good fit and and is only held on Saturday. So the Academy was it only runs on Saturdays and it's sort of a intense five hour music camp. So these children have to be able to follow this kind of structure and be beyond one on one with different teachers. So that's yeah. So I mean, it literally is an academy. The word academy is it's pretty much befitting of it because it's like you go in and it's class after class, one on one subgroup classes and it's just so much learning.
And these kids have to be able to to be OK with that.
And they are they given, like, you know, homework assignments, practice routine so that they can watch the you know, they they are given opportunities to perform during the year. How does that how do you incentivize the kids to to learn besides just natural curiosity?
Absolutely so so, yes, Mr. De Pinto, as a professional musician, and so he is all about getting the students up for performance, and that's what that's sort of the payoff for, for the students to learn pieces and and grow in their musical journey. They do get opportunities to perform at events that we get invited to, to some charity events and academy music for the blind as well. We host at least one or two fundraising events a year to to raise funds for the scholarship for the academy, because we do hire professional musicians to be teachers because it's it's a paid gig for them, you know, ensuring that there is that level of commitment.
And since this is a nonprofit organization, a lot of a lot of it comes from donations and grants. So so, yeah. So the students are definitely honed and geared towards performance. And thankfully, also we have this sort of YouTube platform. So sometimes we would record the students every week for the lessons sorry, every Saturday we would have what we call share time, which is 30 minutes of performance time, opportunity for the kids to show their progress.
So this is also we do we do sometimes record these and put them on YouTube so that the students themselves can kind of gauge their progress and enjoy the rewards of of their work, their hard work.
Something that I'm curious about is it did you find that certain that the kids pick up certain instruments easier, like I would imagine for someone who is visually impaired, playing a stringed instrument would be easier because they can feel the whole instrument. They don't have to kind of memorize, for example, in a piano where all the keys are. Did you did you see it? Is that is that correct?
I think there's certain truth to that. I think ultimately every instrument. And of course, everything is by feel, it's really learning for for our students at the academy, music for the blind. It's more of them adapting their fingers, let's say, to the piano. So it's more of a distance between keys. Same thing with string instruments, the distance between frets. So I'm not necessarily certain that it's it's one instrument easier than another. I think every instrument requires that kind of adaptation, something like a drum set or bongo.
Everything is about the student learning the shape of it via feel and touch and then the distance of of of the distance and sort of how the dexterity of their hands on even a wind instrument. So I think every instrument comes with its own challenges. I will say the instrument that I teach ukulele would probably be the easiest instrument. It's almost like a recorder is the easiest instrument for when ukulele would be the easiest instrument for string because there's only four strings.
So it's not difficult to master it. Interesting. Right. So, yeah, it's it's it's and also aside from instruments at the academy, music for the Blind, we actually also focus, of course, on on Choire of vocals and we also introduce dance to sort of get the students working on their balance posture and when they're performing, how they need to portray themselves to our sighted audience. Right.
The body awareness thing I can see being something that they have to learn over time, and I'm sure they they developed that correct is just a matter of, like you said, adaptation.
Yes, and it helps them in their mobility confidence. So I think it really is and to me, I feel like this academy, although we focus heavily on music, I really think it a you know, a blind child wholly like to to sort of prepare them for the world in a sense.
Yeah, I can I can see it giving them confidence like I have a physical disability. So for me, the way I kind of imagine it is when you're doing something you like to do and you're you have a gift that you've practiced it. You're sharing it. Not only does it give you confidence, but it's a way to when people see pretty much anybody, it doesn't have to be with a disability. But when we see other people doing something excellent, we connect with that person.
We admire that person.
We we.
We connect with them on another level, so the disability is not just about the disability that it's about, look at what that person is doing. They're doing something interesting, they're doing something special. I want to connect with that person and get to know them now.
Right. And I was fascinated with the title of your podcast and able and willing, able or enabled or disabled. You're right. It's it's it's it's definitely very empowering. And I think that should always be the focus for for a child that is that we term them to be disabled. But let's not focus on that. That's just something they have to overcome. Let's let's focus on what they are able to do and shine in those areas. So our students at the Academy of Music for the blind, obviously their area that we want to hone and grow is music.
However, we always when we we take them to perform in communities and things like that, we always also share that it's more than just their talents in music. They can be they can contribute heavily to the community. They can give. And so music is definitely a way of giving and sharing to the world around them. Often they are faced with people that encounter them, that are filled with sympathy. But it's not it's not a positive thing to just accept sympathy.
It's more like, you know, let me give you let me share with you what what I can do to brighten up your day here. Let me sing you a song. Let me let me share my challenges so that I inspire the people around you. So that's kind of what we like to focus at the academy. And I think it's a really it's it's definitely impacted my life because we often, even as as regular functioning human beings, often get bogged down.
So that is a disability, right? I mean, when we get bogged down our emotions or things like that, we kick off and it's so negative that we have to to to share more of this positive energy around, you know?
Yeah, absolutely. And so often when the students at this academy. If I think the economy's been around for, what, eight years now, well, it's it's over. It's about 15 years at this point. Two years? Well, yes.
As there has there been is there has there been enough time where one of the students or maybe more of the students have actually become professional musicians? Or is it too, too soon for that, that there has been there has been several that have graduated and become professional musicians, perform performing musicians? It's it's a very, very small school. So I came in at the tail and I can't remember some of the names of of the students that have gone on.
But they've they've sort of made a career out of it. I know some students that have become that have also become private music teachers to others. So it's definitely something that will help them in their future career if they decide to go into music. It definitely plays a very strong foundation for them. But but like I said, I think it prepares them for the world out there.
Absolutely. Like you said, it gives them gives them the confidence that they can be good at something. So if you can be good at one thing, why can't you apply yourself and adapt and be good at something else, correct?
Yes. Yeah.
Have have you has the academy tried, I know obviously Ray Charles is a huge name, but I know, you know, a lot of people know. But Charlie think Melody Gado is another fine singer, as the Academy tried to. Maybe get get them get more artists who have the disability over there to maybe help teach the kids, inspire the kids, perform for the kids.
We've definitely reached out to these organizations like Stevie Wonder. And so the thing about. So we've reached out because I was involved in the I was the assistant director for four years and I was also helping with fundraising. But I find it funny, funnily enough, of some of these organizations, their causes, someone like I think it's Ray Charles. I believe his cause is towards death, the death, actually, because he cannot imagine a world without sound.
So sometimes it doesn't necessarily mean they may be great role models and mentors, but it's it's it's not the easiest to sort of align these successful blind musicians with with contributing to our organization. But we've had several, like Justin Tofteland is a famous jazz pianist. And he he's I think he's part of he works with Quincy Jones and things like that. So he's definitely visited with our students and encourage them and things like that. Josh Groban, who's not blind, but he's also a foundation that has supported us.
So we've had we've definitely reached out as much as we can to successful musicians to to sort of encourage them to to help us out in our organization.
That's why I never thought of that, but that's a very interesting point that you mention about Ray Charles and it's I wonder something something else that Porcelli said that I wanted to ask you about. I think I read it in an interview with him, is that he says he feels lonely on stage and you'll see him kind of reaching out and trying to touch the performers around him so that he can feel more connected. Is that something that you think is. Is that correct?
Is that correct? So a lot of the when the students are performing on stage, do you think they they have that same sensation that definitely.
I absolutely think so. I think sometimes it's when when you're on stage and because, you know, you can't see your audience, it's it's more difficult to feel that connection. So they are definitely more encouraged by, you know, for example, the applause after the performance. But during the performance, I can see that I can completely relate to what Bocelli has said, that that feeling of loneliness and and wanting to connect with the audience. Yeah, I can see how that that is a very good point, actually.
What would you say is you're still volunteering for the Academy for Music for the Blind, correct?
Well, currently, since covid, all lessons are online. So so, yes, I'm helping out just in much smaller doses due to the fact that I got involved with opening a restaurant that so that was one of a crossroad that I had to to to to face to sort of delve myself one hundred percent into the restaurant. And so the volunteering had to sort of be on pause and and I had to give that up, which I truly miss.
You know, I think it has been difficult for just about everybody, so that's completely understandable. Hopefully, you know, six months from now we'll be singing to a different tune. Right. And we'll be back, you know, running or I have a business to. And it's been it's been challenging.
So, yeah, hopefully we can all get back to normal in the next six months and and open up full force. So talk to us a little bit about your your restaurant. What was how have you pivoted the restaurant business during covid?
Right. So my husband and I, we opened a restaurant about four years ago. It's called Seasons Kitchen and it's a Malaysian restaurant. So it's one of the very few Malaysian restaurants here in Southern California. And it was a brand new business for us. My my background is an entrepreneur, but in the retail industry. So this restaurant was more of a labor of love. It was definitely a dream and a passion that my husband I have to share Malaysian cuisine to the community around us because it's so unavailable and because it's a new business.
You know, I it was completely like a huge learning curve for me how to sort of make it in this industry. So the first year was was unimaginably difficult, just sort of establishing our establishing ourselves as a restaurant brand number one. And number two, creating the awareness of Malaysian cuisine. I mean, when you don't know of the cuisine, you don't even crave it because it's not even in your mind. So having that as a that was a monumental task.
So one of the ways that we overcame that was to sort of reach out to catering contracts. So we started doing pop ups at corporate offices, you know, with a partner called Food. It's a nationwide partner. But that gave us a lot of exposure. So so instead of having 50 people come to our restaurant for lunch, we're bringing 50 lunches to their offices. So that was a great exposure. And I think slowly but surely in the second third year, we started seeing a lot more regulars, a lot more loyal customers.
So that, you know, I would say by the third year we felt we felt safe, like, OK, I think we can continue to stay afloat and grow our business. And that's when it hit. So everything is I'm sure everything happens for a reason. And I think challenges is what makes us stronger. So with covid, then we have to go back to the drawing board and say, what now? We can't do initially was though, Dion is only deliveries and to go.
So we started reaching out to all our customers and offering our own in-house delivery system to to deliver food like that are like to deliver to customers that are 20, 30 miles away from us. But to do that efficiently, it can't just be one order. We would take a pool order of like ten customers and just do a complete delivery run in a two hour window period. So so, yeah, that was one of the big ways that we pivoted the other way that we pivot.
It was also to set up our our online pantry shop because again, with Malaysian cuisine, it's such an and it's not such a widely known cuisine that that our ingredients are readily available at even Asian markets. So we started importing more of Malaysian sauces, things like our curry pace and things like that. So we expanded our our pantry market and put the entire store. We sort of created an online shop through Shopify and reached out again to the entire Malaysian community across America.
And now we're starting to ship things to our customers. So now our audience became slightly bigger from just our little ten mile radius of 50 mile radius. Now we're reaching out to customers all across America. So that helped us make up for some of the losses, obviously losses and not having Diniz and losses in corporate catering, which we couldn't do due to it. So, yeah, that was the two ways that that we had pivoted the our our business to stay afloat.
Interesting, yeah, I'm actually I was I was on your site earlier today, I'm actually going to order some some sausage. I've never had Malaysian cuisine and I'm curious to try it, so.
Oh, cool. Very cool. Well, yeah, some of these sources, they're definitely they're they're very easy to use. Basically all the hard work it's been done for you. You just add protein. Attwater add coconut built in there you have it. You have a Malaysian dish for for dinner. So that's kind of like we're starting to see that as a as a now with with covid everyone staying home or becoming home chefs. So we're sort of feeding into that that demand.
And I read on the site sometime, I guess when you were open for dining, that you would you would play a ukulele for the customers.
Right. So my passion for sharing music never stopped, even though I couldn't carve out as many hours as I wish I could with the academy. I've always loved sharing the joy of ukulele. So actually at the restaurant we have a wall selling ukulele and some guitars. And when customers come in where we used to have Diniz, I would sing for my customers. Or if they had any interest in learning the ukulele, I would just give them free lessons.
Because really with with ukulele, all it takes is like ten minutes of somebody kind of showing you the basics. And then after that you could just be sort of a self learner on YouTube.
Have you thought about when things get back to normal, maybe doing like an event night where some of the academy kids can come in and perform for the for the customers or maybe doing some special events where you kind of can join up both sides of the restaurant and the academy?
I would absolutely love to do that. In fact, when I already had some of my students coming in and doing performing, but because our restaurants kind of small. So it was never anything that I was able to set up on a larger scale. But I think I think that's a great idea. Now that we're actually with covid, we started offering outdoor dining. So for some reason our restaurant sort of got bigger and we just opened up for indoor dining.
So now we have more square footage. And it would be great to to have once once it's safe again to have our students covid perform. Absolutely. I think that's a wonderful suggestion.
And that would be that would be fun and definitely put that on put that on YouTube, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
We could all enjoy it. Those of us who can't go to California.
Right, right. Yes. Very, very good idea. I will definitely put that in the books. Always, always good. Always great to think outside the box and combine our passions and livelihood sometimes.
Absolutely. So you sound like a very resilient person. And the way you've pivoted and survived with the restaurant where you always you and your family, were you always like that or do you think you gained something from. Working with working with the children. Did you get a deeper appreciation maybe for the powers we all have to adapt and grow and and survive?
Oh, I think the students are my biggest inspiration. And I think with the opportunity to serve them and work work with them closely, I am absolutely changed by them. And I think that just seeing what they have to overcome on a daily basis is nowhere near any of the challenges I've ever had. So, you know, I think I always look at them as as my source of inspiration and strength and and reason to to do more and to give more to society and sometimes stop looking inward and look outward and and and the yeah.
I think you definitely hit a huge point there, that in giving and serving them, I was heavily served. So, you know, it's it's I was I was basically blessed tenfold. And I think I will never sort of see the world the same way, you know, just just seeing what what they have to go through and how strong they are to to to navigate a visual world without without fight.
That's that's true, but I would bet that they feel the same way about you. I'll bet that you've. Also inspire them and giving them confidence and hope. And, you know, I think it's a very symbiotic give and take their.
Yeah, I hope so, I think. I think I think I do see that. So that's that's that's great. Yeah, we definitely want to bridge that gap between the fighter world and non sighted world and other sort of disabilities, you know, like you said, and abled disabled. So we got to try to focus on, you know, we we may label somebody as disabled due to some physical condition. But, you know, there is for one disability that might be a hundred and able, if there is even a word abilities, the put it that way ability that they can do.
Absolutely. Absolutely. That's true. And I think I think that's what the work that you've done so far is amazing. And I think that it really sheds light on that and your your ability to. Learned so much from it and open open your mind to it in ways that you didn't think were possible. I think that's what that's what it's all about is just. That journey of opening our minds and telling ourselves different stories about what we're all capable of doing and so many other limitations we put on ourselves are self-imposed, they're not really.
They're even correct. Yeah. Yeah, correct. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you.
So how how do you think how can people how can people help support the Academy?
Definitely visit our website to learn more, which is w w w dot our A B dot org. And I think aside from just monetary donation or connecting us with with the right people, that would feel you would feel strongly about an organization like this is just sort of create to sort of be more aware that that, you know, organize organizations like us exist and that we are definitely trying to do good work to change the lives of these students because it's not a huge percentage of them that have this disability.
But we want to if they do have it, we want them to be the right place to be able to grow. Just like how I found a job for Nathan, we would like to be able to find more students like Nathan who could benefit from our organization.
And you have a YouTube channel as well.
I do, but I've got about two diligent about keeping up with it. It was really it's my personal channel that I recorded some of my ukulele lessons for my students so they could use it for practice, but it's for them and has a YouTube channel as well. So people.
Oh, yes.
The subscriber base, so that they can they can get some ad dollars going to.
Correct. And they are there on Instagram and Facebook. There's somebody that helps manages that as a volunteer that helps us with that. So, yes, absolutely. Be able to support them on these social media platforms as well. Right.
And how about how about your restaurant? Where can people order some delicious Malaysian sauces and other stuff? So you have a bunch of snacks there as well, right? There's a there's a wide there's like 11 pages worth of stuff to.
Correct. Correct. So our website is w w w dot seasons kitchen you as a dot com and from our website you can click the shop online button and that will take you to our online pantry shop. So yes, we do have a specialized goods from Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, which is sort of a region that the flavors of our cuisine are quite similar in this three countries. It's a mix. It's a fusion of Indian, Chinese and Malay flavors.
So, yeah, so that's where they can find us.
Fantastic is there. I ask everybody this, so is there anything that I miss missed that I didn't ask you that you think is important to talk about?
No, I think you were very thorough in covering a lot, and I feel like I was taken back on memory lane and no, I think I think you covered everything. I think the key thing is to always stay positive and to share positive vibes. So to look at the world differently, I think is always a key thing. So like how you put enable disable. So instead of focusing on disable focus and able. So once you look at things differently, there's the possibilities are endless and limitless.
Absolutely, I couldn't agree more, so I really appreciate you taking the time and thank you so much. I hope that when things get when things get back to normal, we can start doing some of these events again. We can we can have you back on the show for an update and see how things are going.
That would be wonderful. Thank you.
Helpful links:
Seasons Kitchen USA: www.seasonskitchenusa.com/
Academy of Music for the Blind: www.ouramb.org
Connect with Academy of Music for the Blind on Social Media:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/ouramb?igshid=1utay7m9dpykx
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ouramb/
