KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 — New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who is on his three-day official visit to Malaysia met up with Malaysia’s well-known cooking influencer and entrepreneur, Khairul Amin Kamarulzaman, famously known as Khairul Aming.

On his X account, Khairul Aming said the meeting, which was held in restaurant Hidang KL, was a token of appreciation from New Zealand for his recent travel to the country to produce cooking videos.

The cooking sensation took the opportunity to introduce traditional Malaysian breakfast including, nasi lemak, roti jala and teh tarik.

He noted that during the breakfast session, he was able to exchange views with Luxon on tourism exchange between Malaysia and New Zealand, trade exports of halal meat and dairy, nature preservation and the potential export of local small and medium enterprises products to New Zealand.

"Eight years ago, I filmed my first cooking video while sitting on the floor. Today, I have the privilege of sitting next to the Prime Minister of a renowned nation. Keep hustling, you’ll be amazed at where life can take you,” said Khairul Aming who now has 4.1 million and 1.5 million followers on Instagram and X, respectively.

"During my time in New Zealand (while filming a video), I found a lot of halal meat that can be imported by Malaysia. I was wondering about the halal trade between New Zealand, Malaysia, and worldwide,” he told Bernama after he met with Luxon today.

Commenting on his video series in New Zealand, Khairul Aming said he never expected it to go viral in that country, attracting the attention of the New Zealand embassy and the country’s prime minister.

"I thought it would be enough if the video made it to FYP (ForYouPage), but it went to FYP in New Zealand. The embassy (New Zealand) reached out and said the prime minister wanted to meet with me during his visit to Malaysia, and I was like wow, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said.

A Kota Baru native, Khairul Aming’s name is synonymous with his viral Ramadhan cooking series, entitled 30 Hari 30 Resepi.

To-date, the mechanical engineering graduate from Vanderbilt University in the United States owns two factories in Kota Baru.

Luxon’s visit to Malaysia ends today. This was his first visit to Malaysia since taking office in November 2023. — Bernama