Yalinie Mathan
Food influencer Khairul Aming continued to make great strides by announcing his second factory in Kota Bharu.
The 30-year-old entreprenuer released a video update on the announcement and recalled the success of his first factory in making his fiery ready-to-eat sambal paste known as Sambal Nyet Berapi.
The Kota Bharu native, who’s real name is Khairul Amin Kamarulzaman built the factory from ground up.
“We started with eight staff producing 200 bottles per day,” said Khairul in the video.
However, over the months, our team has grown to fifty people, and now we produce 5,000 bottles daily from the first factory.
According to Khairul, the factory produced 1,000,000 bottles of Sambal Nyet Berapi with a gross sales of RM 14 million.
Khairul also aims to produce a new product through the new factory.
“I am also pleased that the factory here in Kota Bharu will help the local economy,” said Khairul.
Humble beginning
Khairul launched his sambal paste in early January 2021 with the sale of 10,000 bottles online.
He recalled how it took ten days to pack 10,000 bottles.
With limited space, he had to rent another lot to pack his product for the launch.
Following the launch, he sold 10,000 bottles within 50 minutes on a local e-commerce site.
According to Khairul, between 6 January 2021 and 6 January 2022, he sold 540,000 bottles, equivalent to gross sales of RM 7.5 million.
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He also recalled all the mistakes he made in his bittersweet journey.
“I bought the wrong machine, bought the wrong material, made the wrong layout, and so on. But from there, we learned,” said Khairul.
However, he admits that it is part of the learning curve in becoming a successful entrepreneur.
According to Khairul, in the initial period, he reinvested almost 80% of his profits to expand his business.
Today, he owns a 14,000 sqft factory in Kota Bharu with imported machines and a local workforce.
Sambal Nyet Berapi has become so popular that many imitations have found their way to the marketplace.
Original recipe from Khairul Aming
The sambal paste is an original recipe created by Khairul through trial and error.
The main ingredients of the paste are shallots, chilli, garlic, cooking oil, sugar, salt, flavoured pepper and MSG. The bottle comes with a net weight of 180 grams of sambal.
Khairul also employs very stringent quality control on his product. In February, he threw away almost 3,000 bottles because the quality was not up to par.
Following an investigation, Khairul realised an issue at the bottling stage that caused the paste to turn rancid and spill.
However, he said there are no more issues with a new bottling mechanism.
Support from his followers
Khairul expressed his gratitude to his followers for supporting Sambal Nyet Berapi from the start of its launch.
He only had some 800 followers at the start of his Instagram. The numbers grew when he started posting recipes and cooking tips.
Today he has 2.8 million followers on Instagram alone. The number of views on his video reaches one million effortlessly.
Many of his follower’s comments reflect a sense of appreciation for his honesty and sense of humour.
Besides growing in business, Khairul continues to inspire many to follow in his footsteps.
From sambal to restaurant: Rembayung
Four years after launching Sambal Nyet Berapi, Khairul Aming took his biggest leap yet — out of the factory and into a restaurant of his own.
Rembayung, his first physical restaurant, opened its doors on 6 January 2026 in Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur, just nine minutes from KLCC.
The investment was substantial. Khairul poured RM4 million into the project, transforming an 8,000 sq ft site into a two-storey semi-glasshouse venue seating more than 250 diners.
“Berpuluh jenis juadah kampung dan minuman disediakan,” Khairul shared on social media ahead of the opening, describing the dozens of traditional kampung dishes and drinks on the menu.
The concept was deliberate. Rembayung serves authentic Malay kampung food — masak lemak cili api, sambal udang, asam pedas, ayam rendang, alongside nasi lemak, roti canai and classic kuih.
No VIP rooms, by design
Unlike many high-profile restaurant launches, Rembayung was built around one simple idea: everyone eats together.
“Di rembayung kita tak ada VIP room, semua orang dijemput,” Khairul said, explaining that the restaurant deliberately has no VIP rooms. All are welcome.
The decision reflected the spirit he wanted to recreate — the convivial, communal atmosphere of a kampung, where there is no separation between guests.
Anticipation for Rembayung’s opening reached a level few Malaysian restaurants have seen.
When table reservations opened at 9pm, four days before launch, traffic flooding the booking website caused it to crash. Despite the disruption, 3,000 diners successfully secured reservations for the opening days.
Khairul addressed the issue shortly after midnight, apologising to customers who could not complete their bookings.
“We’ve completed the first batch of reservations for Rembayung. I apologise for the website crashing earlier. Many people were upset. I was speechless and didn’t know what to do,” he said.
The restaurant has since created 50 local jobs and opens daily from 11am to 10pm, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
A trust-led moment, not just a launch
Industry analysts noted that Rembayung’s opening was unlike a typical restaurant debut.
Media intelligence firm Dataxet Malaysia described the launch as a “trust-led cultural moment” — one driven less by food reviews or marketing, and more by collective pride in Khairul himself. Public engagement around the restaurant surged in two distinct waves: first when the RM4 million investment was announced, and again on opening day itself.
From eight staff bottling 200 jars of sambal a day, to a 14,000 sq ft factory producing thousands of bottles daily, to now a 250-seat restaurant in the heart of Kampung Baru — Khairul Aming’s journey continues to inspire. What started as a humble sambal recipe has become one of Malaysia’s most closely watched entrepreneurial stories.
Maran Perianen
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