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Indonesia’s loss to Malaysia in the Southeast Asian Games football on Thursday may be a sore point for many, but it hasn’t stopped 400 Jakartans from booking spots to try the creations of Malaysian-Australian cook Adam Liaw this weekend at Portico in Senayan City, South Jakarta.

The 2010 winner of reality TV show “MasterChef Australia” is assisting the restaurant’s kitchen staff to prepare a three-course meal in four seatings, two each on Friday and Saturday night. Thanks to the popularity of the show on satellite TV in Indonesia, tickets for both nights sold out.

Arriving in Jakarta for the first time on Thursday, Liaw was excited to try a range of Indonesian foods, though many of the flavors were familiar to him thanks to his upbringing. Born in Penang to a Hainanese-Chinese father and a Singaporean-born mother with English, French and Indonesian heritage, Liaw was raised in Adelaide on a mix of cuisines covering everything from yum cha chicken feet to bread-and-butter pudding. It’s no wonder he can’t always pinpoint the influences in his cooking.

“When I cook rendang and I call it Malaysian, everyone yells at me, saying ‘That’s not Malaysian! It’s Indonesian!’ But for me, I guess, my cooking style is something more like Australian,” Liaw said.

While for most Jakartans the idea of Australian cooking might not extend far beyond a plate of highly flavored meat at the Outback Steakhouse — which is in fact an American restaurant chain — Liaw explained that modern Australian cuisine was about emphasizing the individual flavors of certain ingredients, “so that a carrot tastes like a carrot and a potato tastes like a potato.”

Liaw’s cooking style is based on three factors: simplicity, authenticity and feeling. He likes food that makes sense. “One thing I hate is when you buy a hamburger and it’s too big to eat like a hamburger. I mean, the hamburger was invented because you can eat it like that,” he said.

But diners at Liaw’s banquets at Portico on Saturday night can expect more than just manageable hamburgers. For starters, the kitchen will prepare tuna tartare, served with yuzu jelly, wasabi avocado cream and pink peppercorn and garlic crisps.

The main course is a choice between roasted sea bass topped with carrot and orange puree, pickled fennel and saffron yogurt or a tea-smoked lamb rack with roasted miso eggplant, caramelized pumpkin, lotus chips and wasabi.

Finally, the MasterChef will prepare a chocolate truffle with strawberry custard cream and houjicha meringue.

The Japanese influences in Liaw’s cooking come from his time in Tokyo, where he worked in media law for Disney before auditioning for the Australian TV show. Liaw used to enjoy cooking after a hectic day at the office, but had to adapt the Malaysian, Chinese and Australian styles he cooked back home to the available resources — no ovens, and a host of unfamiliar ingredients.

Experimenting with Japanese cuisine inspired the simplicity in Liaw’s cooking style. “All of the processes that go into cooking are incredibly easy,” he said. “Anyone can put something into a pan, heat it up, turn it over. Where the great chefs get the respect they deserve is putting all of those really easy things together to create something that not many people can.”

The authenticity and feeling in Liaw’s cooking comes from hours spent in his grandmother’s kitchen in Adelaide, watching her prepare Chinese-Malaysian recipes she carried with her to Australia.

“All of my memories in my grandma’s kitchen are me watching her cook, asking her questions and then having her yell at me,” he said. “I’ll say, ‘Grandma, what are you putting in there?’ and she says ‘It’s just soy sauce! Why don’t you know that?’ I love my grandma, she’s 85 and she’s still a great cook.”

Liaw has detailed his influences and creations in his first cookbook, titled “Two Asian Kitchens.” The first half of the book explores the “old” Asian kitchen, while the second half brings readers into Liaw’s “new” kitchen, where he ties together the threads of his family history to create original, authentic dishes.