A freewheeling conversation with Melody Mok, the founder of Curious Elephant which is a line of spicy and flavourful chilli sauces and dumplings
In May 2020, at the early peak of the pandemic, Melody Mok got a call to say she would be let go from her job with the postponed Dubai Expo.
“A lot of us were in the same situation, a lot of tears being shed. At the time there was no way of knowing if you’d get work anywhere else.”
Scrolling through LinkedIn in the days that followed, she came across a peanut butter business founded as a passion project by a couple from New Zealand who quit their corporate jobs to go for it. “That was a real ‘pinch me’ moment,” says Melody.
“I thought if they can do it with peanut butter, I can do something in Dubai with Asian sauces. I knew there was a gap in the market because we’ve got all these international brands but nothing that’s actually made in the UAE.”
An Aussie of Hong Kongese descent, Melody grew up eating across Sydney’s East Asian restaurants, including one particular Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall where she used to finish whole condiment jars of lemongrass chilli sauce with her bowls of pho. Overseas travels included visits to Balinese cafés and Malaysian hawker markets, which only deepened her love of those cultures’ varied spicy oils and sauces.
“I want chilli in my food,” she says. So, with her husband’s support, she developed her own line of condiments: a Vietnamese chilli sauce, a Chinese chilli oil, a Malaysian chilli sambal and an Indonesian tomato sambal with shrimp paste and lime. They drew the brand name from a trip to Tanzania in 2019 and an actual “curious elephant” who wandered into the campsite where they got engaged. “He was curiously shaking a tree at four in the morning and fruit was raining down around us.”
By the time Expo was up and running again, Melody was going so “full steam” with Curious Elephant that she declined the offer to return to her job. “This is the happiest I’ve ever been in my life and career.”
It was around this time that another idea struck, one that would take the brand beyond condiments. “The process of launching our gourmet pan-fried dumplings actually came to life when I was craving a quick but high-quality option at home,” she recalls. “I found a gap in the market for dumplings with no added preservatives, no fillers and no artificial flavourings, and it felt like a light-bulb moment. We thought, ‘We’ve got chilli oil, and it will pair perfectly with our dumplings.’”
Determined to create something new for customers in the UAE, she experimented with unique varieties, including a chicken and lemongrass dumpling inspired by Vietnamese flavours. “It launched exclusively with Spinneys and is one of the first of its kind here in the UAE,” she explains. The frozen range also made good business sense: “With condiments, people might only need a teaspoon at a time, but with dumplings, customers can enjoy them a few times a month.”
Having already collaborated with the likes of Pickl, the British Butcher Shop and beloved Japanese restaurant Maru Udon, Melody was thrilled to be selected for the Spinneys Local Business Incubator Programme. “I still vividly remember when Tom called me, I was standing at Rome Airport, about to board my flight to Dubai. I had been waiting for that call and thought maybe we didn’t get in. But when he told me the good news, I literally jumped up and down, crying tears of joy. That moment, going from cooking sauces in our apartment kitchen to being stocked in one of the UAE’s major retailers, was a dream come true.”
For Melody, the Spinneys Local Business Incubator Programme wasn’t only about shelf space but also the platform and mentorship it provided. “Spinneys really removed barriers into the retail space. It’s the guidance, the exposure, and the learning from a leading retailer that made such a difference for us. It aligns with our brand.”
And Curious Elephant shows no signs of slowing down. Melody describes the coming years as “busy and exciting,” with plans already in motion to take the brand beyond supermarket shelves. What began as a small batch of chilli oils in her home kitchen is now making its way into Dubai’s restaurant scene, as more chefs begin to use Curious Elephant products. With so many Asian restaurants in the city, Melody sees huge potential for the dumplings and condiments to become a staple on menus.
Her ambitions don’t stop there. Melody and her husband have started to look outward, with their eyes on Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as the first steps into the wider GCC, and then on to European markets. Alongside this expansion, Melody is also developing new everyday cooking lines. “We want people to see us as a go-to Asian food manufacturing brand in the GCC.”
For Melody, the journey from experimenting with chilli oil at home to dreaming about international expansion has been fast and, at times, overwhelming, but always rewarding.
