From News.com.au
CHEF and author Luke Nguyen is Australia’s most celebrated Vietnamese food expert.
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Chef Luke Nguyen. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied |
He’s also a judge and host on MasterChef Vietnam. He talked to taste.com.au .
Food was an integral part of my upbringing is it a huge part of my Vietnamese culture. Food was all we talked about, the centre of every conversation. Breakfast was always a steaming bowl of pho or congee.
I became a chef because the obsession of food was in my blood. I was working in restaurants as soon as I could walk.
The 10 ingredients I always have in my pantry are fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, dark soy, fermented bean curd, rice paper, vermicelli noodles, fried garlic, fried Asian shallots, dried chilli, chilli oil, sesame oil, fermented soy beans, chilli sauce, Chinese cooking wine, mirin. OK that’s more than 10, but you need more than just 10 ingredients in your pantry right?
I still love instant noodles – my guilty food secret – but mine take more than two minutes to make, as I trick it up with bean sprouts, Vietnamese mint, perilla leaf, egg, fresh chilli, fish sauce, hoisin sauce & tofu which turns it into ’10 minute noodles’.
My current food crush is French/Vietnamese cooking. The French Colonised Vietnam for almost 100 years, so I recently travelled through France searching for the strong French influence on Vietnamese cuisine. A great example of this is Pho & Pot Au Feu.
Vietnamese food is fresh, light, textural, delicate, well balanced and the most refined south east Asian cuisine.
The eating wisdom I’d like to share with the world is food is communication, food is culture.
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