About Me
Welcome to my kitchen.
The view from a kitchen chair is the earliest memory I have of food. My mother would pull over a chair from the kitchen table for me to stand on so I could help her with whatever cooking task she was undertaking. Rolling out dough, making dumplings, baking cakes and biscuits… whatever it was I always had my hand in somehow. Always watching without even being aware of it, I was learning the basics of my mother’s cooking repertoire. The classics from her father, the everyday basics to feed the family, the celebratory luxury meals and the odd creations that she called her own.
When my grandfather would come to stay it was as if several other old Chinese granddad’s had arrived. Food would be created and devoured at speed, steamers billowed, meat chopped, dumplings shaped, cleavers clashed together in the sound of pure kitchen delight. I don’t remember much of my grandfather but I think I remember almost ever piece of food I ever ate of his. The different tastes, the textures, how it appeared at the table, the perfectly cooked rice, and then the pedantic manner with which he washed up after. I would wonder for weeks after why my mother’s cooking tasted different, or my aunt or uncle’s for that matter. Why was it once I was back home that those same dishes tasted just that little bit different when cooked by some one else. As I cooked more I realised it the evolution of the cook themselves that alters the taste.
The wonder of this has never left me and quite simply is one of life’s mysteries that make me smile. The ingredients of a dish are no more than a list but it is the cook themselves that gives it life.
This website is all about the relationships that food plays in people’s lives.
The ideas that we share the little tastes and the long lunches, the experiences that are relayed about a kitchen table, the love and love lost the sad times and the festive. Food plays a role in them all to soothe, excite and even to delay whatever may be coming.
Asian food is the ultimate of this experience. No one else does it quite the same and with as much zeal as the Asians. Eating is a bringing together of all to commune with the food. The basic experience of eating is all about sharing with communal dishes playing an important part in the way that eating is experienced and considered. Any eating experience is tempered with a level of understanding that the eating itself is of the greatest importance, bringing together family or friends to join in a moment together to share and converse. The sole diner is a lonely eater and with no one to discuss the delicious tastes and textures of a dish, they are partially missing out on the experience of eating.
This website and my book hopefully will reignite your love for cooking and eating. You can’t have one without the other and as a cook you should be able to relish your creations with the same gusto as your diners. Cooking can be a simple affair or an elaborate master piece but either way it should be an enjoyable experience for you.
Happy eating and enjoy the process-it what makes the dish.
Michal