Society

Simple art of cooking woos top Aussie chef

By Stuart Beaton (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-07 10:17

When it comes to foreign dishes, Neil Perry, one of Australia's most influential chefs, is all for Chinese cuisine.

"I love how the Chinese play textures off each other, and I love how they get intensities of flavor," says Perry on a recent trip to the Shanghai Expo.

Neil Perry, one of Australia's most influential chefs, is a great proponent of authentic Chinese cuisine. [Photo/China Daily]

"They really are the masters of creating different textures from the same product. So, as a chef, that really fascinates me."

Perry is best known for his Rockpool group of restaurants, and his in-flight menus for the Australian airline Qantas.

His introduction to Chinese food came when he was very young. In the 1960s and early 70s, his father befriended the owners of The Shanghai Village restaurant in Sydney and they were often guests in the Perry home.

"They used to cook for us, and we'd eat red braised pork shoulder, really fantastic chili mud crab, and steamed egg plant - the sort of stuff that people weren't eating in Australia back then."

Perry then started experimenting with Chinese food himself.

"Then I read everything that I possibly could, and cooked as much as I could with Chinese techniques. It's something that has come to me through reading, watching and looking at guys with woks, eating in restaurants."

The vast array of flavors and textures he discovered in Chinese food quickly captivated him.

"There's an incredible difference between regional food in China, which is wonderful. Many regions share some dishes. You see them throughout the country in various guises, but certain dishes are just unique to that region and they're quite exciting."

Perry's passion for chili makes Sichuan and Hunan provinces his favorite regions, as both are steeped in the fiery spice.

"I do love the whole idea of seasoning the way that Sichuan does it, with beautiful aged vinegars or black vinegars, sesame oil and chili oil, and the pickled and brine chilies together. They use them to create a myriad of different flavors, almost using the same ingredients, but everything manages to taste extremely different."

It's not just spicy dishes he loves, but other, simpler, dishes as well - classic dishes, like former leader Mao Zedong's favorite red braised pork made in his hometown of Hunan.

"To turn pork and fat into such an amazing delicacy, from such humble ingredients - I think that's wonderful."

Chinese cuisine is enjoying a new surge of popularity in Australia, with more people starting to experiment with it. When it comes to making Chinese food in a kitchen at home, Perry has one key piece of advice.

"My biggest tip is just not to be frightened of it, because most Chinese cooking is very simple."

In the coming year, Perry will open a new Spice Temple restaurant in Melbourne and a bar called The Waiting Room.

"From there, I'd like to think about maybe doing something in China, in 2012, something like that would be pretty exciting," he says.