“For me, pan-seared prawns with lemongrass and chilli is comfort food. So simple to prepare and really quick to cook, this is a great dish to make every week, any day of the week. Serve with a cold beer!” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“Slow-braising beef ribs with cassia bark, star anise, cloves and Sichuan peppercorns makes a perfect winter meal. A simple dish that will have your guests asking, ‘Wow, how did you get the meat to fall off the bone like that?” - Chef Luke Nguyen

"This warming hotpot of mushrooms and winter vegetables is a perfect comforting dinner to come home to on a cold winter's night." - SBS Food

“Asparagus was introduced to Vietnam by the French when they colonised Vietnam in the late 1800s. It is now used in many dishes throughout the country. If you want to keep this dish completely vegetarian, use light soy sauce or tamari instead of oyster sauce and fish sauce.” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“This recipe belongs to Hai, a young gentleman who showed me how to speak ‘duck’. Hai raises 200 ducks and has to feed them five times a day. When it is feeding time, he simply calls out ‘here kiddy kiddy kiddy, arrgh, arrgh, arrgh’, then they all appear from the surrounding rice paddy fields for their feed. Quite incredible to watch. Here is his delicious pork recipe.” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“Like Laos and Vietnam, Cambodia was colonised by the French. Many French buildings still stand tall today and the food has strong French influences. In the late afternoon, street-food stalls appear, chargrilling these beef skewers, served in a warm, crisp baguette with pickled vegetables. Chef Sakal introduced me to this local favourite. His whole family were killed during the Khmer Rouge regime, but Sakal luckily fled to France, where he learnt the culinary arts from the age of sixteen. He says this dish resembles himself: French on the outside, but a true Cambodian inside. You’ll only need half the pickled vegetables on the baguettes, so use the remainder as an accompaniment to other Cambodian meals.” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“While the local ladies at the Luong Son fish market try Luke's calamari dish, he awaits nervously for their reaction (as they're all fantastic cooks) but they're delighted with the dish.”

Oyster mushrooms are so versatile. They are named for their caps, which can fan out to 25 cm and are the shape of an oyster. These mushrooms have a sweet anise aroma and are wonderfully textured. If you want to keep this dish vegetarian, simply use soy or tamari sauce instead of oyster sauce.

“I cooked this dish in the garden of one of Hoi An's most beautiful restaurants, called Brother's Cafe. Built by the French in the early 1900s, it has the most spectacular landscaped garden along the river. Be sure to get a table outside in the evening to enjoy the view. The chefs there were easily able to source fresh young coconuts for me, but if you have to use tinned young coconut juice, omit the sugar in the recipe as tinned coconut juice contains added sugar.” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“Most people prefer the sweet, clean flavour of either wild caught or farmed saltwater barramundi. I tend to prefer the subtle earthiness of freshwater barramundi. These are farmed in a contained aquaculture system, which causes less harm to the environment.” - Chef Mark Jensen

Luke Nguyen shares a childhood favourite that is easy to whip up and make sure you have your baguette ready to dunk.

“This is such a delicate dish. It is the pork fat that gives the thit kho its subtle richness. If you prefer to leave out the fat, omit the pork leg and replace with more pork neck.

The length of time given in this recipe should be sufficient for a “melt in the mouth” result. It is always good practice, however, to continually check for taste and tenderness and adjust the cooking time accordingly.” - Chef Mark Jensen

“Pork skewers packed with flavour, meet a light and fresh noodle salad in this street food-inspired dish.”

“A part of Bangkok I really love is the small sliver of a neighbourhood between the busy Siam and Victory Monument shopping areas in Phetchaburi called Phaya Thai. It’s a small residential area where you get a very real sense of how people in Bangkok actually live, away from all the glitzy malls and busy tourist centres. I like a street called Soi 5, where I reckon you get some of the best street food in the city. One dish I particularly like is chargrilled squid and herb salad. Typically when I arrive in town, I stumble off the MRT stop right near Soi 5 and make a beeline for it. For me, it represents everything that I love about Thai cooking. There are women around here, selling this salad, with the assorted ingredients all prepared, ready to mix to order and be eaten. The grilled squid in this dish is light, textural and smoky, tossed with fresh lemongrass and bound in a sweet and spicy dressing. The salty/sour/spicy/sweet notes are in perfect balance.” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“Eggplant is possibly my favourite fruit/vegetable. If it's on the menu I order it. This is a fresh and lively tasting recipe. There is so much going on with every bite - sweet, savoury with a good hint of lime and chilli.” - Chef Mark Jensen

“Mum used to cook this dish at Pho Cay Du. I remember getting excited every time a customer ordered it - it was the most expensive dish on the menu. Mum would send me across to the fresh fish markets to look for the biggest and freshest jumbo king prawn or scampi that I could find.

I always thought to myself, why don’t they just keep a few in the fridge in case we get an order? Sometimes the customer was left waiting for over 20 minutes while I scoured the streets. As I learned later on, the customer never minded waiting as the prawns were so fresh and the flavours so good. The aroma of the sauteed prawns with the tomato has been implanted in my memory. Every time we cook this dish at Red Lantern, I think of the times at Pho Cay Du.” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“Using cooked crab in this recipe keeps the cooking time to a minimum — simply toss with the tamarind, honey and other ingredients to warm through. This dish would be perfect served with a cold beer on a hot day.” – Chef Luke Nguyen

“If you like fish cakes, Quy Nhon is the place to visit. Nowhere else in Vietnam has as many artisans specialising in fish cakes. There are hundreds of varieties to choose from. These fish cakes can be eaten on their own, tossed in salads, put in a crisp baguette or added to noodle soups.” – Chef Luke Nguyen

“This Vietnamese dish from Luke Nguyen is perfect served as a starter. A blend of ground ginger, white pepper, Chinese five-spice and fresh chilli makes these crispy pieces of squid seriously moreish.” - SBS Food