“In Vietnam, this dish is cooked at the table in a small frying pan over a charcoal grill. If you have a tabletop gas cooker, you can prepare this dish in a similar fashion. Cook the fish in smaller quantities and assemble the vermicelli salad at the table.” - Chef Mark Jensen

“I am a big fan of lemon-cured dishes. It all started with Bò Tái Chanh (lemon cured sirloin) - a dish I grew up with. Lemon curing is such a simple and clean way of cooking and the results are amazing. The citrus, when combined with mint, makes the dish refreshing, clean and crisp. At Red Lantern we only serve this kingfish recipe as a ‘special’ - and the guests love it.

When I was invited to cook for the Australian ambassador at a charity dinner for the Asian Society in Manila, I went a littler further and added a lemon cured scallop dish to the menu - it was a winner.” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“Luke Nguyen's Vietnamese fish cakes make perfect appetisers just as they are, or for a more substantial bite, wrap them in lettuce leaves with vermicelli noodles and herbs and serve with nuoc cham. The kids will love them too because they're not spicy, but you could always add a little chilli to the mixture for an extra kick.” - SBS Food

“This classic Vietnamese dipping sauce, Nuoc Mắm Chấm (or sometimes just called và Nước Chấm), is a balance of salty (from fish sauce), chilli and sweet. Serve it with fried street snacks, fresh rice paper rolls or use as a dressing over salads.” - SBS Food

“Ha Long Bay is famous for its mussels. They are plump, juicy and really sweet. When you buy delicious mussels like these, make sure to never overcook them. After they begin to open their shells, you need only another minute and they are done: take them out of the wok and enjoy straight away.” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“Cousin Khanh had worked as a chef in a Vietnamese restaurant for many years, when he realised how many similarities there were between Vietnamese and French cooking. Keen to extend his French cooking skills, he now works as an apprentice in a French kitchen. This is his recipe. as is typical for Vietnamese sweets, he steams the brûlée rather than cooking it in an oven.” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“I learnt this recipe from a lady who also taught me how to make my own tofu. Her name is Mrs Ha, and she and her family have been making fresh tofu in Quy Nhon for five generations. Eating freshly made tofu is so different to eating tofu that has been packaged and sitting in a refrigerator for a week. If you ever get the chance to purchase freshly made tofu, please do so!” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“I believe the ultimate respect we can show an animal raised for the dinner table is to ensure we consume everything from head to tail. Beef cheeks are very tough because of all the work they do, but when cooked slowly the meat practically dissolves on your tongue.” - Chef Mark Jensen

“Here’s a dish that originated in south China’s Jiangxi Province and one that has become incredibly popular in Malaysia. It’s served as ‘confinement food’, fed to women in the weeks before and after they have given birth, to build up their strength and help them properly recuperate. In Malaysia, as in China, there’s an entire repertoire of these confinement dishes and even today, serving them to expectant and new mothers is taken very seriously. This dish is called ‘three cup chicken’ because, originally, cooks used a cup each of soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil in the dish. Traditionally it is cooked in a clay pot and this definitely adds another flavour dimension to the chicken. Even though the clay pots look rather fragile, you can actually put them over a naked flame; the trick is, you need to give them a long, overnight soaking in cold water before you first use a new one, otherwise it will most likely crack. Once soaked though, your clay pot will last for years.” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“This is another dish that grabs my attention at Amphawa Floating Market, where I smell the wonderful aroma long before I see it being cooked. I always try to eat this when I’m in Thailand – it’s a classic stir-fry that’s also made using pork and is generally not hard to find. The star ingredient is holy basil which is very different in character to sweeter Thai basil; spicy, a little sharp, peppery and zesty, it has distinctive anise-like overtones. It’s always used in cooked dishes, unlike Thai basil which can be used raw in salads. Holy basil is just too strong. The leaf has little jagged edges and the stems are a bit purplish and you’ll find it in Thai or other general Asian food stores in the fresh produce section. Using a mortar and pestle to grind up the ingredients, rather than a food processor, is important as this properly releases all the oils and juices from the chillies, garlic and shallots, and gives the finished dish a real depth of flavour. ” - Chef Luke Nguyen

“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