KUALA LUMPUR, June 7 — Since Adam Liaw won Masterchef Australia in 2010, the former lawyer is now a familiar face on the small screen with his Destination Flavour television series that covers Australia and Japan.

The next segment, which is yet to be aired, will focus on Scandinavia. He also has published three cookbooks: Two Asian Kitchens, Asian After Work, Adam’s Big Pot. Later this year, he will be releasing a new one, Adam Liaw’s Asian Cookery School.

Recently, Liaw was in Kuala Lumpur to launch the Little Red Food Truck by Mission Foods Malaysia.

According to Mission Foods Asia Brand Manager Randall Tan, they are bringing their wraps based on recipes from Adam Liaw to consumers via the food truck.

He also adds that the wraps have also been extremely localised to the local taste palates. In addition, Mission Foods Malaysia have also roped in renowned recipe consultant Rohani Jelani to ensure the food truck’s quality is maintained.

Here, Liaw talks about his work and what gets him excited about his cooking career.

In his own words:

  • I have spent time in a lot of different places and I try to not limit myself too much just doing one thing. I was born here (Malaysia) —— dad’s side of the family is Chinese and my mum’s side is English. I have lived in Australia and Japan for a long time, spent time in China and travelled around South-east Asia. If I try to limit myself to just one cuisine, it would almost be fake as I have so many things, so I do like to cook a lot of different styles of Asian food. It’s not trying to be fusion food or anything like that. It’s just what comes naturally.
  • I never find it really difficult to come out with recipes. I do a lot of recipes for my books, television series and newspaper columns. I probably come up with 400 to 500 different recipes a year.
  • Frankly, I am not really much into food trends. Personally, I prefer to eat a more balanced diet and that’s the best way to eat rather than cut certain things out and never eat that again. For me, food trends imply that there is food which is not trendy. Food is food.
  • I think most modern cookbooks try to teach you how not to cook — all those shortcuts and very tricky ways in doing things. It’s not what I do. My style of cooking is doing everything properly, which I think is the fastest and best way to doing everything — no shortcuts, no tricks. With my new cookbook, I tried asking myself how did I learn to cook. It’s more the tips around the cooking which I think is more important than the ingredients and the method. It’s the kind of things that if you’re learning how to cook with your grandmother or your mother. A lot of cookbooks tell you what to do but not why you do it. In my cookbook, it will have the stories you might hear like, if I am in the room cooking with you, or even the kind of things your grandmother or mother would want to tell you.
  • There is a really interesting philosophy coming out of Scandinavia, right now, and they call it the new Nordic cuisine. The way it’s quite often reported is it’s about eating seasonally, locally, sustainabilty, and organically, and that’s all true. But one of the things I feel that is really missing with the reporting of Nordic cuisine is how much it’s all about ingredients you choose, and try to really celebrate that ingredient. And it’s something that works very well with Asian food. The Scandinavian way of thinking is what if I take the potato and we make the tastiest thing with the potato. I really liked the way of thinking. I’m not taking Scandinavian ingredients and flavours to incorporate into Asian dishes, but it’s more about the principles. That is the way I approach all my food, rather than by nationality but by their principles, as they all work together.
  • Last year I went to Europe for my big tour. To be honest, the ones (countries) that are more famous for their food didn’t excite me much as much as the ones (countries) that are not. For example, Portuguese food excited me more than Spanish food, and Greek food excited me more than French food. The food in Portugal was so historical. The way that it was made and the way that people were excited about the food was also exciting to me. The Portuguese have also influenced everything — the vindaloo, Goa and even some dishes around Malaysia.
  • (About teaching his young son, Christopher) I just want to teach him how to appreciate good food as that’s far more important. A lot of people always think when their parents or grandparents grow old, I wish I had learnt how to make that dish. To me that is far less important. Once you have eaten that dish and grown up appreciating it, cooking it is a pretty easy step. For me, giving my son a good relationship with food on a eating level is far more important than teaching him how to cook.
  • For the last 3-4 years, I have become more organised as a cook. I think when you cook as a hobby, it’s all about going crazy and going wild and that is what I used to do when I was younger. I think the systematic and organised way can be really beautiful and almost Zen-like. Maybe it’s the influence of the Japanese food. There is a strong influence where it’s all about doing things the right way — and it’s not always about the result but it’s all about the process.
  • There is one restaurant that I love in Japan, called Torishiki in Meguro. The chef has such a great precision, the way that he does it and the timing that he does it. It’s a yakitori course like a sushi omakase. He always tries to time the next piece to come just at the point when you almost realise when you want a next piece of chicken. There’s a lot of different ways to time and appreciate a meal and he pays a lot of attention to that gap between eating.
  • Catch the Little Red Food Truck all around the Klang Valley starting from June 15, where they will be serving Adam Liaw’s recipes like Laksa Fried Chicken Wrap with Pineapple Salsa, Beef Bulgogi Kimchi Wrap, Coconut Prawn Wrap with Spicy Tamarind Mayonnaise, Lamb Shank Rendang with Sweet Radish Achar, and Roast Carrot Hummus with Avocado Wrap. Prices range from RM6.99 to RM7.99 (not inclusive of GST). Details are found on the Mission Foods Malaysia Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/missionfoodsmalaysia)