Tony Tan’s Asian Cooking Class

An Asian cookbook written with fresh eyes by an author whose soul lies in Asia but who has adopted techniques and ingredients from the west that endear his recipes to cooks everywhere.

Structured by food type - from meat, poultry and seafood to vegetables, and dumplings - Tony Tan’s Cooking Class takes readers through the fundamentals of more than 100 beloved dishes, many core to the canon, others dishes that he has made his own. Tan shares insights on the key building blocks, from the art of the wok to understanding the role of oils and fats to noodles 101 and the essential pantry. Beautifully photographed, thoughtfully illustrated and evocatively written, this is the essential book for a new generation on the essential foods and techniques of Asian cuisine from a beloved teacher, cook, writer and respected expert.

Tony Tan is a cook’s cook known for his mastery of technique, depth of knowledge, and generosity of spirit. He’s the expert chefs go to when they want to tweak a dish. Tony was born in Malaysia to a Chinese family who owned restaurants. In the 1970s he moved to Melbourne to study renaissance history and Chinese language (he’s a fluent Cantonese and Mandarin speaker, as well as Hainanese, Hakka, Hokkien, Spanish and French), but instead became involved in its food scene. He owned the restaurant Shakahari in Melbourne, then Tatler’s cafe in Sydney, before taking himself to Europe to cook in France and study and at Leiths in London. Back in Australia, he took food tours, appeared on TV, wrote for Gourmet Traveller, and opened a cooking school in Melbourne. He now lives in regional Victorian Trentham, where he runs intimate sold-out cooking classes, tends his vegetable patch, and plans regular trips to Melbourne to eat widely and connect with hospitality industry family.