Tony Tan's Asian Cooking Class

Observer Top 10 Cookbooks 2024

‘You’ll always leave Tony’s classroom full – both of dim sum and a new perspective on Asian cooking. In this book, he’s sharing his lifetime of expertise and experience with the world. Let Tony be your teacher.’ Yotam Ottolenghi

‘Tony Tan is an Australian National Treasure.’
Helen Goh

‘An irresistible journey … where global spices and stories collide in some of the world’s most scintillating flavours.’
Fuchsia Dunlop

‘Tony Tan isn’t an authority on Asian food in Australia – he’s the authority on Asian food in Australia.‘ Pat Nourse

Tony Tan has been cooking, eating, teaching and writing about the foods of Asia for more than four decades. In Tony Tan’s Asian Cooking Class, he shares for the first time more than 150 of his most cooked, beloved and personal recipes from his vast collection. A book for beginners and connoisseurs alike, Tan teaches his contemporary, sometimes adventurous approach to the most important inspirational and evergreen dishes from Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and beyond. From wok sensations to more elaborate dishes, street foods and original creations, Tan’s warmth, erudition and rigour set his food apart. He moves seamlessly between traditionally distinct cuisines, contextualising them for the home cook.

This stunning hardback, which features patterned sprayed edges and elegant, stylish photography, is enhanced with insight on subjects from the wonder of the wok, to the art of cooking with duck and the essential pantry, this book is a joyful celebration of modern Asian cooking.

‘Just when you think you know something about the food of the world, along comes Tony Tan to school you on the subtleties of adding pandan to rice, the ingenuity of Peranakan Nyonya cooks, mastering the complexity of a superior stock, and the joy of properly pinching a potsticker dumpling. This book welcomes you into Tony’s spiritual home, where you can rest and be thankful for what he is about to serve, because each dish represents a lifetime of knowledge. The recipe for his mother’s see yauh sai chan roast chicken is worth the price of admission alone.‘
Shane Mitchell, Saveur editor at large

Author Biography

Tony Tan describes his earliest, formative food education as an explosion of flavours and ideas akin to a culinary tsunami. Growing up in Kuantan, on the east coast of Malaysia, the son of Hainanese immigrants – a father who ran a rest house and a mother who was an accomplished, endlessly curious cook – he was blessed with an open mind, attentive parents and a dynamic ever-evolving diaspora around him. His Malay neighbours taught him to cook beef rendang, his Peranakan neighbours gave him an appreciation of chicken cooked with buah keluak, and his Indian-Tamil friends showed him how to eat rotis and chapatis. Across multiple subsequent decades in Australia, the UK and France, through studies of history, language and food, his own restaurants, cooking schools, and food tours, Tan has continued a journey of learning and discovery that endears him to all who know him – and never ends. He lives in the central Victorian town of Trentham, where he runs legendary cooking classes and inspires the next generation of cooks.