After filming finished, Luke released a new cookbook Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong, shortly before opening the doors to his first Brisbane restaurant, Fat Noodle, at Treasury Casino. Taking time out of his busy schedule, Luke chatted about his weekend rituals with The Weekend Edition.

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1. Luke Nguyen’s Fat Noodle opens in Brisbane City The latest restaurant from celebrity chef Luke Nguyen has opened at the Treasury Casino and Hotel in the city, just in time for last-minute work Christmas lunches and late-night feasts.
2. Luke Nguyen's Fat Noodle Restaurant - Treasury Casino, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. 57 likes 754 were here.

There are people who have money and people who are rich ...

While the celebrity chef has become something of a cult, there are some chefs in the public eye who remain humble servants to their trade. Inspired to follow in the footsteps of his parents, who immigrated from Vietnam to Australia and earned a living by running a restaurant in Sydney’s Cabramatta, Luke Nguyen opened his first Vietnamese restaurant, Red Lantern, in Sydney in 2002. Known for his authentic fare created from family recipes, Luke is now at the helm of a number of restaurants, has authored several cookbooks and also lends his talents to television cooking shows. His most recent television series travelled throughout Asia to discover the cuisine of communities nestled along the Mekong River. After filming finished, Luke released a new cookbook Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong, shortly before opening the doors to his first Brisbane restaurant, Fat Noodle, at Treasury Casino. Taking time out of his busy schedule, Luke chatted about his weekend rituals with The Weekend Edition.

How do you like to start your weekend?
My weekend starts with me buying the weekend newspaper and spending a few hours reading it. It relaxes me and makes me feel like I have a normal lifestyle – like having the weekends off, which I never do!

What’s your favourite thing to do on a Saturday morning?
After reading the paper, my partner and I head to the Saturday farmers markets. I love the fresh produce and just chatting to the growers themselves, they are always full of great knowledge and are so very lovely.

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How do you like to unwind?
With a glass of wine, a bowl of noodles, dumplings and folk music.

What are your essentials for a well-spent weekend?
A long drive, live music, good food, wine, film, friends and a quiet cottage.

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What’s something you’ve been meaning to do on the weekend but haven’t got around to yet?
I’ve been meaning to go to Tasmania for some time now, but I haven’t managed to get there (I’ve promised myself I will go in 2013). I have heard that the restaurants, produce, landscape, art galleries and people are awesome.

What’s your favourite thing to do on a Sunday evening?
On Sundays I like to cook dinner with Suzanna at home. We usually cook vegetarian dishes, drink a bottle of Austrian riesling and watch SBS.

What are you looking forward to next weekend?
I am currently in Ho Chi Minh City filming MasterChef Vietnam, so there are no weekends here – it’s intense 15-hour shoot days.

What are you reading at the moment?
I am reading Ant Egg Soup: The Adventures of a Food Tourist in Laos by Natacha Du Pont De Bie. The book is about Natacha’s travels in Laos – the exotic, unspoilt and largely undiscovered neighbour of Thailand and Vietnam. Like me, she’ll trek for hours or even days in search of a good meal.

What inspires you?
Travel and street food inspires me.

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What was your childhood dream?
To one day open my own Vietnamese restaurant.

What has been your greatest achievement?
Opening Red Lantern at 23 years old.

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What is success to you?
I believe that you are successful when you are truly happy within yourself. The most successful people I have met live in mud shacks in the mountains of Vietnam. They tend their cascading rice fields, eat mostly organic vegetables and have very little money but, when you see their smiles, you can see that they are successful in life. They are content and very happy with what they have.

What are your words of wisdom?
There are people who have money and people who are rich.

Only a local would know that … The best noodles in town are at Fat Noodle.

FAVOURITE WEEKEND SPOT TO:
Perk up … An hour-long run in the park
Relax … At a good cafe in Paddington
Dine … At authentic Vietnamese restaurants in Inala
Indulge …Saké in the city for fresh uni (sea urchin) matched with a fine sake
Shop … Fortitude Valley
Catch-up… Bucci, Fortitude Valley
Be inspired …GOMA, South Bank

Luke Nguyen, executive chef of Fat Noodle, shares the food lessons he learnt from his childhood.

Joyfully referring to himself as a ‘boat person’, celebrity chef Luke Nguyen distinctly remembers a childhood centred around fresh produce and flavoursome food. Born in Vietnam, Luke’s parents emigrated to Australia when he was only one year old – so he has no memory of life in Vietnam. Growing up in Cabramatta in Sydney’s south-west and working at his parents’ Vietnamese restaurant from the age of six, however, meant his education in Vietnamese cuisine and culture was firmly established from the get-go.

“I grew up in a very traditional, strict Vietnamese family,” says Luke, who is executive chef of Fat Noodle at The Star Sydney and Treasury Brisbane. “This meant eating very well, going to the produce markets every morning and learning how to cook.”

As a six-year-old, tending to the giant pho stock pot each day was Luke’s first introduction to working in a restaurant kitchen. “Growing up in a migrant family, my parents worked really hard and so the children had to help out,” he says. “That’s where I learned to cook. And that’s where the passion and the dream of opening my own restaurant came about.”

Although most days were spent in the kitchen of the family restaurant, Luke remembers Sunday lunches were a sacred time for the family to hit pause and enjoy a meal together. “We did breakfast, lunch and dinner at the restaurant,” says Luke. “So, the weekends were always great, especially Sunday. I think the gatherings were very much about, not just eating, but it was about communicating and it was about spending time with the family.”

Being the son of two excellent cooks meant that much of the family bonding centred around food. “We would communicate through food,” Luke says, “that was our language that we would speak.” Luke’s dad was known as the King of slow cooking, slaving over a large crock pot for hours to create flavourful broths. The quick stir fries, light salads and fresh rice paper rolls – synonymous with Vietnamese cooking – were Luke’s mother’s domain.

“I think when you grow up in Vietnam, food is a massive part of your upbringing and it’s a major part of your culture as well. So, it was ingrained in my parents as children. Both sides of the family specialised in the wholesale fruit and vegetable business.”

Sunday lunch at Luke’s house meant an abundance of fresh produce – fresh seafood, bean sprouts, choy sum, okra, bok choy and fresh herbs. “I remember as a kid, our table was sometimes not big enough. So, we would just sit on the floor – and I’m sure a lot of Vietnamese families can relate to this.” A hot pot would be the centrepiece, with lots of noodles and dipping sauces scattered around the large table or picnic mat (if the food couldn’t all fit inside).

Luke’s mum’s tamarind-based soup (canh chua) holds a special place in his heart – and is still something only his mum can get right. “Sometimes she would cook it in a big pot, but sometimes we would cook it together, like a hot pot, which was great,” says Luke. “I think this dish essentially describes what Vietnamese cuisine is all about. It’s really light, the balance of flavours is fantastic. It’s got the tamarind, which has a tart sourness to it. It has fish sauce, which gives that salty element and umami flavour; it has pineapple, which gives it that nice sweetness as well, and it’s got tomatoes, okra, loads of fresh herbs and vegetables.”

Although his mum’s soup is a solid favourite, pho was the first dish that Luke learnt how to cook as a six-year-old, perched on a milk crate in his family’s restaurant. “I was forced to wash the bones – and I say forced because I didn’t like doing it. When the bones came in, and we’re talking 20kg or 30kg of bones, I had to scrub them clean with a brush. Because if you don’t clean the bones well, the broth, the soup itself is going to be quite murky.”

After cleaning the bones Luke would dry roast the spices, char grill onions and ginger and feel and chop everything before throwing it into the giant pot. “I would stack the milk crates up and start tending to the stock – sometimes I say cradling because it’s like looking after a baby. You really need to skim all the impurities off and make sure that it doesn’t over boil.”

“Then eight to 10 hours later, you’ve got this beautiful broth that you would add your soft rice noodles to and your slow-cooked brisket that you cooked into the broth as well. And it’s such a delightful dish to eat. I used to have pho for breakfast, lunch or dinner,” says Luke.