Twitter Takeaway

Thursday 12 March 2009

Tony Tan Unlimited

What can I say… Tony Tan has so grown on me that I look forward to every cooking class that I have with him. So far, I have taken two classes with my sister at Tony Tan: the Asian Fusion and the Spices Workshops.

The Asian Fusion class was more like a dinner party where Tony demonstrated the recipes, we watched, made notes and drank wine.. lots and lots of Brown Brothers wine. No we didn’t get drunk but some of the other crew got loud. Getting drunk at these events is really not recommended as it really makes the guest chefs angry as they feel it’s disrespectful. So pace.

The Spices Workshop was an intense 5 hour hands-on workshop where you basically accept the role of assistant or sous chefs for Tony: grinding, chopping, mixing spices. We also learned to de-bone our own spatchcocks / baby chicken with success. Although you kind of felt that you were thrown in the deep end in the beginning with that one… He does it in maybe 5 to 10 minutes. We did it at best in 20.


We also learned how to tie our apron the professional way – straps in the front so that you can fold a tea towel through it for easy access. We worked a lot with knifes in the class and was told the right way of carrying it to minimise accidents is to carry the knife flat against your thigh. Always say “Behind” when you’re walking around in the kitchen. In Asia, we call out “boiling water” in Chinese.

Tony is an endearing character, full of anecdotes and cooking know-how. He told us great chefs must have both technique and passion for food… He felt that some of the great chefs in Melbourne have the technique but not necessary the passion or the pure understanding of food…

Oh yes the food that we made, it was very delicious and unbelievable as I never thought I could cook like that… It’s all in the technique and recipe. The spark… I believe that it does come from the passion for food…


Tony Tan’s Unlimited Cooking School
(03) 9827 7347

*2009 schedule out now!

4 comments:

Delphie said...

Where are you? Have you 'retired' from the blog again?

Kazmic said...

Hi Delphin. Between starting businesses, full-time work, travelling and house hunting, time has been limited for blogging. So far, I've only managed twittering. If you're interested, you can follow my tweets @kazmic. Soon I hope I will have time to post!

Anonymous said...

Glad you had a positive experience, l found him to be very unprofessional. To be honest what you do in the hands on workshops that he thinks is amazing food is very average food that I would be very disappointed to eat at a restaurant.

Kazmic said...

I understand where you're both coming from actually. I can see him do that. But I really liked the fact that he uses layers of spices, different way of cooking and I learned how to debone a spatchcock - which was very exciting! I must say he was very constructive but at times a Queen at our hands-on session. :)