Since winning Masterchef in 2022, Sam Low has been figuring out what's important to him as a chef in the New Zealand media.
In his new recipe book Modern Chinese, he honours both his cultural heritage and the "love language" of his parents' cooking.
New Zealand chef Sam Low Photo: Vanessa Wu
"It kind of felt a little bit like therapy, exploring my childhood and understanding what my parents have been feeding us – their language of love. Me being able to translate that and put it out into the world is allowing my cultural background to be highlighted and celebrated and passed on," he tells Kathryn Ryan.
Low was born in Fiji, where his parents owned a noodle factory. The family moved to west Auckland when he was eight, where his parents ran a dairy and later a takeaway outlet.
As a child growing up in largely Pasifika communities, he was not aware there was any "hierarchy" when it came to food – "all food was beautiful and all food was important".
As he became older, though, exploring the vast cuisine of "diaspora Chinese" has given Low a sense of purpose.
It's "quite wild", he says, that even though Chinese people have been in Aotearoa since the 1840s, only a handful of Chinese cookbooks have ever been published in New Zealand.
Modern Chinese by Sam Low Photo: Supplied
As the first Chinese cookbook produced by a New Zealand publisher in the last decade, Modern Chinese represents a "cultural monument" to Low.
Although it includes recipes with a range of regional flavours – including Northern Chinese and Szechuanese – he says the book's heart is "anchored" in the Cantonese dishes his parents cooked for the family.
Rice and broth with proteins and veges in the middle of the table is the traditional Cantonese way of eating, Low says, and he reckons most Kiwi kitchens will already have the basic ingredients required for this way of cooking – salt, sugar, white pepper, soy sauce and vinegar.
The recipes in Modern Chinese are created to be as accessible as possible so even Low's friends "who can't cook to save their lives" can have a go.
Although some recipes may require a quick trip to an Asian grocery store, all speciality ingredients are optional and no fancy equipment is required.
"If you have access to The Warehouse, K-Mart and a Western supermarket you can cook almost everything from this book."
Modern Chinese also features a range of sauces and condiments that make great gifts, Low says.
Three recipes for chilli oil appear, and the most basic one takes only 10 minutes.
"That's literally hot oil poured over red chilli flakes and then you've got this wonderful base that you can build off."
Three recipes from Modern Chinese:
Juicy Prawn Toast - a recipe by Sam Low from his cookbook Modern Chinese Photo: Melanie Jenkins / Flash Studios
What's not to love about prawn toast? This crunchy, juicy and incredibly easy yum cha classic is flavourful enough to wow any foodie. The main ingredients are leftover bread and frozen prawns so it makes an excellent snack (ready in under 15 minutes!), or rustle some up when guests pop over and you want to impress.
Every region in China will tend to have their own version of this dish; however, the one I constantly crave is the garlicky spicy kind. The simple mix of soy sauce, chilli oil and raw garlic is such a classic central Chinese flavour that has grown to be very popular in the West too. This salad is a perfect palate refresher for the table and is packed with flavour, with salivating qualities to make you go back for more until it's all gone.
Spicy Cucumber Salad - a recipe by Sam Low from his cookbook Modern Chinese Photo: Melanie Jenkins / Flash Studios
Growing up in and around my parents' Chinese takeaway shop, black bean beef stir-fries have always been a constant on the menu. For me a great black bean beef is made with tender, juicy beef, minimal vegetables and a touch of chilli amping it to another level. Here's my rendition of this takeaway classic.
Spicy Black Bean Beef - a recipe by Sam Low from his cookbook Modern Chinese Photo: Melanie Jenkins / Flash Studios
