How ‘hard, crazy’ mother set Sydney chef on road to culinary glory
Sneaker-loving Dan Hong, executive chef at Mr Wong and Ms G’s, has three passions - cooking, family and trainers. He talks about how his mother instilled in him an appreciation for home-cooked fare and old-fashioned hard work
What food do you remember from your childhood? “My mum always cooked Vietnamese food so I grew up eating pho. I would come home and smell the huge stockpot of broth, whether it was duck noodle soup or beef noodle soup, and I remember my mum chopping chicken bones with a big cleaver on the chopping board on the floor. This was before she opened restaurants.”
What was the first thing you cooked? “I remember cooking spaghetti bolognese for the family when I was about seven or eight years old. It came out good. Back then, spaghetti bolognese wasn’t [made from scratch with] tinned tomatoes and stuff, it was literally ready-made pasta sauce – cook the beef and the sauce was ready – and then having Kraft parmesan cheese in the shaker. That’s the spaghetti bolognese we were eating.”
Did your mother think you would make a good chef? “Whenever I’d open a restaurant, she’d come for dinner and be surprised at how good it was. She’d say, ‘That was actually pretty good,’ and I’d say, ‘Well, what did you expect?’ She says that pretty much every time. She’s funny. She’s still my hero. I go to her house every Monday night for dinner with my family, and it’s the highlight of my week. It’s different every week but always starts with roll-your-own rice-paper rolls, be it sugar cane prawns or lemongrass pork and beef wrapped in betel leaves. Then we finish with a main course like a noodle soup, or stir-fried pepper beef with rice, or Vietnamese goat curry.”
Do you like doing television shows? “I’ve done two. One of them was called Shelfie. People who follow me on Instagram send me photos of the insides of their pantry and fridge. Each week I would choose one, go to their house the following week, and cook something out of the ingredients from their fridge or pantry. I could only bring two ingredients with me.
[Working at Tetsuya’s] was very repetitive; every day was almost like Groundhog Day ... it was my first time working in such a big kitchen ... it wasn’t very inspiring, but I learned so much about Japanese cooking, perfection, fine dining
What was the craziest combination of ingredients you got for Shelfie? “The hardest was when one of the chefs was a gluten-free vegan, which I took up as a challenge. She uses stuff like yeast flakes. I made salt-and-pepper tofu, and used yeast flakes as a seasoning, like an umami salt, and it was really delicious. And I used products like liquid gluten-free seasoning, which is a soy sauce substitute. I discovered ingredients I never knew about.”
Where in the world do you like to eat? “I’m not a fine-dining person. One of my favourite restaurants in Hong Kong is Ronin. I love Japanese food, the vibe, whisky, food, it’s great. I’ve got a favourite restaurant in Singapore – Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck – that serves the best Peking duck in the world. It’s perfectly cooked, nicely seasoned and perfect every single time.”
“In Sydney, it has to be Ester. [Chef-owner] Mat Lindsay cooks everything on a wood-fired oven. It’s distinctly Australian, the style he cooks. It’s one of those restaurants you cannot find anywhere else in the world. He uses the best seafood and meat you can get in Australia, and treats it very simply.”
What do you do on your days off? “I love shopping for sneakers. I’ve been collecting them for almost 15 years. I wear them all. That’s my vice, other than cooking and family. I’ve got a hashtag on Instagram, #hongsneakers. Check it out.”
Dan Hong was in Hong Kong recently for a guest stint at Duddell’s, in Central.
