Stephannie Liu and the joy of cooking without labels
Chef Stephannie Liu on the set of The Cook Up With Adam Liaw Credit: Jiwon Kim
The Cook Up with Adam Liaw 'Food has always been important in my family. It's always been something that brought us together, regardless of how we were feeling, sad, happy, and all the emotions in between,' says chef Stephannie Liu. Liu, who started her culinary career in Sydney and has since worked across several continents, grew up in a Chinese-Fijian family that loved celebrating around a feast. Everybody would pitch in, and said feast might include a Chinese noodle dish, an and a vegetarian lasagna, illustrating the diversity of Fiji and Australia. 'We were boundaryless in our cooking, which I think is what Australian cooking is now, there are no boundaries. And I felt very free,' she reflects. She remembers fondly her grandpa's braised oxtail soup with lots of Chinese medicinal herbs, ginger, star anise and goji berries. 'That's a very nostalgic dish that I love to cook, and anytime I cook it, wherever I am in the world, it really connects me to my family,' she says. Another enduring influence is her mother's ginger shallot steamed fish, a dish that's appeared on many of Liu's menus and which she shares in an upcoming episode of The Cook Up with Adam Liaw .
Liu's cooking philosophy, wherever she's based, is guided by seasonal produce. 'The only restraints I've put on myself in cooking are to work with the seasons and to work with producers and farmers that care about what they do,' she explains. 'I just felt that coming from Australia, there weren't rules that I had to play by, which meant that the food I cook is also influenced by the people around me, the diversity.' 'I don't want to call it fusion cooking because it is thoughtful. I'm not just trying to throw a yuzu on something,' she says, laughing. 'It is flavours I understand and love. These things grow together, grow at the same time. It just makes sense to me.'
Liu gravitates toward working with women, and she credits Sabine Spindler, Trisha Greentree and Camille Fourmont among her key inspirations . Head chef at until last year, Liu has returned to Sydney as global culinary director for . Working with , she now helps shape the food offering at 18 venues across Sydney, London, Japan and Seoul. Their shared mission is to honour the legacy of and celebrate Australian cuisine globally. "Our cuisine is based on immigration, and I think that's such an important thing that we need to acknowledge and celebrate," she says. Her connection to Granger runs deep. Liu cold-emailed the chef and landed a work experience placement with him as a teenager. 'I'm a very stubborn person. I knew what I wanted to do, and I was already making moves to make it happen as a career. And I haven't really wavered,' she explains. She spent three days in the kitchen at Bills Woollhara, and two days in the office with Granger himself, learning to master his now-iconic ricotta hotcakes and corn fritters. 'It was a very intimate one-on-one cooking experience that would never happen in restaurants these days. Nobody feels like they have time. But you know what, maybe it would have happened with Bill because he was a very thoughtful person,' she says.
In the past decade or so, Liu has cooked in Sydney, New York, Copenhagen, Paris and Melbourne. So, where does she love eating the most? There's Bangkok, for the spicy, fragrant, sensory experience. Paris, for the bustling bistros, the accessible prix fixe menus and the importance given to a proper lunch. Copenhagen, for the extreme of the seasons, the simplicity and the connection between what goes on your plate and what is grown, a stone's throw from the city. And Sydney, her hometown, for the diversity and nostalgia. And while she loves eating out – she still remembers vividly being welcomed to Chez Panisse by Alice Waters when she was 21, and eating a perfect Sunny Slope apricot for dessert – she's partial to a simple home-cooked meal. Think her brother-in-law's turbot with potatoes, asparagus and vin jaune butter sauce or one of her family dinners where they'd cook for 12, knowing the aunties and cousins would turn up.
Honestly, the best meals I've ever had are the ones with the people I love. And the food is just a bonus on top of that. For Liu, cooking is an act of love; a way to nourish, connect, and care. 'The reason why I became a chef is because when people cook for you, it's a way for them to show their love. Well, definitely my family. It's our love language.'
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