Category — Adam Liaw

In perfect timing for the start of the new series of Masterchef Australia, last year’s winner of the show, Adam Liaw’s cookbook has been launched.

As he pitched it in the show it is called Two Asian Kitchens, the book is easy Asian recipes to be cooked at home. It is published by Random House with a recommended retail price of $49.95, however it has been spotted in Big W for $29.95.

Season one winner Julie Goodwin had one of the highest selling cookbooks of 2010, and Random House will be hoping for a similar result with this one.

This year on Masterchef they should have a challenge where the contestant’s have to pick a recipe out of either Julie Goodwin’s or Adam’s book and cook it. Now that would be interesting to see which recipes would win. Also would be a wonderful piece of cross promotion.

The Australian food critic John Lethlean reviewed the book and gave it the thumbs up. Ironically John distances himself from the Masterchef Australia juggernaut, but he did appear to be quite happy to appear on the reality TV show Conviction Kitchen. Seriously don’t these restaurant critics realise that to improve their wage negotiations these days they have to show they HAVE been on a reality TV show. I think the only one holding the line is Terry Durack. But then we are yet to see the latest Masterchef season…..

Also Adam will be at Shearer’s Bookstore on Thursday 5 April at 7.15pm. Shearers is in 99 Norton St, Leichhardt and here is an interview with him on Booktopia.

Has anyone bought the book yet? What is it like?

Also here he talks about the book.

Still no news on when Adam Liaw winner of Season 2 of Masterchef Australia will be opening a restaurant. However he is currently learning the ropes in a real kitchen at the Flower Drum in Melbourne.

The Daily Telegraph writes he is spending a week there, and then he will spend some time in Tetsuya’s kitchen.

Hopefully this will give him his restaurant legs and we will see a rocking eating establishment open with him behind the pans in 2011.

Masterchef Australia winner Adam Liaw has apparently turned down offers for his own TV show according to TV WEEK magazine.

The articles states Adam is not in the fame game and that is why he rejected offers for his own TV show.

Busy working on his first cookbook, Two Asian Kitchens, Adam reveals his feet still haven’t hit the ground.

“I don’t have a base – I’m spending next month in a hotel in Sydney,” the 32 year old says. “It’s been crazy!”

In other Masterchef alumni news Claire Winton Burn looks like she is trying to get an endorsement from PETA with this article in the SMH about eating baby animals.

UPDATE: Adam Liaw will be cooking at a sustainability fair this weekend in Brisbane with Sharnee more details here.

How can we miss Masterchef if it really won’t go away?  Another week goes by and our season two contestants keep themselves in, at least, our peripheral vision.

Matt Preston alerted the Twitterverse to this story, about Callum’s dream of having his own show, asking whether people would watch it.  Would you?  I’d watch it once, and – to be honest – would be hoping for it to be more Julie Goodwin than Poh, as it would make for a more entertaining blog post!

I fear that Callum has no real understanding of the television world, even after his months of immersion.  ”It [hanging out with Poh] made me jealous because her job is so fun – it’s MasterChef without the pressure of being eliminated.” They might not call it “elimination”, but networks do have other ways of making unsuccessful shows disappear.

Adam Liaw has been busy blogging, and posted a fabulous piece about the chefs he met on the show.  I hope Claire is taking note of the comment about Shaun Presland: “Your food is defined by your passion, not your ethnicity.”  It’s a really fun post, with some interesting insights and genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

Aaron Harvie has taken to social media like a duck to water, and has been dropping hints of an upcoming project with Matthew Caldicott.  He was also spending time yesterday with “some of the MC boys”.

For those of you with pay TV, the real Masterchef is starting on Monday.  Some of you hardcore fans might have already found ways to see this series (I’m guessing it’s the one from earlier this year), but if you haven’t it is definitely worth checking out. It’s on Lifestyle Food at 7.30.

Finally, if you are still jonesing for a reality TV cooking fix, check out The Restaurant on BBC Knowledge, Thursdays at 7.30. You might be able to catch the opening episode again on repeat during the week – I watched it and was instantly hooked (shameless plug for my recap here).

Rumours are circulating up in the Byron Bay area that Masterchef Australia Season 2 winner Adam Liaw is getting married in the area later this year.

Adam who has a Japanese girlfriend of two years will be be moving back to Australia to capitalise on his post masterchef  opportunities. He has said previously that he is worried how she will cope with his new found fame because she is a private person.

He is currently looking for a site on his first restaurant in Sydney a Japanese style pub. And also he is working on his first cook book to be released next April.

I don’t know where he would find the time to get married, but if the rumour is true then an October wedding could be on the cards.

UPDATE: Adam Liaw tweeted to say he was not getting married. So she won’t be living in Australia on a marriage visa just yet.

It has been 3 days and I have not done a Masterchef post, so I thought I better rectify it.

Adam Liaw is already working on his cookbook according to TV Week, and as he said on the show it will have an Asian food theme.

The article said:

Adam’s plan for the cookbook, tentatively titled Two Asian Kitchens, is to feed Australians’ growing “thirst for knowledge” about Asian food.

“The two Asian kitchens in my mind are the traditional kitchen and the modern kitchen,” he says. “People want to know not only how to make good Asian food, but also the principles behind it so that they can then apply that to the way they cook.”

The 31 year old also reveals that the book is likely to include a variation on his popular “Seven Gods” signature dish, although he says it will have to wait until he’s had a chance to finetune his skills at some of Australia’s top restaurants.

“I think people gloss over the work experience, because it’s not quite as sexy as your own cookbook or $100,000,” he says. “But we learn in the competition that we’ve got a long way to go before we can really consider ourselves to be great cooks. If I can do the work experience first, I think the cookbook will be better for it.”

Adam concedes that stepping out of the limelight to live the life of a real chef might cost him lucrative opportunities, but he points out that he’s thinking about long-term success.

“You can’t chase the fame,” he reasons. “While it might be viewed as financially appealing to go off and do some things that are going to make me a lot of money since the show has just finished, if it doesn’t fit in with my broader goals and with what I want to do in my life, I don’t think it makes much sense to do it.”

I think I will be interested to buy his cookbook as it could have some interesting dishes in it.