Laotian-born Nahji Chu came to Australia via a Vietnamese refugee camp and is best known as Miss Chu, the queen of rice paper rolls. Her work extends from party catering to takeaways and restaurants in eight outlets across Sydney and Melbourne. This year her sights are set on international expansion with an outlet in either London or Tel Aviv. Her cooking is firmly rooted in the Vietnamese tradition, although she trained as an Italian chef.
I rarely eat sweets and can go a week without alcohol. I guess it'd be spaghetti bolognese [from] the local Italian restaurant.
I have a little saucepan that I use all the time to reheat my pho when it's delivered. It has to be piping hot. I just use cheap knives from the Asian grocer. My chef friends are amazed at how good they are for the price.
My pantry Moreno Cedroni Hawaiian black salt is always on hand. I love its flavour, dramatic colour and the way it tints the food. Also Galateo & Friends Sicilian salt tablets are a quick, measured way to season a sauce or pasta boiling water. I have a range of A L'Olivier infused olive oils, which are great, and their compact packaging makes them handy for when I cook on my boat. Moreno Cedroni pasta is a favourite.
My fridge I'm a chef, so there's nothing much at home, but there's usually capers, anchovies and chilli for a quick pasta sauce.
Last dinner at home - I'm not often here and when I am I just get Misschu delivered from work. When I'm not eating that I cook Italian; it's the style I was formally trained in. So last time I cooked, I sauteed chillies, garlic, capers and anchovies, basically whatever was lying around in the fridge, and that time I did it in A L'Olivier lavender-infused olive oil - amazing.
I love my sticky rice basket. Sticky rice is central to Laos, where I lived for the first five years of my life.
I have two coffees a day, one when I get into work and another about 3pm. I tell my staff, "Don't talk to me!" until someone has brought me my soy latte in the morning. I like Sant'Eustachio espresso. My friend William Downie is a winemaker, and he has made me a bespoke red for my restaurants, which is a regular. Saturday night tipple Regal Rogue Vermouth is perfect just over ice with a bit of cucumber.
Italians inspire me; they always have. I used to work for Maurice Terzini at Caffe e Cucina in Melbourne and I learnt a lot there. I became interested in Italian food as a child. My mother used to work in the Ansell factory in Melbourne and she'd take Vietnamese food in to share with workmates and they'd share their Italian food, which she brought home. I loved spaghetti bolognese, still do, which mum would try to make but it would be her Vietnamese interpretation with vermicelli noodles and little sauce.
It was in a chateau with friends near Bordeaux in France and we had incredible wines, including a 1945 vintage red. The food was very simple, traditional. I had a thick cut of steak, grilled over wood, then an incredible chocolate dessert that looked like real figs.
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