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Top chefs spill their street food secrets at Asia Town festival

Daisy Dumas

Chase Kojima of Sokyo, Harunobu Inkai from Ramen Ikkyu and Nic Wong of Cho Cho San.
Chase Kojima of Sokyo, Harunobu Inkai from Ramen Ikkyu and Nic Wong of Cho Cho San.Nic Walker

Harunobu Inukai's kitchen is barely big enough for three massive steel stockpots, piles of meat, a vat of marinating eggs and bowls of freshly-spun noodles.

It's a cramped space for the man who trained under famed chef Joel Robuchon and has more than two decades of fine French culinary expertise under his belt – but, this is, after all, a Japanese hole-in-the-wall, Ramen Ikkyu.

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Since opening its hatch 14 months ago, the Nagano-born Japanese chef's homage to street food has earned a stellar reputation amongst devotees to the steaming noodle broth, which has seen a surge in popularity around the world. This version, though, comes with an obvious difference: Ikkyu is infused with 22 years of French cooking techniques.

While Inukai has gone from Michelin stars to delivering fine food to the masses, street food is increasingly inching its way onto some of the finest dining menus in Sydney, too.

He is one of a line-up of top chefs at Sunday's Asia Town street food festival, where a one-off marketplace at The Star will host demonstrations of some of Asia's best-loved street food dishes. Thai chef David Thompson will join Red Lantern's Luke Nguyen, Dan Hong of Mr Wong, Golden Century's Li Ho and Neil Perry for the displays in the likes of pancakes, stir-fry, wok-tossing and charcoal-grilling.

Potts Point newcomer Cho Cho San's Nic Wong will be "keeping things simple" with a charcoal-grilled chicken wing yakitori, while Sokyo's Chase Kojima will cook a twist on age-old street favourite, okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake of cuttlefish and beef.

But it is Inukai's ramen that might prove the hit of the day.

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"I'm going there and demonstrating, but I'm also going to be going there and taking notes on Harunobu's secret recipe," Kojima said.

"I'm sure he's going to be lying on stage!"

The Asia Town street food festival is held on Sunday, October 19, as part of Good Food Month. See goodfoodmonth.com.

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