MODERN CHINESE

SAM LOW, ALLEN & UNWIN, $49.99

As a champion barista, Sam Low is skilled at coaxing layers of flavour from a single ingredient, so imagine what he can do with the whole flavour playbook of Chinese cuisine. Here he delves mainly into the Cantonese food he grew up with and the Sichuan dishes he loves: Cantonese is milder and fresher while Sichuan cuisine leans more on chilli oil and spice. Growing up in Fiji and New Zealand, and with cooking experience drawn from his parents’ takeaway to Masterchef, Sam’s aim here isn’t necessarily to be super authentic, but to show us, ‘This is what I cook and this is who I am’. As a child he didn’t find pride in his Chinese heritage, and as a young gay man he didn’t see queerness celebrated in his conservative community. So, drawing on this, he says the food he brings to the kitchen falls outside the conventional expectations and he takes the freedom to cook what feels