TV presenter and cookbook author Adam Liaw has shared a range of personal anecdotes, from cooking for Gordon Ramsay to ruining a $300 steak, in a recent interview. Liaw, best known for winning MasterChef Australia and hosting SBS's The Cook Up, also revealed his fear of bamboo and why he considers garlic crushers useless.
Oldest possessions and cooking for Ramsay
Liaw's oldest personal item is a teddy bear that is actually a dog named Ralph, which he has had since age two. He also owns a 600-year-old Edo period plate, which he sometimes uses to serve food. 'I'm sure antique collectors would be aghast, but I think it's only right to use those things,' he said. Regarding the most famous person he has cooked for, Liaw named Gordon Ramsay. 'We were both at a food festival in South Africa years ago, and I made something that we ate backstage. I don't remember what I made, but I remember my wife spilled a whole jug of water over him. He was fine about it.'
Memorable guests and a ruined steak
Liaw has filmed nine seasons of The Cook Up. He was most excited to meet Martin Yan from Yan Can Cook, whom he watched for years before appearing on television. 'That was a real thrill. I remember I was nervous about it. We cooked kung pao chicken, or gongbao jiding.' He also recalled a food memory he would like to forget: his father asked him to cook a very expensive steak, but a faulty thermometer led to the steak being overcooked. 'I stopped using thermometers for like six or seven years after that. I got a lot better at cooking meat by feel, but it did require the destruction of a $300 steak.'
Strange jobs and chaotic set incidents
Before winning MasterChef, Liaw worked as a lawyer for Disney. His strangest job was selling ice-creams at the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide at age 14. 'It was about 45 degrees every day, and I had to walk around with about 20 kilos of ice-cream in an insulated container. It was an awful lot of work over four days. I think I earned about $30 a day.' The most chaotic thing on set occurred while filming North American Fan Feasts. 'We were going to fly to Guadalajara but our fixer was sending videos of Mexican cartels literally shooting up the airport, so we decided not to get on the plane to fly to the airport that day. We met mariachis in Mexico City instead, and I learned a lot about mariachis.'
Best advice and fear of bamboo
The best piece of advice Liaw received was from an old boss about writing angry emails: write it, then wait an hour before sending. 'I reckon that's saved me a lot.' He also confirmed his fear of bamboo, stemming from a Chinese ghost story. 'We were always told never to go play in the bamboo because there'll be a witch with long nipples who will use those nipples to drag you up into the bamboo and you'll never be seen again. We had bamboo near where we lived when I was growing up, so we got told that story a lot.'
Useless kitchen utensils and perfect desserts
Liaw named the garlic crusher as the most useless kitchen utensil. 'It takes more time to clean a garlic crusher than the time that you save by using it. You can crush garlic with the skin on in 0.1 of a second. It will take you way longer to peel the garlic, get the crusher, use the crusher, then clean the crusher.' If he could have a dessert named after him, he would choose a caramelly custard dessert. 'Crème caramel to me is a near perfect dessert. There are all these fantastic dessert names for fluffy meringue things, or chocolate desserts, but anything in that caramel space is just so functional; burnt cream, English cream, caramel cream … So maybe some sort of caramelly custard dessert.'
Adam Liaw's North American Fan Feasts premieres on SBS and SBS On Demand on 6 July.
