After making a booking at Australian restaurant, Coast Bistro & Bar, I began to ask myself, what is Australian cuisine? As a food writer and an Australian surely this would be easy to answer, it wasn't. A quick Facebook quiz revealed comments such as "meat pies", "hamburgers with beetroot", "beer battered fish and chips", and "I didn't know we had a cuisine!". All fair-dinkum responses, but at the level of contemporary Australian cuisine, which the restaurant claims to serve, I had hoped for something more.

Tucked in HK Island’s hi-tech community lies a hidden gem amongst the Cantonese cuisine scene. Nam Fong, a contemporary Cantonese restaurant located on the third floor of the Le Méridien Cyberport is one of HK’s best-kept secrets delivering robust Cantonese flavours at its purest.

When researching my articles on Sous Vide I came across articles that were of the opinion that sous vide was unsafe for two main reasons. One, the temperatures that the food is cooked at is not high enough to destroy harmful bacteria and, two, harmful chemicals in the plastic bags used to cook the food could leach into the food.

My parents successfully grow whatever they plant…stepping into their garden is like being in an abundant farmer's market. From tomatoes bursting with sunshine-driven flavour, to exotic herbs and edible flowers. On my last trip back a new addition was a curry tree. I brought back some of the leaves and fell in love with this aromatic leaf the first time I made a potato curry with the leaf as the lead seasoning.

Multiple award-winning chef Gary Danko is recognised as one of America’s most talented and respected chefs. His many achievements include a coveted James Beard Award, and a Michelin star for restaurant GARY DANKO in San Francisco.

Chinese New Year is marked by gathering with family and friends for gastronomic indulgences, but not just any delicious dish will do. Dishes are often chosen for their symbolic meanings that results from the language itself, for example the word for 'fish' also sounds like the word for 'wish' and 'abundance'.

We are firmly entrenched in the era of the celebrity chef and the spinoffs that result, such as TV shows and cookbooks, the latter being a big money earner for chefs.

Two key things I look at when considering cookbooks to buy are the images and the recipes. The images should ideally be full page, and they must stimulate my mind, body and senses, literally making my mouth water with a simultaneous desire to get into the kitchen. The recipes need to be accessible and when tried should work. Never Skip Dessert by pastry chef Gregoire Michaud, meets both these criteria. And, I am not even that big a fan of desserts! Inline with the current trend of leading pastry chefs, Michaud takes many classic dessert recipes and revitalises their taste and presentation. Many of the recipes also use ingredients that one doesn't normally associate with desserts. In all senses it is a modern dessert cookbook for the modern home chef.