The Australian food scene is a lot different today to what it was twenty years ago. It has moved along from being primarily Eurocentric, to a delicious blend of cultures with strong Asian influences.

Nowhere is this trend better portrayed, coming out of Australia, than through this Bill’s Everyday Asian.

In his latest cookbook, Bill’s Everyday Asian, Bill truly captures the essence of what the Australian Asian table is all about.

Bill  is a self-taught cook whose easygoing approach to food is strongly portrayed in his various television cooking shows. He opened his first restaurant, Bills, in Sydney and now has three restaurants in Sydney and three in Japan. His first London restaurant opened in 2011.

Apart from restaurants, he’s also a prolific cookbook author with nine books having been published and translated into six languages.  He also contributes regularly to a wide variety of magazines around the world.

Bill’s Everyday Asian, is a bold taste explosion of Asia and the fresh, lively combination of exotic ingredients. He has drawn on elements from all over Asia, from the tip of Singapore right through the southeast Asian peninsula and into mainland China.  Apart from the classics such as pad Thai, beef rendang, satay chicken, Thai green curry and fishcakes, there are also a lot of delicious surprises – Vietnamese pork chops, stir-fried Vietnamese lemongrass chicken, fish baked in a sticky sauce and soy roast chicken. And all of the recipes are easy to reproduce in the home kitchen.  The book is also well laid out into the standard chapters – starters, soups, salads, seafood , meat, vegetables and desserts.  Every recipe has a corresponding photograph of the finished dish, and if anything, there are too many photographs (especially of Bill, why is it that celebrity chefs have to pepper their books with pictures of themselves and their children?)

For anyone who enjoys Asian cuisine, who may be put off by complicated recipes with foreign ingredients, this is a perfect introduction to this spicy flavours of Asia.  Definitely a book that Wickedfood Cooking School will use for inspiration for future Asian cooking classes.  A great Christmas gift.

Interested in buying this book? Visit – Red Pepper Books – The South African online bookshop, is able to offer you great prices on any book you are looking for, and they deliver to your door. Pay only R299 for this book (Recommended Retail Price = R350)! Red Pepper Books is offering Wickedfood Cooking School subscribers an EXTRA 10% off this book. Simply type in the promotional code WICKEDFOOD on the shipping page of the checkout process and your purchase will be reduced by a further 10%, a total saving of R51.

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference. Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.