For those of us who are lucky enough to not worry about where our next meal is coming from, it can be difficult to consider a life where the choice and supply of what you eat is extremely limited. The idea of eating one kind of food day in and day out, for some, is sometimes the only option.
This week's home cook Tam Phan grew up in post-war Vietnam, during a time when US sanctions to trade meant severely limited access to the necessities of daily life. To say that life was extremely simple would be putting it lightly, for the Phan family.
My passion is cooking for my family. In those days, we only had rice, so it forced me to be creative.
“In those times, it was normal for one parent to travel far away, to find work. We were born into peace, but [it was] during the US sanctions, so food was scarce. We had a little sugar from Cuba, soap from Russia – I remember these huge brown blocks, they were like bricks!” she laughs. “But they were so precious, things like that.” Her mother, a midwife, often travelled far away for work, returning home once a month. And so from the age of 7, Tam became the household cook. “I look back now and think, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s hard for a 7-year-old’, but in those days, I thought it was normal, to start looking after the family from that age,” says the mother of two.
Though the Phan family had little more than rice, fish sauce and a little sugar, Tam’s father was the first to inspire her to use these limitations as a culinary challenge. He was a highly resourceful cook and Tam recalls his creativity in the kitchen and obsession with flavour. “Cooking is a basic skill. We need to eat, we need to breath, it doesn’t make me sad to think about what we didn’t have growing up,” she reflects. “I actually feel grateful for how I grew up, it shaped me,” she says. “My passion is cooking for my family. In those days, we only had rice, so it forced me to be creative. From as young as 7, each day I would come up with some idea on how to make it tasty. Some fish sauce, salt, sugar, peanut, corn, turmeric juice. It wasn’t until I got older that I realised this meant I could cook, it just felt natural! To me, it isn’t so much about the ingredients, but how you cook them. If you are a good cook, you can even make fish bones tasty,” she muses.
Every dish should have a sauce that suits it; one for meat, one for fish, one for these kinds of vegetable. Knowing how flavours match is something I learnt very early.
Though Tam’s father, Dr. Phan Hữu Chác, recently passed, his influence on her cooking and her worldview is palpable. The joy with which she cooks and the small details that highlight the beauty of simple flavours, textures and ingredients are obvious in her culinary style. “What I remember about my dad’s cooking and one thing that has stuck with me as a cook is that, even though we had so little, everything had to be just so. Every dish should have a sauce that suits it; one for meat, one for fish, one for these kinds of vegetable. Knowing how flavours match is something I learnt very early,” she shares.
Get Tam's winning rice noodle roll .
Rice noodle with pork, black fungus and prawn (Banh Cuon) Source: The Chefs' Line
Despite the challenging times of her youth, Tam speaks of it and her relationship with food with great happiness. For her, food is not only a story of survival, humble origins and family, but one of deep resourcefulness, creativity and gratitude. “Cooking is never a negative thing for me [despite having very little to cook with or eat, growing up]. It is always a joy. I breathe. I walk. I cook. It’s very simple! I feel glad that I grew up in a hard situation because it makes me feel like everything is easy now.”
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