Miles Collins

A Master of Modern Asian Cuisine

Neil Perry has dominated the Australian food scene for years. His signature restaurant, Rockpool has won accolades worldwide for its modern take on mixing French, Mediterranean and Asian flavours to stunning effect.

I first came across Neil Perry when my sous chef at the time came from Sydney and told me about the food scene in Australia. His mother would send me videos of Perry’s television series, Food Source and Food Source Asia which were truly inspirational.

His first book, ‘Rockpool’ was released in 1997 and I am yet to see a better ‘chefs’ cookery book by an Australian chef. Perry’s dishes are original, others such as Shannon Bennet are too heavily influenced by Marco Pierre White and Tetsuya Wakuda’s book is a dull reflection of what is supposed to be one of the world’s great restaurants.

I would recommend his second book ‘Simply Asian’ to anyone, it personifies everything I love about modern asian food with influences from mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan and his beloved Hong Kong.

There are wonderful recipes for salads, stir-fries, braises, steaming, curries and roasts. The recipes are practical and inspirational. Perry is a man after my own heart, he is a proponent of quality, fresh food prepared simply and a great ambassador for Australian produce.

Some might argue that there are two or three pretenders to his crown in Australia but nobody has done more to put their country on the culinary map than Neil Perry.

Restaurants: Rockpool and XO (Sydney) Bar & Grill (Melbourne)

Books: Rockpool, Simply Asian, Good Food