Lee and Hock Lai's Kitchen
Lee and Hock Lai’s Kitchen came to fruition when friends and
family suggested my partner and I share our knowledge and expertise in
preparing and cooking gluten-free food with the rest of the world. After all with two chefs in the family who is
better qualified to experiment and create with food, colour, and textures? With more and more people becoming aware that
removing gluten from their diet improves their general well being, the demand
for gluten-free recipes and products is growing exponentially. This is evident
from the growing list of gluten-free products that are available on the
supermarket shelves. We hope you enjoy our recipes and once again enjoy the
many foods that you thought had become ‘off limits’.
I was born in Malaysia and, from the age of eight, have been
profoundly deaf. Life throws us many challenges and this was just another.
Recently, I have received a cochlear implant and with that comes the wonder of
learning new sounds and a whole new world is beginning to open up as my world
of silence recedes. I have always had a
great love of cooking inherited from my mother. She encouraged us, and taught
us, to always do our best. Our goal was
always to try to make the dishes at least as good as hers, if not better.
Though, I am not sure to this day, that we have succeeded. The natural
progression for me was to make a living through cooking. My first job was to
train as a chef in Malaysia. Ironically, my specialty was Japanese, particularly
Tempura.
After emigrating to Australia, at first, I found it
difficult to get work as a disabled person but my love of cooking, and my skills,
saw me working first at a Japanese Restaurant and then tackling the skills of
Italian cooking at an Italian Restaurant until it
closed down. Once again my disability proved to be a stumbling block and so I
became a mature age apprentice baker. I have worked in baking ever since, preferring
to use my cheffing skills when preparing meals for my partner and I. With my
partner being gluten intolerant, the
need for gluten-free baking and gluten-free mainstream cooking was the new
challenge. We have mastered this challenge and are now ready to share with the
world. For too long gluten-free has
meant rock hard, boring and bland. Many believe that they are doomed to a life
of salad. Our aim is to change this.
The days of gluten-free = boring are gone. I believe that our
recipes prove this.
Enjoy!
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Enjoy!
