Kylie Kwong x Gunjan Aylawadi
‘I think that's the best part of learning from our cultures rather than learning from commercial kitchens. We come from a place where you want not – and you waste not. It's sustainable. You see something growing, you try to cook with it, and you absolutely use every last part of it. It is one of our greatest advantages that we've learned from ancestors who have learned to make use of every last molecule of the soil.’
Chefs Kylie Kwong and Gunjan Aylawadi discuss their unique paths to food-focused careers and the familial influences that sparked their culinary journeys.
Their shared passion for food is deeply rooted in their cultural backgrounds and enriched by their current communities. Both chefs also recognise the significant role of local producers in shaping their culinary perspectives.
Kylie reflects on the importance of exploring new endeavours at this stage of her career after transitioning from her renowned former restaurants Billy Kwong and Lucky Kwong. Gunjan, who is in the early stages of her career as a restaurateur, shares her experiences navigating the challenges and opportunities of migrating to Australia and the importance of building a community around her.
‘They would have big dinner parties for fifteen or sixteen around our table and that’s where I learnt to cook and shop and source beautiful ingredients by my mother’s side.’
‘The best moment was when mum and I would serve the diners – and seeing the look of glee and delight on their faces. That is the moment of complete joy when we see our customers delighting in our expression of love. And I think that's what cooking is all about.’
‘I have to give credit to my husband's grandmother. She was just the most amazing cook I knew. What her hands had was a history of our family and our recipes. It was so important. I need to carry that forward in a way, so that my son has access to our history, and the rest of the world has access to that beautiful history of cooking and sense of place and belonging.’
‘I absolutely believe the heart and soul of India are the people on the streets. They believe so much in what they do and they show up for it every single day. Flyover Fritterie is an ode, a homage to that very idea.’
‘It's called Flyover because there's overpasses in India where people are avoiding those overpasses and going under them because there are these street carts. They're selling the most amazing fresh food and they're eating right there from the hands of these craftsmen. We don’t even call them cooks, we call them craftsmen, Karigar.’
‘Some of the most beautiful foods I've ever had were in south-western China, in Yunnan Province. They just harvested all of these wild weeds from all of these fields. And just stir fried them very simply.’
‘One of the other great aspects about Lucky Kwong is where it was located – in South Eveleigh, Redfern, right in the middle of the First Nations community. Clarence Slockee planted me several Australian native edible plants, and my chefs and I harvest those ingredients every day from our little veggie patch. It was a really good opportunity to show our support, our respect and our acknowledgement to the First Nations people of Australia. And I think that is where food is so powerful and so wonderful and so transformative.’
‘I used to handwrite the specials every day at Billy Kwong for 19 years. A lot of people found my cursive very hard to read. My waiters used to stand there at the table and decipher the specials.’
‘Chen Lu, who is a young Taiwanese designer, created this lantern, which was kind of like this beautiful energy and light hovering over everybody.’
‘When you talk about having extended family around your table, cooking for fifteen people, that's how I grew up and that's what we are building at Flyover [Fritterie] at the moment. With all the stories that we tell, with all the food that we cook, and I absolutely love that. I and my family have made this commitment to show up every day for the joy of cooking and building this community around us.’
Speakers
Kylie Kwong is synonymous with modern Chinese cuisine in Australia. As a third-generation Australian, she draws on her southern Chinese heritage to reinterpret Cantonese dishes, blending traditional Chinese cooking techniques with distinctive Australian ingredients and flavours. Renowned for her former restaurants Billy Kwong and Lucky Kwong, as well as her cookbooks and TV series, in recent years she has turned her attention to broader arts, cultural, and community endeavours. She uses food as a medium for social impact and cultural exchange, working with artisans, farmers, and the community to create initiatives that encourage a rethinking of food through the perspectives of sustainability, Indigenous traditions, and interconnectedness.
Gunjan Aylawadi is an industrial designer and a self-taught artist. She opened Flyover Fritterie in 2019, an Indian chai bar in Sydney, to honour the hardworking street food heroes she met when growing up in India. Today, Flyover has become a platform for emerging chefs to experiment and perfect their skills with vegetarian food. Its team is committed to changing Australian-Indian hospitality by bringing the big bold flavours of India-inspired vegetarian food to each plate.
About
The Age We’re In brings together practitioners, scientists and researchers at different stages of their careers to share ideas and responses to global issues. These conversations highlight the common ground of how and why they pursue their practise and explore challenges and opportunities in their industries.
