Balancing Acts

Jess Ho gets lost - metaphorically and literally - while exploring Indian cuisine with chef Helly Raichura. After leaving her successful corporate career, Raichura began cooking for people in her home, on a mission to raise awareness of what Indian cuisine is and reimagine what it can be. Through storytelling, history and cooking her work create ties between Indian and Australian cuisine. And in our fast-paced, commercialised, and ever-changing world, Jess asks, how do we honour history and stay tied to our heritage through food? How can looking back inform our future?

After years of cooking in some of the world’s most celebrated kitchens chef Lorcán Kan is intimately aware of the predominantly white audiences they serve. As the head chef of Etta, Kan weaves Malaysian flavours into a Melbourne institution, balancing culture with approachability. How much can you challenge your diners without alienating them? Where’s the line? Kan joins Jess Ho to reflect on what it means to cook for an audience that isn’t always fluent in your food - and what it takes to challenge those boundaries.

Australia is full of white chefs who often receive critical acclaim for cooking cuisines they have no personal connection to, while migrant chefs are expected to stay in their lane. Why do some chefs get the creative freedom to experiment while others are seen as gatekeepers of tradition? Who is allowed to play and innovate? Jess Ho chats with chef Eun Hee An, owner of Moon Mart, to examine the structural barriers that limit who gets to cook “their” food and have it taken seriously.

Award-winning chef John Rivera has long reimagined Filipino cuisine through a fine-dining lens, yet it’s ube that has become an unexpected global sensation. In this episode, Rivera joins Jess Ho to unpack how one ingredient came to symbolise an entire culture in the West, and what that kind of spotlight means for Filipino chefs navigating visibility, identity and the ongoing push for recognition in Australia.

Jess Ho sits down with Mauritian-Australian chef Nagesh Seethiah to unpack the tension between cultural expectation and creative expression in food. Through his hatted restaurant Manzé, Seethiah has created a space that reflects his vision of culture, community and care. But what happens when your food doesn’t meet the expectations of the community it comes from? Why are some cuisines given more freedom to evolve than others?

Jess Ho investigates the myth of authenticity and takes a look at what Cantonese food is in the diaspora. They visit renowned Melbourne restaurant Flower Drum to eat pearl meat and explore how migration affects a regional cuisine. In conversation with New York food writer Francis Lam, Jess asks 'When does regional expression become fusion?' and in this context, ‘What IS the food of my people?’

What does 'Australian food' really mean - and who gets to define it? For the Culture host and foof writer Jess Ho introduces this six-part podcast series exploring migration, memory, and the stories behind what we eat.

Instant noodles are notoriously easy on the wallet and simple to prepare. But why is this affordable staple turning into a luxury item?

Everyone loves bánh mì because they’re cheap and satisfying, but have you ever thought about what the human cost is in keeping the price so low?

When we think of colonisation and its impact on cuisine, Italy invading Africa probably doesn’t come to mind first. In this episode of Bad Taste we unpack the messy history of a dish that's much-loved by the East African diaspora.