Kidsview Talks With... Quoc Nguyen, 24, Apprentice Chef

The Sunday Age

Sunday September 10, 2006

Heather Gallagher

KidsView talks with... Quoc Nguyen, 24, apprentice chef

What's your favourite food?

The classical French dish coq au vin - it's chicken in a red-wine sauce.

And what's your favourite thing to cook?

I've got a Vietnamese background and I think it's an advantage to use where I come from and combine it with French cuisine; to create some kind of modern fusion cookery.

So you're from Vietnam?

Yes, I came here seven years ago.

What made you want to be a chef?

My mum and dad, they're not chefs, but they're real good cooks and I've learnt a lot from them. I've got the passion from them as well.

Did you start working as an apprentice chef when you came to Australia?

I did computer engineering for four years but I had a part-time job in a restaurant as a dishwasher. Then the boss took me to the front and taught me to cook. It was a small take-away shop in the city, selling pizza and pasta - I decided to defer my course.

What do you like about cooking?

It's your creativity and your imagination. There's a connection between me and the ingredients - you're really happy when you get fresh ingredients and you think "What can I do with it?" Every day you can make a new dish.

And you're doing your apprenticeship through William Angliss. How does the course work?

It teaches you everything you need to know - pastry, meat and seafood, poultry, desserts - to become a commercial chef. You spend one day in school learning theory and practicals and the rest of the time you're at work learning from your workplace.

So as an apprentice have you been treated badly?

When I was in the first year of my apprenticeship, I had chefs throw saucepans across the room at me. So many chefs are yelling, screaming, everything in the kitchen.

What are your plans for the future?

I've got another two months to finish my apprenticeship and then I've got a scholarship to go overseas to go to any country I want. I've decided to go to London early next year.

How did you win the scholarship?

I won the Les Toque Blanch. It's a cooking competition where you get a mystery box and you've got three hours to create a menu with four entrees, four mains and four desserts. Most of the people who win it go on to be head chef at five-star hotels.

-- Heather Gallagher