Emerging from Isol(Asian) with Rosheen Kaul

Photograph: Rosheen Kaul/Supplied.

Words by Jennifer Perkin

There have been very few silver linings to the Melbourne lockdown but the Isol(Asian) cookbook series is absolutely one of them. When chef Rosheen Kaul (Dinner by Heston, Lee Ho Fook) and painter/illustrator Joanna Hu lost their jobs back in March, a beautiful and delicious idea was born. 

As Kaul says, “It was entirely borne of the lockdown scenario. Obviously when you work in kitchens you spend all your time following through on other people's creativity, cooking other people’s food, doing what you're told. I’d always wanted to do something that was a reflection of myself as a chef and a creative as well. Once I was very much unemployed and there was no hope of getting a job anytime soon I was like, ‘Well, no time like the present’.”

Kaul and Hu had been friends for just over a year, after bonding over each other's outfits on a night out in Melbourne. Kaul recruited Hu to illustrate her collection of accessible Chinese recipes that comprise the first Isol(Asian) cookbook. The book is wonderfully idiosyncratic, with Hu’s gorgeous illustrations and calligraphy holding as important a place as Kaul’s recipes. It came together quickly as a DIY affair, a labour of love that they were making mostly for themselves. Kaul says, “It was really just supposed to be a zine. And it kind of is a zine — let’s be honest — we just call it a cookbook.”

Much to their surprise, the humble cookbook/zine hit a nerve and became a big success, finding an enthusiastic international audience. Before she knew it Kaul was running a small business; learning how to build a website, fulfilling customer orders, managing customer service and social media. The success spawned a second volume, and then a vegan volume, but despite this Kaul still considers herself a chef first and foremost. “It’s cool, but I’ve gone cross-eyed from staring at spreadsheets, and I’d never done spreadsheets before. I’m a chef - I like peeling and chopping tomatoes. That’s what I do!”

I couldn't write ‘authentically’, because this is my authentic experience.

The appeal of the Isol(Asian) series is obvious; they are extremely cute, everyone has been cooking at home more, and people are hungry for feel-good Covid content. However another factor is its focus on straightforward Chinese cooking techniques, something that was a very deliberate choice for Singapore-born Kaul who describes herself as, “ a quarter Chinese”. Kaul has a Kashmiri father and a background with “many other cultures smashed in there as well”. Still, she says Chinese food has always had a homey feel for her, both from her Singapore upbringing through to her move to Australia where she still fondly recalls first having XO pippies for the first time. The books are upfront about their identity, featuring such wonderfully titled recipes as ‘Lazy XO Sauce’ and ‘Completely Unauthentic Dim Sum Crispy Prawn Toast’. Authenticity is a hotly contested topic, and one that has many meanings. On the topic Kaul says, 

“I think a lot of the people who are writing like me are generally people of colour who live in Western society. So that concept of authenticity… we see it in our parents, for example, but we don’t really see ourselves that way because we’re third culture kids now. I couldn't write ‘authentically’, because this is my authentic experience. It’s not quite the same thing, and it’s important that people know that, that I will have this Western lens - this classically trained lens - on my food, and it’s never going to be pure Chinese food. I didn’t say authentic Chinese, I said authentic to me.”

Image: Isol(Asian) Cookbook cover/supplied.

“People will pay $10 and refuse to pay more for hand-pulled noodles, but will happily pay $30 for pasta…”

As Australians are painfully aware of, the Melbourne lockdown has been particularly harsh. As we head towards ‘Covid normal’ and contemplate a slow migration from our homes and into some kind of social life, we might reflect on the things that got us through the toughest months. Cooking is likely high on a lot of people’s lists. Kaul says, “I think people will have more respect for cooking all different types of food now that they’ve experimented. I think it’s been a good change — terrible for our industry obviously — but I’d like to think that when we come out of it that people are reawakened to what it takes to cook good food.” Good food is, of course, a nebulous term, and while Kaul acknowledges that Australians have an international palate she also rails against what she sees as an imbalance in how people value ‘exotic’ food in this country. “People will pay $10 and refuse to pay more for hand-pulled noodles, but will happily pay $30 for pasta. Those noodles are getting made for you every time you order, while that pasta was made this morning at 7am. Which is fantastic, don’t get me wrong, delicious! But how is that more worthy of your money than this person who has trained for 35 years to smash out those noodles in 15 seconds?” Anyone who has partaken in the multi-hour many-ingredient project of making phở stock during lockdown might similarly question how a bowl of phở can often cost less than a sandwich in Australia. Time will tell how our months of eating in might affect our habits when eating out. 

With the return of hospitality in Melbourne, Kaul has recently accepted a job as head chef at Etta, becoming one of just a handful of female Asian head chefs in the country. Soon we can transition from preparing Kaul’s recipes at home to eating her food as made by her – an exciting prospect. When asked if there are more Isol(Asian) cookbooks planned, Kaul utters one of the most optimistic sentences any Melburnian will have heard in months.

“There’s no more place for an isolation cookbook if we’re not in isolation.”