Chin Chin is easily one of Australia’s most-known restaurants, opened in Melbourne in 2011, Sydney in 2017 and a 12-month-long pop-up in Geelong this year. Each version of the restaurant is a feast for the senses with pumping music, neon lights and a menu of spicy Asian-fusion dishes meant to be shared.
Now, the restaurant has added to its collection of cookbooks, launching a third in October this year, so you can bring the restaurant home. The latest release is ‘Chin Chin: Still Hungry’, featuring 250 colour pages of recipes, new and old, customer stories and behind-the-scenes photos. Recipes were created by Chin Chin’s exec chef Benjamin Cooper and exec chefs Daniel Briggs, who works in Melbourne, and Matthew MacLeod in Sydney.
The dishes are meant for all levels, separated into chapters Icons, Snacks and Bites, Salads, Vegetables, Barbecue, Curries and Soups, Wok, Dessert and Cocktails. Helpfully, Cooper lists his go-to ingredients to help you stock your pantry with bits to add flavour to your dishes. He also has an in-depth explainer of his favourite chillis and when best to use them.
You’ll also learn the cooking secrets behind Chin Chin’s kingfish sashimi and butter chicken and try new recipes for the likes of coconut-braised lamb shanks, prawn and ginger wontons and XO pipis and mushroom larb.
Throughout the book, Cooper shares his tips and tricks for Thai cooking. You can also scan QR code links throughout that bring up video tutorials where he demonstrates many key techniques in his recipes step-by-step.
Photography of the dishes in the cookbook is by Pete Dillon, while Alex Drewniak’s venue photography is shown. Tennis superstar and longtime Chin Chin fan Pat Rafter wrote the book’s foreword.
“This cookbook is a sincere thank you to the countless guests that have supported our journey, dined with us, celebrated with us, cooked with us and created memories with us,” says Cooper. “I hope it becomes a go-to companion for loads of home cooks out there, and that you all have as much of a blast making these recipes as I did creating them.”
To celebrate the book’s launch, Cooper will travel across Australia hosting a series of dinner parties and cooking classes. The events will kick off in Melbourne, register your interest for tickets here. The book retails for $55 and if you order it online from Lucas Restaurants, you’ll get it signed and go into the draw to win a Chin Chin dinner party at your place, cooked by Cooper himself.
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