“As a home cook eager to improve, I was thrilled to sous for one of my favourite chefs”

I love cooking, so when my family surprised me last December with an “Into the Kitchen” experience for my 30th birthday, I was ecstatic. The company gives amateur chefs like me the chance to cook in a professional kitchen alongside renowned local chefs, including Mamakas Taverna’s Rafael Freitas da Rocha and the Chase’s Cory Vitiello. For me, chef Nick Liu from DaiLo was the clear choice—I eat a lot of Asian food but rarely make it myself, so I figured it would be an opportunity to learn and get out of my comfort zone. Options range from a $600 shadowing session to a $1,400 package that features an eight-course tasting with wine pairings, which my family sprang for.

When I arrived at DaiLo, I was welcomed with a chef’s jacket, and Liu introduced me to his seven-person kitchen brigade. The energy as they prepped for service was controlled chaos. Liu explained the role of each kitchen station before giving me a crash course in different dishes, including fried watermelon, which is all about layering different textures and sweet, spicy and sour flavours. We prepped the fruit, then coated it in cornstarch and fried it, transforming it into a crispy and juicy centrepiece topped with cubes of pickled watermelon rind and a tangy nahm jim sauce made from fish sauce, lime juice and Thai chilies. Liu made the nahm jim with a mortar and pestle, which gave the sauce a vibrant quality you’d never achieve with a blender.

Then came the real test—making one of DaiLo’s “Asian garnishes”: green onions sliced as thin as hair. Liu made it look effortless, but I couldn’t replicate his knifework. “You’re pretty good,” he told me with a smile, “but to work here, the AG has to be flawless.” Another chef, witnessing my attempt, leaned over and whispered, “Don’t worry, it’s never thin enough for Nick.”

After three exhilarating hours in the kitchen, I met with the head of front-of-house for a session about wine and went behind the bar to learn about cocktails. Then my girlfriend joined me for the tasting portion of the package. We tried different vintages alongside bites of the dishes I’d helped prepare, like the fried watermelon and pumpkin purée dumplings with a soy brown butter sauce and a glaze made from White Rabbit candy, an iconic Chinese sweet. I’m not a wine connoisseur, but I started to understand how the right wine could enhance the flavours of a dish.

By the end of the meal, I was happy, full and a little buzzed. The experience wasn’t just fun—I got to see first-hand how much care goes into each dish, and I gained new skills, like how to properly brown butter, as well as a new appreciation for the work involved in a seemingly simple garnish.