MY BLUE TEA CHEF PROFILE
Lillie Giang
Lillie was set to be a chef from the moment she was born. Her family were all dedicated foodies in Vietnam. Food was worshipped, adored and highly respected in her family. She grew up living, breathing and of course, eating dishes that were skillfully whipped up. It was Lillie's father and maternal grandmother who taught her precious lessons in eating, cooking and naturally, living well. When a child grows up learning the fine art of cooking from people who are near and dear to them, the child naturally develops a genuine love and talent for food and cooking
Lillie Giang
The Food Affectionist
¨My philosophy around food has never changed. Keep learning (I’m a forever student), never stop cooking and always give back with abundance.¨
Eating to the Moon and Back
My Blue Tea is always on the lookout for chefs and food enthusiasts who share our values of eating natural, healthy food that is not only exciting to the palate but also enticing to the eyes. With each chef we meet and know, we learn so much more about the rich art of cooking. Each chef invites us to their own unique world of textures, flavours and most importantly, culinary stories that inspire.
Special festivals always have special foods and the Mooncake Festival is one where we love drooling over gorgeous mooncakes that are rich with flavours, textures and colours. Lillie Giang is the chef who is bringing our Blue & Pandan snow skin mooncakes to life.
We first saw her ¨giveaways¨ on her Facebook group by various brands and companies and we got curious enough to approach her with My Blue Tea's range of superfoods and natural products. Lillie was absolutely lovely and so quick at making decisions! We had a little chat and it was clear what she wanted. Lillie was very open to learning about and experimenting with new ingredients so we immediately sent her heaps of Superfood Powders, Blue Teas and Latte Powders for her to get her magical hands into and to share with her team of enthusiastic cooks and bakers. When it comes to food, a vital ingredient to enjoy it is simply to share it. No foodie or chef in the right frame of mind would ever hoard food for themselves. The joy of cooking comes from not just the process of making the food but also from having the opportunity to share with family, friends and even people we do not know (yet)!
Cheering Melbourne during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown
It was sometime in October when Lillie contacted us and said that the Chinese Association of Victoria wanted to make a Mooncake Festival video of her making mooncakes. Due to the lockdown in Melbourne, a lot of festivals had been cancelled and the city was really missing the festive mood, and very much in need of cheering up.
Lillie was more than happy to do it and she wanted to bring out the gorgeous shades of blue with the texture of snow skin for her mooncakes. Blue is an extremely pliable and exciting colour to work with in food as it offers such a rich palette of shades and tones. Depending on the thickness of the coconut milk you use or if you use water, the shades change and it is very much like being a scientist in a laboratory. You never know what you are going to get when you mix different liquids together with the butterfly blue pea powder. It is great fun as long as you approach it with curiosity and throw rigid expectations out of the window. Especially with so many cities around the world in lockdown, the last thing we want is to impose monotony on all aspects of life. With a simple mix of butterfly blue pea powder and a liquid, your kitchen can absolutely come to life with a variety of shades. Just imagine - no two mooncakes look alike! And they do not have to! No more standard colour and design. Life can be exciting.
Deliciously so!
As it was such short notice, we could not send our products by normal post, and what with lockdown restrictions, we knew the Australian post could not get things out as quickly as before. We took a chance and decided to Express Post My Blue Tea's products to Lillie. It was a rather nail-biting time as we really hoped the products could get to Lillie in time.
Unfortunately, My Blue Tea's parcel did not arrive. One important lesson all cooks learn and which we apply to our daily lives is to quickly improvise. That literally is no use crying over spilt milk and when a recipe goes wonky or if we are missing an ingredient, we try our best to improvise and salvage the dish.
So we quickly moved on to Plan B. We called Roger Yeo, the proprietor of Lion City Asian Grocery in Mt Waverley. We explained to him our situation and luckily for us, Mr. Yeo was such a lovely, generous soul he agreed to assist us. Lion City Asian Grocery stocks My Blue Tea's products and he actually personally delivered My Blue Tea products to Lillie. We were so grateful for his help. Finally Lillie could get our products to make her beautiful snow skin mooncakes.
We feel proud that Lillie had chosen to use My Blue Tea's products for her mooncakes - an age old traditional recipe that requires skill and patience. Lillie was set to be a chef from the moment she was born. Her family were all dedicated foodies in Vietnam. Food was worshipped, adored and highly respected in her family. She grew up living, breathing and of course, eating dishes that were skillfully whipped up. It was Lillie's father and maternal grandmother who taught her precious lessons in eating, cooking and naturally, living well. When a child grows up learning the fine art of cooking from people who are near and dear to them, the child naturally develops a genuine love and talent for food and cooking.
It is clear when you look at Lillie that she has been nourished from the inside out growing up - her sunny smile is the first thing that strikes you about her. There is something open, inviting and honest about her that welcomes you into her space. For Lillie, her love of life is intimately connected with her love of food. And we understand Lillie when she says that food connects her to people and takes her around the world and gives her purpose. Food has connected Lillie to us, and in turn that continues to connect all of us to foodies in her circle and in My Blue Tea's circle. And it is a joyous connection we all have, food unites and never divides. All true-blue chefs and foodies are eager to learn and share and tomorrow is always a great day to look forward to, for more food experiments and sharing good food with family and friends.
We clicked with Lillie because we share the same philosophy of giving back with abundance. That is how life continues! Lillie has had a rich career as a chef, coach, educator and presenter. It is important for her that cooking is not an exclusive arena available to only a chosen few. In fact, what drives her is the goal to make cooking available to many, to make it affordable, sustainable and fun!
Lillie lives and breathes her values of sharing wholesome, quality food with people and making connections wherever she goes. She is a guest presenter on The Cooks Pantry (Channel 10) and My Asian Banquet (Channel 7).
She is also an advisor and in-store pop-up presenter for several well-known supermarkets and shopping centres. And if that is not enough to keep her busy and satisfy her craving to share amazing food, she also works actively with NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) students and their families to help make food accessible by teaching them how to prepare and cook food, all true to her values of making food accessible, fun and making a difference in people's lives.
And Lillie does not stop there. At weekends she is eagerly sharing her love of food and culture with other enthusiastic foodies at some of Melbourne's largest indoor and outdoor food festivals and events.
We take our hats and aprons off to Lillie for making her 24 hours stretch across the week to give back to the community all her knowledge, experiences and most importantly, love for cooking!
We love how Lillie is experimenting with My Blue Tea´s products to create new flavours, textures and colours. We are so driven to do what we do because, quite simply, food is exciting! If this gets you inspired, why not try out some culinary experiments of your own with My Blue Tea's range of superfoods and powders? You never know what you are going to get!
Keep an open mind and stay curious! Bring out the Lillie Giang in you!
Download recipe for this elegant, exquisite butterfly blue pea snow skin mooncake.
