Latest / Northern Quarter Talks / Food Makes Us Human Again | Daniel Bui

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Food Makes Us Human Again | Daniel Bui · Northern Quarter Talks

0:00
Daniel Bui: From a young age, I always set out to learn how to cook for that mission, to bring people together.
0:06
Daniel Bui: For me, it was I started loving and enjoying first of all my mum's food.
0:11
Daniel Bui: I think everyone starts off with their mum's food.
0:13
Daniel Bui: And then it went on to like admiring, you know, these great chefs going to like watching Golden Ramsay.
0:19
Daniel Bui: And if I say, Oh, look, this is my mum's recipe, and I'm gonna share it with you.
0:24
Daniel Bui: That means you love that dish so much that you never want that dish to end.
0:27
Daniel Bui: To tackle loneliness begins with yourself, right?
0:30
Andy Coley: Yeah,
0:30
Daniel Bui: It begins with you reaching out.
0:32
Daniel Bui: And for me, like one way it's it starts with a dish, then it but then it all can also end with a meal, right?
0:39
Andy Coley: That was a moment that I can never really put into a word, but I'd like you to to put it in some kind of word.
0:44
Andy Coley: But it's it's the it's the it's the thing that's the story that I would love to.
0:48
Daniel Bui: Every day is a new like story.
0:50
Simran Whitham: What is Daniel Bui's last meal?
0:53
Simran Whitham: My last meal would be like if I'm with depend like if I'm really really coast meal, I would want to have their favourite last meal.
1:02
Title: This is the TEDx Northern Quarter podcast.
1:06
Simran Whitham: Daniel Bui, chef, online content creator.
1:10
Simran Whitham: Welcome to the TEDx and Talks podcast by TEDx Northern Quarter.
1:15
Simran Whitham: How are we doing?
1:16
Daniel Bui: I am doing amazing, honestly.
1:18
Daniel Bui: In the studio in Manchester, the travel from London was amazing.
1:21
Daniel Bui: Not too not too far, not too bad, to be honest.
1:24
Daniel Bui: When you're we're we're revising your scripts on the train, you have two hours.
1:28
Daniel Bui: You can do a lot in two hours, you know.
1:29
Daniel Bui: People were thinking I was crazy, but it was it was cool.
1:34
Simran Whitham: Were you talking to yourself on the train?
1:36
Daniel Bui: The lady up opposite me was like
1:39
Simran Whitham: and you were just like, I swear, I'm just doing the most important speech in my life.
1:42
Daniel Bui: I had a paper in front of me.
1:43
Daniel Bui: If anything, I looked like an actor because I was just like, you know, got the script in front of me.
1:47
Daniel Bui: Yeah, it made me look cool.
1:49
Simran Whitham: And how has the world's greatest city treated you so far from your arrival?
1:53
Daniel Bui: Honestly, I when I first arrived here, I've I heard so much good like things about the food in Manchester.
2:01
Daniel Bui: And honestly, I I came here, I went, I went to get some Cantonese roast, I'm half Chinese, right?
2:06
Daniel Bui: And honestly, uh it's better 99% better than the ones you get in London.
2:12
Daniel Bui: Like it's I was I had this like the the roast duck and the skin was crispy, the meat was tender, the char seal as well, like the the marinade like penetrated the whole skin, like the the meat, and it was just it was honestly.
2:24
Daniel Bui: I was I was amazed.
2:26
Simran Whitham: And I heard you picked one of the best.
2:27
Simran Whitham: I think you probably picked the was did you research it, or was it just by chance you honestly?
2:31
Daniel Bui: I was on a train and I said, I know there's a Chinatown here, so I got to visit my town, you know?
2:37
Daniel Bui: And I said, Okay, let's go visit Chinatown.
2:40
Daniel Bui: And uh it was one of the places that had one of my favorite like things to eat is uh like barbecue roast pork, like Chinese barbecue roast pork, uh roast meat.
2:51
Daniel Bui: Yeah, so I was ecstatic when I heard when I saw it.
2:55
Daniel Bui: It was it just popped up.
2:56
Daniel Bui: I was just looking at food spaces to eat, and yeah, that I was the first one.
2:59
Simran Whitham: And you you did pick the best one in our.
3:01
Daniel Bui: I wish I had a bit more time here just to spend a bit more, but you know, when the day of the talk comes, I'll have I'm sure I'm gonna be exploring.
3:08
Daniel Bui: Oh, yeah.
3:09
Daniel Bui: Every hour is a new restaurant, that's all I'm saying.
3:12
Simran Whitham: I love that saying
3:14
Andy Coley: I love about the fact that you when you were to explain about the meat and the the duck, you were not just going, Oh, it was nice.
3:20
Andy Coley: So the way that the you know the moisture penetrates and the skin you're just here, like you paint such a picture and such a story about the the food.
3:29
Andy Coley: I can tell it's something that you do you do a lot, but it's not it's not what you've always done though, is it?
3:34
Andy Coley: Like tell us a bit about your background and kind of how did you become and and tell us a little bit about you and your background and how did you become the online content creator and chef that you are these days?
3:48
Andy Coley: You know, was cooking something you're always into, or did you start off on a different path and and sort of come into this in in the later life?
3:56
Daniel Bui: It was honestly, it was as purely accidental.
3:59
Daniel Bui: So I grew up, you know, I grew up in London, um, and my family did own a restaurant from the ages of 12 to around maybe 10 to 14, it was very blurry.
4:11
Daniel Bui: I had uh quite a rough childhood.
4:13
Daniel Bui: Um, but from 10 to 14, my we owned a Vietnamese restaurant.
4:17
Daniel Bui: That's my other half.
4:19
Daniel Bui: And yeah, I my my mom got me in there.
4:22
Daniel Bui: Child labor was a thing, you know, in our community.
4:24
Daniel Bui: So you best believe everyone that knows that about Chinese takeaways, when you know you know the food's good when there's a child working behind the behind the bar, like you know, like so.
4:34
Daniel Bui: I was one of those kids.
4:35
Daniel Bui: Uh so I worked there for a bit, and my passion didn't really spike then.
4:39
Daniel Bui: So I I think my my passions were more into like numbers.
4:44
Daniel Bui: I don't know if I'm fitting a stereotype, you know, but uh uh but I was really passionate about numbers, so I I was really I was really bad at everything else, but I was really good at maths, yeah.
4:55
Daniel Bui: Um so I you know set out to do maths at university.
5:00
Daniel Bui: Um I was the only like A's I got in like my my studies, like GCSE's and stuff, and uh it was yeah, I wanted to be an actuary, which I did become.
5:12
Daniel Bui: So um, so yeah, from from a young age till you know 26, I set out to be an actuary.
5:20
Daniel Bui: I worked as an actuary for uh five years, and yeah, and I was a pursuing that career.
5:26
Daniel Bui: Um, but my my passion for cooking probably sparked, I mean, I had a passion for eating.
5:32
Daniel Bui: I mean, I think everyone's every
5:35
Simran Whitham: yeah, guilty.
5:37
Daniel Bui: Everyone that starts as a cook has a passion for eating.
5:40
Daniel Bui: But for me, it was I started loving and enjoying first of all my mum's food.
5:45
Daniel Bui: I think everyone starts off with their mum's food, and then it went on to like admiring, you know, these great chefs going to like watching Gordon Ramsay and and uh Heston Blumenthal and I was just learning off them.
5:58
Daniel Bui: Uh but I think my passion for cooking always came from feeding, yeah, and it's just like the its ability to bring everyone around the table.
6:08
Daniel Bui: Like I I didn't really I you know having food in this in as as the centerpiece for me was always a way to get people together.
6:19
Daniel Bui: And um, so from a young age, I always set out to learn how to cook for that mission to bring people together.
6:28
Daniel Bui: I am really big on hosting.
6:30
Daniel Bui: From 18, like I was hosting barbecues, I was doing like getting all my friends together, hosting barbecues, doing all sorts of kind of cool you know hosting ideas, right?
6:42
Daniel Bui: And I from 18 to uni, you know, whilst I was studying uh maths, I was actually worked as a full-time chef as well.
6:52
Daniel Bui: Yep.
6:52
Daniel Bui: Um and I did some chefing work at a Thai restaurant um uh in Southampton, where I studied.
7:00
Daniel Bui: And then I also did um some bartending work, so I knew how to make cocktails as well.
7:06
Daniel Bui: So for me, like catering and serving people through food and drinks was like my thing.
7:11
Daniel Bui: Like I realized the impact it can bring people,
7:14
Andy Coley: yeah.
7:15
Daniel Bui: And like the amount of how I could make people happy basically.
7:19
Daniel Bui: And I just really really enjoyed that the element of cooking, and that's what's kind of inspired me and made me want to cook more.
7:25
Daniel Bui: Honestly, like a lot of the food you see online and that I make 20 probably 10 to 20 percent is what I eat.
7:32
Daniel Bui: The rest is goes to other people, yeah.
7:34
Daniel Bui: And uh, that's my thing is feeding, and yeah, I guess my passion for food all comes from feeding, like just the to be the ability to bring everyone around the table and just put smiles on people's faces.
7:46
Andy Coley: Yeah, I really I really resonate with that.
7:48
Andy Coley: I mean that I was always raised we know we eat together.
7:50
Andy Coley: Yeah, the time of the day when you sit around the table and you talk about your day or you sort of share what's going on.
7:57
Andy Coley: Um, and it can sometimes become, particularly in a busy family life, I find that at home, you know, we've got uh five of us typically in the house at any one time, but we've all got slightly different schedules, some people like to eat at slightly different times, you know, and yet trying I like people to be sat down around the table sharing with even if you're not hungry at that moment in time, fine, but still please come and sit with us whilst we're we're sharing this moment because otherwise everybody's doing their things or you're out and about, and and so for me that that family time was always quite closely linked to food time, yeah.
8:32
Andy Coley: Um as well.
8:33
Daniel Bui: Yeah, and it's just like the way what I've found with feeding people, and I've done a lot of it, is it just like softens the heart and it allows the person you're speaking to to become a bit more vulnerable, a bit more human in some ways.
8:48
Daniel Bui: I think like a lot of we're under a lot of pressure like in society, right?
8:52
Daniel Bui: We we have to work a lot, we have to do a lot, but when I have people around the table, it feels like they can become human again.
8:58
Daniel Bui: I feel like everyone, like you don't have to be the greatest chef in the world.
9:03
Daniel Bui: I was I didn't start the greatest, I was a terrible chef.
9:06
Daniel Bui: I thought I was this big boy, fine dining.
9:09
Daniel Bui: I always tried to do the fine dining, make food look pretty and stuff like that.
9:12
Daniel Bui: Well, honestly, it tasted just like not the greatest.
9:14
Daniel Bui: So like my food, like it doesn't have to taste amazing.
9:17
Daniel Bui: You could learn something from your parents, and I'm sure every single person on this planet has like a significant dish they were raised on.
9:26
Daniel Bui: And just to share that with someone, right?
9:28
Daniel Bui: Yeah, it like it for me when I eat someone's food like parents' food, and and you've cooked it for me, it tells me so much about you.
9:36
Daniel Bui: Yeah, well, it tells me about your relationship with your mother, first of all.
9:40
Daniel Bui: Because you have the you have the time and and you know, you have the time to actually you know allocate to learn your mother's recipe, which not a lot of people do.
9:51
Daniel Bui: I feel like general racial generational recipes are dying these days.
9:55
Daniel Bui: For me, um yeah, it's a it's a really good like point, you know.
9:58
Daniel Bui: Like if I say like, oh look, this is my mum's recipe and I'm gonna share it with you.
10:02
Daniel Bui: That means you love that dish so much that you never want that dish to die.
10:06
Simran Whitham: Yeah, I absolutely love that and agree with it.
10:08
Simran Whitham: So my missus is Jamaican and they have a secret family recipe for making Achean salt fish, and it's a it the way to make it is very difficult to do it authentically.
10:19
Simran Whitham: Like you, I don't know if you do you cook some Caribbean cuisine.
10:22
Simran Whitham: Yeah, but not Akean saltfish yet.
10:23
Simran Whitham: Yeah, so she does it, but the family have a very specific way of doing it, and it's been passed down from grandmother, from great-grandmother to granddaughter.
10:31
Simran Whitham: Um, my missus is now the one to inherit it, so she's the only one who knows how to cook it for that family, and it's you're right, it is that we are seeing less and less people inheriting traditional family recipes.
10:43
Simran Whitham: For me, it was shepherd's pie and gravy.
10:46
Simran Whitham: That's what I associate with mine.
10:47
Simran Whitham: What's yours, Andy?
10:49
Andy Coley: Um a lot of a lot of the food we ate was quite sort of core food, meat and veg, and pies and pasties and that kind of stuff.
10:56
Andy Coley: But interestingly, I actually have my nan's recipe card box,
11:01
Daniel Bui: that's amazing.
11:01
Andy Coley: She's got the box with fruit, and then she's got lots of other things where she's handwritten her recipes for cakes and bakes and um all those kinds of things as well.
11:10
Andy Coley: So there's a little bit of my Nan still lives in my kitchen with those recipe cards in there that were, you know, at the time like Reader's Digest or somewhere like that, like like card set, but then in amongst it, there's also her personality and her stuff.
11:24
Andy Coley: And it's not that they're necessarily these uh amazing recipes that are going to change the world, but they're like her recipes for the things that we enjoyed when we were growing up as well.
11:36
Andy Coley: I just love like the fact I've still own those and still have those.
11:40
Daniel Bui: That's amazing.
11:40
Daniel Bui: You know how rare that is.
11:42
Simran Whitham: It is so rare,
11:43
Daniel Bui: it's so rare.
11:43
Daniel Bui: So you are blessed.
11:44
Andy Coley: I'll have to bring the round to you because we we chatted we're not actually we don't live that far from each other.
11:48
Andy Coley: So maybe I'll bring some of my nan's recipes over.
11:50
Daniel Bui: Please, let's let's do an exchange.
11:51
Daniel Bui: Yeah, yeah, that sounds fun.
11:53
Simran Whitham: On the subject of exchange, you said that you only eat 20% of the food that you cook and you give 80% away.
11:58
Simran Whitham: Can I have a volunteer to be the 80%?
12:00
Daniel Bui: Of course.
12:00
Simran Whitham: Whenever you're in London, anyone is welcome in my house.
12:03
Simran Whitham: Like, obviously, my house is for people.
12:04
Simran Whitham: I love what you said about friends coming to because I do that every single year.
12:08
Simran Whitham: Yeah, every single year for my birthday, I get all my friends and invite them out for food.
12:14
Simran Whitham: It is what my annual tradition that I look so forward to because I've got a lot of friends that are CEOs of businesses, but then some are just everyday people living their lives, and then when they come together at that meal, even though some of them don't know each other, because it's become an annual tradition, they'll go, All right, I'll see that guy every year at Simran's birthday.
12:31
Simran Whitham: Yeah, they just drop the pretenses and just be human, and it's just so nice to see people not be the CEO of a business or not or interact with someone they normally wouldn't because they have that food, and the food is just that connecting element that we've really lost, which is why I love what your TED talk is about.
12:49
Simran Whitham: I I I'm not allowed to say which one's what my favourite, but I absolutely like I love the route you've gone with yours because it is so it's just so universal and connects to everyone.
12:59
Daniel Bui: Yeah, thank you so much.
13:00
Daniel Bui: I'm honoured, honestly.
13:01
Daniel Bui: Yeah, but I'm really excited for the talk.
13:03
Daniel Bui: There's so much like I genuinely feel like it's such a big topic to tackle, especially in that we live in such a lonely society.
13:11
Daniel Bui: Like, I like don't get me wrong, like I I feel lonely at times, but for me, you to tackle loneliness begins with yourself, right?
13:20
Daniel Bui: Yeah, it begins with you reaching out, and for me, like one way it's it starts with a dish, then it but then it all can also end with a meal, right?
13:29
Daniel Bui: So, yeah, I always encourage people to like feed us, you know, share those those family recipes, you know, like you know, your grandmother's cars, you know, share them with people.
13:38
Daniel Bui: Because as I said, food conveys such a message.
13:41
Daniel Bui: I I'm able to understand, like if someone over spices or but like makes their if if a Nigerian auntie makes her jollof more spicy, I'm saying, okay, but I understand like her her palate, right?
13:53
Daniel Bui: Yeah, her palate for spicy food.
13:55
Daniel Bui: And you said even if I have a jolof rice blindfolded, right?
13:58
Daniel Bui: I I've eaten all the different jollof rices, like I just love like different types of culture.
14:02
Daniel Bui: I'm able to understand like which one comes from different, like which country it comes from, right?
14:07
Daniel Bui: Based on its spices, the meats, you know, the the ratio, the rice itself, like yeah, food itself, you know when they say of you know a picture tells yeah, tell yeah, the story of a thousand words or whatever.
14:19
Daniel Bui: I feel like food can do the same.
14:21
Simran Whitham: And if you traveled to a lot of countries to learn how they make the disorder, do you just intensely study, do you study on your own, or do you travel a lot to try different foods?
14:29
Daniel Bui: I travel a lot, yeah.
14:30
Daniel Bui: So I travel to even the most rogue places.
14:33
Daniel Bui: So I've been like Syria, Ethiopia, um, a lot of Middle East.
14:37
Daniel Bui: I did a bit of Africa with the Mauritius stuff.
14:40
Daniel Bui: Every time I travel, I try to really nail learning the food.
14:46
Daniel Bui: Like whether it's the spices, I always love bringing back the spices as well and using the spices as well.
14:51
Simran Whitham: My missus is the same.
14:52
Simran Whitham: Anywhere we go away, she's like, that's for cooking.
14:55
Simran Whitham: Yeah, it's that Jamaica, like, because they love their spices and their herbs, and she's the she's exactly like you.
15:01
Simran Whitham: It's like listening to my missus talk when you speak.
15:04
Daniel Bui: Yeah, um, but yeah, I just love like uh I love trying everything.
15:09
Daniel Bui: Give me the if it's I I don't even like calling food weird.
15:13
Daniel Bui: Yeah, because weird is very relative, right?
15:15
Daniel Bui: People in that country won't find it weird.
15:18
Daniel Bui: Like I might find it weird, but like I won't even I don't like calling food weird because I don't think food is weird, like any food uh it's like like for example, a prime example is in uh our culture, I'm from Hong Kong.
15:30
Daniel Bui: Um we love chicken feet.
15:32
Daniel Bui: And 50% of my English friends who you try to eat chicken feet, they're like, oh, that's weird, that's disgusting.
15:38
Daniel Bui: I'm like, you eat chicken every day, yeah, right?
15:41
Daniel Bui: You you could you know, you know, that that's a part of the thing you eat every single day, right?
15:45
Daniel Bui: So yeah, um, so yeah, like that might be deemed weird, but I try everything under the sun.
15:51
Daniel Bui: I'll go there, whether it's too spicy or it's cooked or raw, like I love, as I said, like the food tells a story, and I'm able to understand that culture through that food.
16:01
Andy Coley: You'll have to um have a quick conversation with Matty White because he was on uh on a podcast recently.
16:05
Andy Coley: Um, and the the the people in the room were talking about eating chicken feet.
16:08
Andy Coley: Oh, really?
16:09
Andy Coley: Yeah, yeah, it's uh it came in a couple of days ago, that one.
16:11
Andy Coley: So okay, okay, okay.
16:12
Andy Coley: You have to share your love of chicken feet, remember.
16:14
Daniel Bui: Yeah, yeah, I love chicken feet.
16:15
Daniel Bui: Oh my gosh, it's so good.
16:16
Daniel Bui: so gelatinous is beautiful.
16:17
Simran Whitham: I've tried chicken feet.
16:18
Daniel Bui: Have you tried it?
16:18
Daniel Bui: Yes, that's my feet.
16:20
Simran Whitham: My missus has made it before as well.
16:21
Simran Whitham: Really?
16:22
Simran Whitham: Oh, yeah, my missus makes everything.
16:23
Simran Whitham: Ironically, this and she won't mess.
16:25
Simran Whitham: Yeah, oh mate.
16:27
Daniel Bui: This is why this is how we bonded.
16:29
Daniel Bui: Yeah.
16:29
Daniel Bui: Our first conversation was just about food.
16:32
Simran Whitham: This is my favourite topic in the whole world.
16:33
Simran Whitham: Anyone who looks at my...
16:35
Simran Whitham: Andy will testify to this.
16:36
Simran Whitham: My Instagram stories are just 90% food.
16:38
Daniel Bui: I love it, I love it.
16:39
Simran Whitham: I love it because food to me is just it so you talked about loneliness.
16:43
Simran Whitham: My TEDx talked was about loneliness last year as well.
16:45
Simran Whitham: I talked about community, and I talked basically about community conduits, which is a phrase that I coined and invented, which basically everyone has their way of bringing community into their life.
16:54
Simran Whitham: Mine was events, yours is food.
16:57
Simran Whitham: And food is just something that brings us all together.
17:00
Simran Whitham: Everyone likes events, no matter what type they are, because they can connect with people.
17:03
Simran Whitham: Everyone likes food because it brings them just joy and brings them connection.
17:08
Simran Whitham: It's so interesting what you said about what the food tells about a culture and its history.
17:13
Simran Whitham: So, on that, I went to Thailand three years ago, and you were talking about weird.
17:18
Simran Whitham: So it was my first time seeing cockroaches and scorpions, and someone offered me a centipede on a stick.
17:24
Simran Whitham: My first thought was get that away from me, God know.
17:26
Simran Whitham: But what someone explained to me like why this culture eats these foods, and it was because in Thailand and China and other countries they suffered from famines quite a lot, and a lot of villages would survive off insects that they could find in forests because there just wasn't enough food, so then they got inventive and creative with literally whatever they could find to eat, and then that's part of their culture, that's their history because that's how these people survived, and that's part of their history now.
17:51
Simran Whitham: So, and it's part of what makes them proud.
17:53
Simran Whitham: So, like you know, I don't look at food and go, it's weird, yeah.
17:57
Simran Whitham: Like it's this is their culture, respect it.
17:59
Simran Whitham: It's why I get a little bit annoyed.
18:01
Simran Whitham: Like, I don't know how you feel about this, but as a Brit, I do get annoyed, it's predominantly Americans, and say British food is awful.
18:06
Simran Whitham: I'm like cinnamon rolls, sticky toffee pudding, right?
18:10
Simran Whitham: Shepherd's pie, right?
18:11
Daniel Bui: You know, I actually made I'm posting a video about that today.
18:14
Daniel Bui: British food as an Asian person, yeah.
18:16
Simran Whitham: Like we've got
18:17
Daniel Bui: some really hangers, man.
18:19
Daniel Bui: I love English I love British food so much.
18:22
Daniel Bui: Like, as an Asian, there was so much hate around it being bland.
18:24
Daniel Bui: I'm like, this yeah, like salt and pepper is all you need on a lot of food.
18:28
Daniel Bui: Yeah, yes, yeah, it is like you don't you don't need cumin, paprika in everything, like please, like honestly, like you salt and pepper is all you need, like chill like and and technique, you know, and a bit of science and a bit of technique.
18:40
Daniel Bui: But like for me, what I've learned is salt and pepper is all you need.
18:43
Simran Whitham: You talk about the science quite a lot in a lot of your videos.
18:47
Simran Whitham: Like, what is this science?
18:48
Simran Whitham: Because you always say it's the science of making food, but have you distilled this science down into a singular form or sequence that you're allowed to share anyway?
18:56
Simran Whitham: Like, what is this science of making a meal?
18:59
Daniel Bui: Not not in particular.
19:00
Daniel Bui: For me, um, I love to study the whys of a lot of things, pretty much everything.
19:05
Daniel Bui: Like, why do things happen?
19:07
Daniel Bui: Like, why do things work and why are recipes like great, right?
19:12
Daniel Bui: Yeah, and I think a lot of the recipes I've seen online, they don't describe the processes of they just say, do this.
19:18
Daniel Bui: I'm like, why are we doing this?
19:20
Daniel Bui: And I like then I just started digging into like reading books on like the certain things that happen, like the chemical reactions that happen behind a certain step, and you know, like how gluten works, for example.
19:33
Daniel Bui: Like I mean when I made fish and chips, how like vodka suppresses the gluten to allow the batter to make you know, it's these kind of things that help me become a better chef.
19:42
Daniel Bui: And once you understand these things, and also like stuff like temperature control, like it's so so important, like understanding temperature control and how that affects the meat itself.
19:52
Daniel Bui: And also, yeah, for me, it's just the when I when I nerd out on the science a bit, it genuinely makes me just a better chef.
19:59
Daniel Bui: Uh so that's uh for me, uh, when I do describe a recipe, I just like it really, really enjoy or enjoy sharing the processes and why things work the way they do.
20:10
Daniel Bui: Yeah, yeah.
20:10
Daniel Bui: So it's more of a why thing, I think.
20:13
Daniel Bui: I think it helps people engage more with the recipe and actually learn something.
20:17
Daniel Bui: That's this is how I learn.
20:18
Daniel Bui: Yeah, and the way I learn is through food.
20:20
Daniel Bui: Like I also like you know, one of one of my things I do, I I make food inspired by the Bible as well.
20:25
Daniel Bui: So, like my one of my ways is I incorporate making foods and then kind of linking it to whatever I read in the Bible too.
20:35
Daniel Bui: Yeah, yeah.
20:35
Daniel Bui: So it's just like that's that's also my way of kind of learning things as well.
20:40
Andy Coley: A lot of your stuff brings together food and community and scripture and yeah, and faith and religion.
20:46
Andy Coley: Like why does that pay play such an important part of you know your approach and who you are?
20:53
Daniel Bui: Well, um, you know, faith is a really big part of my life.
20:56
Daniel Bui: Um, God is a really big part of my life, and um, you know, I became I was always a Christian, but like I kind of made it more prominent in my life and more of a mission to to to to learn and to seek um you know Jesus and stuff like that.
21:13
Daniel Bui: So for me, uh it all started as just like giving back to to you know God and to be able to share the good news of Jesus uh through food.
21:28
Daniel Bui: And food is uh as I said, is it's just a way to bring everyone together and it relates to every single person on this earth.
21:34
Daniel Bui: We all eat three times a day, sometimes more, sometimes less, but we all eat every single day.
21:38
Daniel Bui: So food for me is a reminder that we can use to incur like to to bring back to bring people back to to God or to bring people to him, you know.
21:51
Daniel Bui: So and as I said, I use it as a way because when I read um scripture, I love to like there's so Much meaning behind it, and I love to kind of integrate those meanings with the processes of cooking, you know.
22:07
Daniel Bui: So, like I you know, when it talks about um I don't know, prime example, it's like let's say like parable, or uh like there's so many, there's like 30 parables in uh 26 unique parables in the gospels, and you can I could easily make a dish from every single parable, like the parable of the soa, for example.
22:28
Daniel Bui: So you know, I could like I made a poppy seed loaf, you know, talking about the seeds being integrated in a loaf, you're able to see all the seeds in the loaf, the loaf kind of represents the soil, and then the seeds are what's being planted, right?
22:41
Daniel Bui: So, um, so yeah, it's just kind of kind of crossing the food element with the scripture.
22:49
Daniel Bui: Like, as I said, there's just so many ways that you can do it, and like I found a unique way I could do it as well.
22:54
Daniel Bui: But there's uh I just really interested, like I've I've made I can I believe I can make food in every single topic.
22:59
Daniel Bui: I even made it on love languages.
23:00
Daniel Bui: I I I even said like food is every single love language.
23:04
Daniel Bui: Yeah, you know,
23:05
Simran Whitham: I've seen your video on this.
23:06
Daniel Bui: Yeah, yeah.
23:06
Daniel Bui: I believe food is every like every single love language.
23:10
Daniel Bui: So um like it's an act of service when you're cooking for someone, it's a gift when you give it to someone, um, it's quality time because after you cook, you're gonna be spending quality time.
23:21
Daniel Bui: So yeah, so it's just like I believe it's it's so universal.
23:26
Daniel Bui: Yeah, it's it's it's the I think people can see it in so much more than one dimension, yeah, than sustenance or nutrition.
23:36
Daniel Bui: Honestly, like people can view it in like in different ways, yeah.
23:40
Daniel Bui: And when they can, just like and when they do it that way, they can start to like implement it into different areas of like their life or in in other like as I use it in scripture as well.
23:52
Daniel Bui: How I can integrate that.
23:54
Daniel Bui: So yeah, it's it's so universal and it's amazing.
23:57
Daniel Bui: I love it.
23:58
Andy Coley: And food plays an important part of a lot of religions, doesn't it?
24:00
Andy Coley: You know, 100%.
24:01
Andy Coley: Certainly in in the Islamic religion when I was in Ramadan before, and you exactly often have a date and some water before you go into a Iftar.
24:09
Andy Coley: And so there's a there's food plays quite a big part in various ways, from sustenance as well, but also in the the stopping of food as part of the act of showing deference or or discipline or those sort of things as well.
24:26
Andy Coley: And it's so interesting how that plays out in a lot of people's sort of religious perspectives.
24:34
Daniel Bui: But even in the in the religious books, in the Hebrew, in Homer itself, you know, in the letters of Paul, like in the Bible, they are they all have a part where there's where people are come together, yeah, and they eat when communion in the Bible, because you have Ramadan, you have the you know, um, like I was invited when I was in Indonesia, like it was during Ramadan, people would invite me midnight or after hours, and they would invite me into the house.
25:00
Daniel Bui: Some random stranger, I was walking by myself, and they'd say, Oh, come eat with us, you know.
25:03
Daniel Bui: And uh, it's amazing, you know.
25:04
Daniel Bui: So it's uh food is is so it's it's it's so important.
25:07
Simran Whitham: And I've experienced that dual faith food element.
25:10
Simran Whitham: So I'm half Indian, so my other half of my family is Sikh, but I'm a Christian like yourself.
25:15
Simran Whitham: That's what actually drew us to chat because I loved I loved your approach to incorporating food into scripture.
25:20
Simran Whitham: And well, one of the most famous paintings alive is of food, The Last Supper.
25:25
Simran Whitham: Yeah, with that is literally one of those for
25:26
Daniel Bui: I saw that live, like in Paris.
25:27
Daniel Bui: Yeah, one of the Was it in Paris?
25:29
Daniel Bui: There's one in Paris, I think.
25:31
Simran Whitham: I'm sure it's Rome.
25:31
Daniel Bui: It's Rome.?
25:32
Simran Whitham: I'll be able to verify that in a month. [Editor note... its in Milan, Italy]
25:34
Daniel Bui: No, there is there is one in Italy.
25:35
Daniel Bui: No, the main one is in
25:37
Simran Whitham: one of the most famous depictions of all time is literally of the dinner table and how it brings people together.
25:42
Simran Whitham: Yeah, and when I was in India visiting my family in 2019, I went to the Golden Temple with my granddad.
25:48
Simran Whitham: And when you walk in, the first thing they do is they give you a load of raisins, and then you eat the raisins together when you all lay down with each other.
25:56
Simran Whitham: I wasn't I couldn't pray because I said this isn't a yeah, I can't pray, but I will I will eat with you.
26:02
Simran Whitham: Yeah, so I ate with I didn't get on my knees and bend, obviously, because as a Christian I couldn't do that, but I said I will eat with you and share in this moment with you.
26:09
Simran Whitham: And even in those ceremonies, the food plays such a huge part as well.
26:14
Simran Whitham: Like communion with the Bible in the Sikh temple, Ramadan, like food connects everyone, no matter what race, ethnicity, or religion.
26:22
Daniel Bui: That's why I love it.
26:23
Daniel Bui: I think, like as I said, like the table is the the place you can be vulnerable and just really be like it does well when I invite anyone to my table, like we there is no division.
26:35
Daniel Bui: Yeah, like I'll I'll cook your food, I'll cook my food, you know.
26:38
Daniel Bui: I uh it doesn't matter, you know, your way we're gonna eat together.
26:41
Daniel Bui: Yeah, and and that's a great example, you know.
26:43
Daniel Bui: Like you're you were invited, they didn't reject you, you did they didn't say no, you're not allowed to eat with us.
26:48
Daniel Bui: No, they said yeah, it was amazing.
26:51
Simran Whitham: It was a huge culture shock for them as well because they'd never met me before, and my granddad neglected to tell them that I was a even though I'm not white, I'm mixed race, but he was like, Yeah, it's a white British boy's turn up in my family village.
27:02
Simran Whitham: They'd not seen a Caucasian person in 50 years because they lived in northern India, so I was like a celebrity.
27:08
Simran Whitham: But the first thing they did, as soon as we arrived, literally this whole village, it's inviting his house, they cooked food.
27:14
Simran Whitham: It was the first thing, and this was at two o'clock in the morning after eight hours of travel from New Delhi airport to the north of India.
27:22
Simran Whitham: First thing they did at 2 a.m.
27:23
Simran Whitham: in the morning was cook literally a full meal for us all.
27:27
Simran Whitham: I love it.
27:27
Simran Whitham: Someone they didn't even know, and they literally just went, Here's a spread for you.
27:31
Daniel Bui: Yeah, I've had many of the of those kind of experiences when I travel because I always travel alone.
27:36
Daniel Bui: So, like in Lebanon, I was like hitchhiking, and people would invite me to their homes when I was on a bus, they'll be like, Oh, you know, your guest, and they would just invite me and they would cook me like their specialty food.
27:48
Daniel Bui: I remember having like lamb intestines.
27:50
Daniel Bui: I loved it by the way.
27:51
Daniel Bui: It was like a soup lamb intestine, and um and yeah, they just have me.
27:56
Daniel Bui: As I said, like I learned so much about from that experience.
27:59
Daniel Bui: Like, it's it's good to go to a restaurant, but when you can go to home, yeah, go to someone's home.
28:04
Simran Whitham: Or it's there's something about home cooking.
28:06
Simran Whitham: You just took, I was just about to say, I think we can all agree, all four of us in this room, yeah, nothing beats a home cooked meal.
28:13
Simran Whitham: I've literally just been away in Scotland all week.
28:15
Simran Whitham: I've wanted nothing more than a home cooked meal from my missus.
28:19
Simran Whitham: Like, it's just there's something about home cooking that just hits different than any restaurant.
28:24
Daniel Bui: Yeah, it's like that scene in Ratatouille, you know, when Anton Ego, Ego the food critic at the end, he has this ratatouille and he and it reminds him of the food he ate as a child.
28:35
Daniel Bui: Yeah, that's that's for me, that's like the perfect depiction of home food.
28:39
Daniel Bui: Yeah, when he just like he eats it and he just can't stop, you know.
28:43
Andy Coley: And it's is there a particular flavor or um standout story that's really that is your do you know what?
28:51
Andy Coley: When it's when it's my time, that's the time I'm really gonna remember my life in relation to food.
28:57
Simran Whitham: Oh, that's a deep one, for you.
28:59
Daniel Bui: That's a deep one.
28:59
Daniel Bui: You know what?
29:00
Daniel Bui: People always ask me, like, well, if I could eat one meal for the rest of my life, what would you eat?
29:04
Daniel Bui: I suggest kill me.
29:05
Daniel Bui: I don't I don't want to eat one meal for it.
29:07
Andy Coley: But is there something you've experienced already that is just that that one, like, oh, that's that was a moment that I can never really put into words, but I'd like you to to put it in some kind of words, but it's it's the it's the it's the thing that's the story that I will.
29:21
Daniel Bui: Every day is a new like story.
29:23
Daniel Bui: There's so many stories, right?
29:24
Daniel Bui: As I said, um like every time I try something new, like yesterday I went to Sabor's uh it's a Michelin restaurant in London, uh a really good one of my favourite restaurants in London.
29:33
Daniel Bui: I had one of the octopus, and I can just I right now I could just remember the smoky tomato.
29:40
Daniel Bui: Like uh it was a moharaho, which is like a red sauce.
29:45
Daniel Bui: It's like it was just I could just remember the smoky notes and the tomato and the peppers.
29:50
Daniel Bui: But on this one dish that just really like I can always like come back to and just like it's my mum's uh my mom's pho, which is like a noodle soup.
30:03
Daniel Bui: Every time I have a spoon of that, it's it's just as I it reminds me of that scene of Anton Ego as a as an adult, like 30 years old, as an adult just drinking that soup, just flying back in time.
30:14
Daniel Bui: Um, because she hasn't changed that recipe for a long time.
30:17
Daniel Bui: Yeah, and it's just for me, it's just in Vietnamese culture, actually, it's the funny thing is every pho, like every best pho is your mum's best pho.
30:26
Daniel Bui: Yeah, we all I always have arguments with my friends.
30:28
Daniel Bui: We're like, oh yeah, my mum makes the best pho.
30:30
Daniel Bui: You know, my friend, my friends would be like, Oh no, my mum makes the best pho.
30:33
Daniel Bui: And I've tried theirs, I'm like, oh yeah, it's nice, you know.
30:36
Daniel Bui: But as I said, that pho or that that home cooked meal has a story to that person, yeah, yeah.
30:42
Simran Whitham: It's so lovely that spreads across different cultures for me.
30:45
Simran Whitham: Growing it was my mum's Sunday roast is better than your mum's Sunday roast.
30:49
Daniel Bui: Yeah, so it's uh yeah, it's it's it's it's very, very um, it's very, very like it's catered to yourself, yeah.
30:58
Simran Whitham: Yeah, so it's I'm not gonna ask you the painful question because you kind of already answered it.
31:02
Simran Whitham: I was gonna ask, like, if you had to pick a favourite culture of food that you've had, which one?
31:07
Simran Whitham: But I imagine that's an impossible question.
31:08
Daniel Bui: Yeah, I love I love changing.
31:10
Daniel Bui: I'm I'm cooking new things every day.
31:12
Simran Whitham: If you had to kind of pinpoint one or two dishes, what what's kind of like if I all right, I'll tell you what, I'll ask the age-old question.
31:19
Simran Whitham: They tell you you're your time's up tomorrow, like you got you got one last dish and you you got one last meal.
31:24
Simran Whitham: What is Daniel Bui's last meal?
31:27
Simran Whitham: Um I I've I've spoken about pho before, but one would be like one of my my mom's pho.
31:34
Simran Whitham: Um I just I just love it.
31:37
Simran Whitham: Um I think yeah, that would be the only meal I think I wouldn't like I think if you could put any great good dish.
31:45
Simran Whitham: Actually, you know what?
31:47
Simran Whitham: My great my last meal would be like if I'm with depend like if I'm really really coast meal, I would want to have their favourite last meal.
31:56
Simran Whitham: Because I think I would just like would love to just be able to sit with my my best friend and just to be able to enjoy their food, and I can remember like their food as well.
32:05
Simran Whitham: Like of course I don't really have a favourite food, you know.
32:07
Simran Whitham: Like uh my food, my my my my favourites they change every day, you know.
32:11
Simran Whitham: Not I wouldn't say every day, um, but yeah, I think as I said, I really really enjoy food with a lot of people.
32:18
Simran Whitham: Like I barely I can I I can't I do eat alone, but I try not to eat alone a lot of the times of the week, yeah.
32:26
Simran Whitham: Well we spoke a lot about food, but you're not just a chef, even though that is part why you sat here.
32:33
Simran Whitham: You also do a lot of marathon running.
32:35
Simran Whitham: Oh, yeah, you do a lot of bodybuilding training as well.
32:38
Simran Whitham: And how do you find that these other parts of your aspects have played into your life?
32:43
Simran Whitham: Are these just parts, are these for you outside of your cooking, or do you find that these have all helped towards discipline, or like what are what other things do you like to do outside of cooking food as well that make Dan Bui who he is today?
32:56
Simran Whitham: Well, yeah, so I do a lot of like I love moving, so I've I've I used to compete in like powerlifting, I did a bodybuilding show, uh, and I ran like for the last I think I ran seven marathons in the last year, and I just got really addicted to running.
33:14
Simran Whitham: Um, but I think I just really really enjoy in enjoy moving my body.
33:20
Simran Whitham: One, I get to eat more, yeah.
33:22
Simran Whitham: Of course, honestly, like when you're running a lot, you get you're burning a lot, yeah.
33:26
Simran Whitham: Yeah, so I get to eat a lot.
33:27
Daniel Bui: I see, I see.
33:28
Daniel Bui: It gives you an excuse to eat more.
33:30
Simran Whitham: Yeah, is that my my my big back behavior is justified, you know.
33:33
Simran Whitham: Like I'm allowed to eat a lot.
33:34
Simran Whitham: Um, so yeah, I I just love like trying new things.
33:39
Simran Whitham: Uh food is a big part of my life, but um life is also a big part of my life.
33:44
Simran Whitham: Um, and it's just enjoying that life as much as possible.
33:48
Simran Whitham: And whether if I die tomorrow, at least I say I've done something that really that's really cool.
33:51
Simran Whitham: Uh, I think I got to a point where I'm like tired of scrolling and I'm tired of using my phone, even as a content creator.
33:57
Simran Whitham: I just love like doing stuff outside and just love, I don't know, yeah, even just spending time with friends.
34:03
Simran Whitham: Um, but yeah, like marathon running.
34:05
Simran Whitham: I love like I love setting really unachievable goals.
34:08
Simran Whitham: Uh like I'm trying to get a sub-three-hour marathon, like by the end by next year, and I've been running for like a year now, so a lot of training.
34:16
Simran Whitham: Uh needs to um I do a lot of training.
34:20
Daniel Bui: Um, but most of it is just I think I just genuinely enjoy.
34:23
Daniel Bui: I just love moving my body.
34:24
Daniel Bui: I think I've I might I'm not uh I've not been diagnosed, but I think I might have ADHD, and I feel like it helps me regulate the ADHD.
34:33
Daniel Bui: I've I've seen so much research and and it really does help me like like all my best ideas come from when I'm moving, yeah like in the gym, or like you know, because I'm not only a chef, I also do like a little bit of filmmaking as well.
34:46
Daniel Bui: Um, and I love like storytelling, filmmaking, and all that stuff.
34:49
Daniel Bui: So uh like a lot of my ideas come from when I'm just in the zone in the gym, I'm just like, oh crap, you know, I can write that down.
34:56
Daniel Bui: And yeah, so it's I think it plays a big part of my life.
34:59
Daniel Bui: And I used to be really, really overweight as a child.
35:02
Daniel Bui: Uh I was like, when I was 16, I was like 120 kilos, I was like 5'9, you know, like um, and uh I think yeah, I just never what after that I was just tired of being like really fat.
35:14
Daniel Bui: I was really fat.
35:15
Daniel Bui: Um and I just said you know, I didn't want to do that anymore, like be big anymore.
35:20
Daniel Bui: So I just dropped all the weight in within a year, almost 50 kilos.
35:24
Daniel Bui: Um, so I was like back down to 69.
35:27
Daniel Bui: I was really skinny, and I came back to school one time, and people didn't recognize me because they were like, This guy is, you know, who's this guy, you know?
35:34
Daniel Bui: Yeah, because I was I was starting 6'4, uh, and then yeah, I think after that I just got really, really obsessed.
35:40
Daniel Bui: We're just like saying goals or trying new things in the gym and stuff like that.
35:44
Daniel Bui: And for me, I I think a lot of I make a lot of friends in in in those environments too.
35:48
Daniel Bui: Maybe it's just like like-mindedness.
35:51
Daniel Bui: Um, a lot of my closest friends now are the people I met in the gym, so that's also a way, uh, and I will of course like I always invite them to dinner and we have dinner as well, like after the gym and stuff like that.
36:02
Daniel Bui: So, yeah, um, like fitness is a big part of my life.
36:05
Daniel Bui: I I don't like to show it online, it's a very personal thing, yeah um, but it is a quite a big part of that, yeah.
36:13
Andy Coley: And obviously, you're doing the TEDx, joining us on the red dot in a few weeks' time.
36:17
Andy Coley: Oh my god.
36:18
Andy Coley: Up first, up first, yeah, you're assuming, yeah.
36:23
Andy Coley: What's it been like going through the process of the whole TEDx experience, working with your speaker coach and refining the ideas, and like you know, we sometimes like this is where I'd love to talk, and then as it gets further in, you go, Oh, actually, my whole talk has changed and pivoted and gone a different direction.
36:41
Andy Coley: Like, what's it been like from when we, you know, uh said we'd love you to come and and and be on the red dot to where you're gonna be when you actually join us on the 11th of September?
36:53
Daniel Bui: The process has been really fun.
36:55
Daniel Bui: I think it's because of my mentor.
36:57
Daniel Bui: She always honestly amazing.
36:59
Daniel Bui: I love every time we call her, she always comes with this big smile, this big energy.
37:03
Daniel Bui: It's so infectious.
37:04
Daniel Bui: I'm just like, she gets me hyped all the time.
37:07
Daniel Bui: Every time she's like, Daniel, you're so amazing.
37:09
Daniel Bui: I was like, Oh, say it one more time.
37:14
Simran Whitham: She does have that because I joined your session yesterday at the time of this recording, yeah.
37:19
Simran Whitham: And she's just like, Daniel, you are wonderful, yeah, wonderful.
37:24
Simran Whitham: The best way I can describe it, she's like, Gill, if you listen to this, I hope you like this comparison.
37:29
Simran Whitham: It's it's like she's from the Harry Potter universe and one of the wizard teachers.
37:33
Daniel Bui: So encouraging, like even like from her messages with voice notes, like she's um been really, really encouraging.
37:40
Daniel Bui: Like from when I was writing my script, I sent her the first draft.
37:44
Daniel Bui: She did so many corrections.
37:46
Daniel Bui: Um, but the process has been it's very new, you know.
37:50
Daniel Bui: I'm like public speaking is not my thing, yeah, right.
37:53
Daniel Bui: And it's it's just stepping out of that comfort zone and learning.
37:57
Daniel Bui: I'm I haven't done it yet, but it's also learning like memorization, you know, refining.
38:03
Daniel Bui: Like there was so much refining, by the way.
38:05
Daniel Bui: There's still a bit of refining, but like not crazy amounts, but um the process has been quite fun.
38:11
Daniel Bui: And like as the more I'm learning it, the more I'm memorizing it, the more I'm the more it's becoming real.
38:17
Daniel Bui: Yeah, it's kind of weird.
38:18
Daniel Bui: And it's like I go when I go um revise or like you know, study, not study, but memorize my script.
38:26
Daniel Bui: I I do it in like the more obscure places.
38:28
Daniel Bui: Like I'll just do it like on a walk on the river, and it looks like I'm you know crazy just talking to like thin air.
38:33
Daniel Bui: So it's uh um so the process has been really, really enjoyable.
38:38
Daniel Bui: Like I really, really enjoy it.
38:39
Daniel Bui: Um, and to be first, and it's really when Sim said, Oh Daniel, you're gonna be first, by the way.
38:44
Daniel Bui: I was like, Whoa, yeah, I was yeah, nerve-wracking, a lot of pressure because the first person in the views you said sets the whole tone of the day.
38:54
Daniel Bui: Yeah, so for me, it's a lot of pressure, but you know, you know, diamonds are built under pressure.
39:00
Simran Whitham: So I I think anyone who's listened or watched this right now, after seeing just how passionate about food you are, can see why I wanted you to go up first.
39:08
Simran Whitham: It's infectious, it is, and I can hear the passion now when you talk about your upbringing with your mum, your favorite meal, bringing your friends together, all these experiences that you've had with food.
39:19
Simran Whitham: That this is what it's infectious.
39:21
Simran Whitham: You are you are, and to repeat Gill yesterday, you are infectious, like your love for food comes through so much.
39:29
Daniel Bui: Yeah, thank you so much.
39:30
Daniel Bui: Yeah, my food, my food will love a lot for food, will never stop.
39:33
Daniel Bui: Even cooking, as I said, it's just it's not even the food like part.
39:37
Daniel Bui: The food is a big part, don't get me wrong.
39:39
Daniel Bui: It's just the people, yeah, as well.
39:42
Daniel Bui: Yeah, yeah, it's the people that I get to have around the table, and it's always new.
39:46
Daniel Bui: Like, I'll uh there is like you don't have to be like of course I'm I'm a Christian, like you don't have to be a Christian to be invited to my table.
39:53
Daniel Bui: You can be anything, you know.
39:55
Daniel Bui: For me, it's as I said, you can you you food will just make you vulnerable.
39:59
Andy Coley: So yeah, there's a there's a friend of mine who runs something called Peace of Cake.
40:03
Andy Coley: Oh, that's odd all about multi-faith and joining together and people of all all faiths, all religions for Christians, yeah, um, Muslims, Jews.
40:12
Andy Coley: Yeah, they come together, and particularly in times when there's been trouble and strife.
40:17
Andy Coley: Um, and she just runs this whole thing around using that that food to do that, and uh again, fairly local to where you are, so I'll let you know when the next one is.
40:28
Daniel Bui: I love that.
40:29
Daniel Bui: Yeah, please invite me.
40:30
Daniel Bui: Yeah, yeah.
40:30
Daniel Bui: I'd love to do that.
40:32
Andy Coley: You'd love to love to go to that.
40:33
Daniel Bui: Yeah, yeah.
40:33
Daniel Bui: I just like for me, I'm actually like, even as a Christian, like I'm just tired of debating.
40:38
Daniel Bui: Yeah, but I'm just tired of saying who's right and who's wrong.
40:41
Daniel Bui: I'm just I just like why can't we just sit down and just be nice to each other, you know?
40:44
Daniel Bui: Like, yeah, I feel like food will help with that.
40:47
Daniel Bui: Yeah, I've never seen a debate where people are eating.
40:50
Daniel Bui: Yeah, can you imagine the president?
40:51
Daniel Bui: All debates are like stood in the Oxford, like, you know, you know, in a on a like it's so professional, but like maybe a bit ruffles, some feathers are ruffled in the conversation.
41:01
Simran Whitham: But I think that should be the new presidential and prime minister debate.
41:04
Simran Whitham: So I think instead of the podiums, they should have to sit there and eat a dish that the other candidate says this is my favourite food, and then the debate over the food.
41:13
Simran Whitham: Yeah, I think that that would be a better format.
41:16
Andy Coley: Eat a dish, the other one's cooked.
41:18
Daniel Bui: Yeah, even better.
41:20
Simran Whitham: This might be a controversial question for you, actually, but in your opinion, who's the best chef out there that that you or who which is the chef that you would say that you look up to the most?
41:32
Simran Whitham: I think there's many chefs I look up to.
41:35
Daniel Bui: Um I guess like it's very I think everyone's probably is like for me, one of the most impactful was like Gordon Ramsay.
41:43
Daniel Bui: I guess I watched a lot of his video, Heston Blumenthal when there's science behind them.
41:46
Daniel Bui: That's why the science stuff came in.
41:48
Daniel Bui: Because I used to watch his like three-day chicken and you know triple cooked chips, and you know, and he's always spoken about the science behind them, which fascinated me.
41:56
Daniel Bui: Um but I think uh like I talk about my mom a lot, uh, but it sounds but my mom is probably like the first person who initiated my journey of cooking, yeah, because she has such a passion for cooking, and like even till this day, and she has no one to feed because I live out like away from home now, but she is still cooking, like she she still like she'll she always comes up with these crazy like the thing is she doesn't even use the internet, like she just comes up with these things, and I'm here scouring it recipes, and she just says, Okay, let me try this.
42:26
Daniel Bui: And I feel like yeah, that experience has as as much even more as AI comes, you know, these days, like people are missing their enjoyment of testing.
42:35
Daniel Bui: And there my mom does it, she's had so many iterations of her.
42:38
Daniel Bui: She was like, she made like chicken skin crisp.
42:41
Daniel Bui: I'm like, oh she just like randomly served it on a table one day and she was like, Oh yeah, I made this.
42:46
Daniel Bui: I'm like, I didn't use I didn't fry it, I just used the fat from the skin.
42:49
Daniel Bui: She just pulled it in a pot and just let it slowly render, and then just it fries in its own fat, and then she takes it out.
42:56
Daniel Bui: I was like, Mom, how'd you how do you discover this?
42:58
Daniel Bui: And then I was like, Oh, I want to take that recipe, and then yeah, I just I took it and then I was like, This is this is really, really cool.
43:03
Daniel Bui: My mum did that without any internet or anything, she just discovered that herself.
43:07
Daniel Bui: Like, yeah, probably my mum.
43:10
Daniel Bui: Yeah, I think my mum is like the the the person that started it, but the person who got me into the nitty gritty Heston, like the bigger chefs, you know, Claire Smith, um, like Heston, you know, and Gordon and stuff like that.
43:23
Daniel Bui: So but um my mum was the first person that got me because I saw her, she was the first person I saw.
43:28
Simran Whitham: Okay.
43:29
Title: This is the TEDx Northern Quarter podcast.