“I don't believe you can ever really cook unless you love eating.”
Hello! Thank you for visiting our website, Nutty Foodie.
Nutty Foodie is a joint effort of two old friends who have known each other for more than 18 years. Valerene and Alister met while in high school back in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia and have been good friends ever since.
Alister moved to Melbourne in 2003, and Valerene in 2007. They now proudly call Melbourne home.
Below is a short introduction of the two friends who are behind the scenes of Nutty Foodie.
Valerene Chin
Growing up in Malaysia, I was most fortunate to have enjoyed my mother's terrific cooking every single day. Memorable holidays and occasions always revolved around food. My mother is my ultimate inspiration in cooking (Nigella Lawson comes after); it was her cooking that made me discover my cultural heritage and realize how big a part food plays in culture. The amount of heart that my mum put into cooking also taught me quite a lot of things about love and family values.
When I moved to Australia, it was not easy to find heartwarming and welcoming Malaysian-Chinese home cooked food in local restaurants. Because I missed my mum's cooking so much, I decided to get a bit more serious with my cooking, and have since experimented much! A few years on, I have only gotten fonder of recreating my mum's food in my kitchen and experimenting even more!
My reason for cooking is simple - I love food, I enjoy feeding the people I love, so I cook.
And that is essentially who I am. I love my family (which includes my dog), I love people, and as long as they enjoy my cooking and are willing guinea pigs, cooking will be the art of love that I will never give up on.
I hope you have a good time exploring food with us on our website :)
Valerene Chin
Email: hello@valerene.com
Phone: +614 51 933 378
Alister Leong
My name is Alister, and I was born and raised in Sarawak, Malaysia until 2003 before moving to Melbourne, Australia.
Since young, I have loved watching cooking shows, my favourite being the Iron Chef. I am totally intrigued that one can use just a handful of cooking ingredients to produce a variety of dishes with different looks, smells, tastes and textures. The chefs literally put soul into the food that they cooked, bringing the dishes to life. At a young age of 10, I told myself that I want to be like the iron chef, to bring life into the dishes I cook.
Throughout the years, I have experimented with all kinds of cooking ingredients. Sometimes, I invented new recipes, but occasionally, the results were disastrous and it would go straight to the bin. My mum has always been my inspiration and a great teacher, passing down cooking tips and techniques that cannot be found in any cookbooks.
Food is my passion, and I find great joy when I can please someone with my cooking. As the Irish proverb goes - "Laughter is brightest, where food is best".
Alister Leong
Email: Alister.Leong@live.com
Phone: +614 33 222 108
