In 2006, while backpacking in Luang Prabang, Laos, Montrealer Catherine Irving and Australian chef Luke Clarke met and fell in love. Luke brought Catherine back to Australia where he managed the kitchens at restaurants in the Margaret River wine region, notably the Hay Shed Hill winery’s Café Deli, while Catherine began her career in the front of the house.
Drawn to the flavours, cooking techniques and way of life in South East Asia they finally made their way back to Luang Prabang in September 2013 but this time for a longer stint as head chef and F&B manager of The Apsara boutique hotel.
I sat down with them to shoot the video below in between the lunch and dinner services on the restaurant’s patio along the bank of the Nam Khan River. In it we discuss their impressions about the differences of working in the hospitality industry in Laos and Australia.
Can’t see the video? Click here.
This is part of an ongoing series on Southeast Asian Chefs. See the entire GFR series here.
Cameron Stauch is a chef currently living in Hanoi, Vietnam. He is eating and cooking his way around Asia in search of cooks and producers who are focused on preserving and enriching their local culinary ingredients and traditions. Follow him @camcooks.
