About

I’m Ian White… and this site is about my love of Asian cooking. I’m not a “professional” in the sense of working as a chef, but you don’t actually have to be employed at something to “be professional.”

I’m the proprietor of Whitepeppa Hampers. I supply “Cheat Cooking” hampers to help Aussies to take steps into the adventure of Asian cooking. Although I have been cooking predominantly Indian and S-E Asian meals for fifty years, they’ve kept me younger than those years by far, and I have a little private mission to de-mystify the myths of how hard or intricate it is to cook this type of food well.

I started this blog, with the help of my bro-in-law, Andrew, simply to try to add my little bit to help cut through the belief that all Asian dishes have some sort of a ritualistic masochism in their preparation. They don’t have to be that hard!! Over my years I have watched grow the availability of “pre-prepared” pastes and mixes that have become readily available in spice shops in Australia. If one is careful and savvy, these can be used to EASILY – and I mean “seriously easily” – produce dishes indistinguishable from the “authentic” (whatever authentic means).

So, my own message is for young people and people afraid to experiment with food, to listen up and find out how to use these preparations – with the addition of simple tricks in prepping and plating up – to create something that others would think they slaved over all day.

Finally, I have great respect for people who like the ritual of starting at the beginning. I like to do that myself when in the mood. But when someone is not that interested in the esoteric thread of the WHOLE process of cooking a dish from “dirt to dish,” yet they do it because they don’t know any other way, then I see that as some sort of indulgence that some might call culinary masturbation. Fine if it’s right for you: unnecessary if it’s not your bag, but you still want the finished product.