Welcome to my website. I am the author of ‘Vietnamese – Simple Vietnamese Food To Cook At Home’. I am a photographer and film maker. You can book into my supper club, Vietnamese cooking classes, buy my book, check out my photography and lots more here.
Please follow me on instagram @loveleluu – Thank you so much for visiting x
Best Food Photographer in London
The supper club is held in my home in London Fields, Hackney. It is like a dinner party in the tradition of a Vietnamese feast with homemade Vietnamese food.
Vietnamese food is about the balance of flavours, of sweet, salty and sour – there is no measuring device that can ever match your own taste buds.
Join me for a special Vietnamese cooking class on Sunday 20th May at Fifteen for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day where I will be passing on some of my Vietnamese food knowledge so that we can all make it and enjoy it at home. Book online and donate here
Happily on standby without knowing so, (there is a food chain and I am usually found somewhere at the bottom), Richard Vines, Food Critic at Bloomberg invited me to dine with him at the BA Pop Up in Shoreditch. Days before, it was launched by Heston Blumenthal, Richard E Grant and Tracey Emin.
We got to savour Heston Blumenthal and Simon Hulstone’s Olympic inspired dishes on an aircraft set as if we were flying somewhere.
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| Duck egg w roasted onion consomme, lemon thyme, gruyere cheese & tapioca. Salad of mustard leaves & salted walnuts |
I was very lucky to be Richard Vines‘ guest because Simon Hulstone especially prepared our dishes and gave us lots of treats, more than the three courses we ordered. Obviously, this is fine by me, my appetite is huge! Simon Hulstone, winner of the Great Britons food category is Head Chef at the Elephant restaurant in Torquay, Devon where he holds a Michelin star.
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| Salad of golden beet root, peppered goats curd, micro watercress & elderflower dressing |
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| Braised British beef, grain mustard & horseradish mash, confit of young carrots & hispi cabbage |
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| Sustainably sourced fish pie with a warm tartare sauce |
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| Rillette of Brixham mackerel, dill picked cucumber dashi jelly & croutes |
My favourite dishes were the salmon tartare, the yellow beetroot and the duck egg with tapioca. My phone ran out of battery before I can take pictures of the dessert which were a chocolate fondant and a lemon curd cheesecake – both amazing!
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| Richard Vines & Simon Hulstone |
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| Richard Vines & Niamh Shields – Author & Blogger Eat Like A Girl |
Tickets are £50 for a three course meal and a glass of champagne. However, they were sold out as soon as they were released and places are like gold dust. Opens 4 – 17 April only. I was incredibly lucky to eat here. Thank you to Richard Vines for inviting me.
You can read Richard Vines article on the BA Pop Up here
I suggested, The Roux At The Landau – at the Langham Hotel – Albert Roux & Michel Roux Jnr‘s first collaboration in 19 years. Michel Roux’s protégé, Chris King, Head Chef would be cooking our lunch.
Upon graduating with a first class English degree in 2004, Chris started his apprenticeship and worked under the guidance of Roux Jnr and mastered the classical cooking techniques.
Chris then moved to New York to work along side Thomas Keller until he was appointed Head Chef at The Landau. “Chris King is a rising star,” says Roux Jnr, “and his menus reflect the Roux trademark style of classically-constructed French dishes, blended with today’s tastes for lighter choices. He has a modern approach to combining ingredient, and a contemporary style of presentation.”
I love hearing stories like Chris King’s – it makes the experience of eating there even more of a jouissance and I take so much delight in pleasuring my taste buds.
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| Falafel |
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| roast quail with Marcona almonds, sour cherries and salt baked candy stripe beetroot |
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| Classic organic salmon and scallop cereals with a light sorrel butter |
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| grilled squid with cauliflower |
My favourite dishes were all that I ordered and didn’t order, the starter of roast quail with Marcona almonds, sour cherries and salt baked candy stripe beetroot and the falafel and the grilled squid with cauliflower treats.
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| grilled John Dory with Sardinian fregola and a green tomato and basil vinaigrette |
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| grilled sirloin of beef on the bone with cream spring greens and shallots baked with a savoy crumb |
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| Chris King’s office |
Set Lunches are around £39/ £49.
A La Carte Starters £11- £18, Mains £20 – £45, Desserts £9.50
1C Portland Pl London W1B 1JA
| 0207-965-0165 |
New Post on Ohh You Pretty Things:
Never tired of my heroine’s melodies, my heart almost broke as I watched Feist perform at the magical Royal Albert Hall – she was mesmerising, captivating a full audience to a silent stand still. All eyes were on this elegantly beautiful fracture of a soul – Leslie Feist who woed every heart and soul with the essence and ranges of her voice. We journeyed through the epic, Metals, after learning every chord in the last six months of its release, it was a true pleasure to hear her perform with her fantastic band, live!
READ MORE HERE
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| Octopus w potato & hazelnut milk |
If one day, my pocket allows me to eat regularly at Viajante – I would be a frequent flyer. I love the challenges you get there and dinning becomes more of an experience as well as a gift to the mouth. However, presently it doesn’t allow so I have The Corner Room – a beautiful and quirky breakfast room at The Town Hall Hotel in the local of my area – Bethnal Green. See here for my tour with Nuno Mendes.
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| seabass ceviche |
Starters are around £6 and mains about £12 – £14. You can have a 2 course lunch for about £15! Wonderful value for a menu that Nuno Mendes has (over time) played with in Viajante but after the hundreds of dishes he has created, these have not been discarded to The Corner Room but they are let to relive their former glory and for such prices – they shine just finely!
I first went on the first date here when it first opened. The date complained about the size of the table and ordered carrots for mains because it was £2 cheaper than the veal which I then had to reluctantly share! Silly pea!
The size of the table for two is rather a different sized table but I like it, its beautiful it makes you urge to reach to the other person because they are a little further away but it means there is comfortable room for all the food, the lovely bread and butter and the prosecco we would drink. I love the interior design of the room – its simple yet stylish yet laid back.
This time, I went back with my beautiful friend, Hungry In London, for a girlie afternoon of natter and chatter, comparing notes on love, life and fashion over a dinning experience and simply had the best time!
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| Neck of lamb w wild garlic & grains |
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| Onglet Steak w pine & celeriac |
Each dish we received came looking like a precision work of art and tasted gorgeous! Some reservation were that I didn’t receive a burst of flavours but rather just subtle ones. We couldn’t taste any wild garlic for example and the cheese on the cheese board wasn’t too special. But I am not sure if I am so spoilt by oriental flavours that bursts like bonfire on the tongue, however, the ingredients were incredible and I love this mastery of the chef! The neck of lamb and onglet steak were cooked pink to perfection and loved the small details that appeared. Each dish looked like a painting!
Some would argue that this type of fine dinning is rather pretentious but when you can have steak and chips anywhere and anytime slapped onto a plate, you have to appreciate the work and the creativity that goes into these dishes and I have to stress again – at such great value!!
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| Panna cotta ice cream with apple |
I would return and very often indeed. What a great place to take a date too because as my mother says, you are what you eat, how you eat it, share it and appreciate it.
Thank you to Nuno Mendes who invited us for a 2 course meal. We paid for dessert, cheese and a good few glasses of prosecco. Wonderful afternoon!
As a Blogger, you can sometimes get spoiled rotten. I was invited to eat Korean food at the modern, Kimchee in High Holborn. As I love Korean food and have spent quite a lot of time there, I waddled along for 5 courses of a Korean feast, each course, consisting of about 4 or 5 plates of food.
The Koreans usually eat with plenty of garnishing and pickles to accompany a dish so it is not unusual for the table to be filled with side dishes. In Korea, you do not even order them, everything comes with a ray of sides and importantly, it all comes with their national dish – kimchee.
The feast we had was amazing, from seafood and kimchee pancakes to jjigae (red chilli pepper miso soup with seafood, meat or kimchee), beautiful silky strips of steak tartare, kiwi marinaded beef and chicken bulgogi to bimbimbab – rice, pickles and meat cooked in a hot stone bowl. We got to try it all and I must say, the food is utterly stunning on this feast, especially the lemon sole – which is fried and has a sweet miso soy sauce dressing and the beef mari – a slice of raw beef rolled with cucumber and peppers. I loved it all, as I do love good Korean food.
Each course was also paired with some of Korea’s most favoured spirits such as makgeoli – a fermented rice drink to shoju – distilled from grains, bek se ju – fermented herbs and ginseng to goon mae – plum wine.
We were able to talk about and exercise Korean table ettiquettes, like holding your glass to be poured with both hands, that someone else should always pour your drink for you, that you don’t do it yourself and how the elder can always hold a glass with just one hand to be poured a drink.
I would definitely like to come back here with friends based on my experience at this feast. And here was where I had the best green tea ice cream!
Great fun! Thanks to Roche Communications.
KIMCHEE HIGH HOLBORN
71 High Holborn
London
Tel. 020 7430 0956
www.kimchee.uk.com