Unorthodox Cooks
How untrained and unorthodox home cooks are ushering in a new wave of food enthusiasts.
FEATURE
ISSUE #1
MAY 2025
Vegetable Galette
Light, flaky and packed with seasonal veggies, whip up this showstopper next time you’re tapped to bring a plate.
Flavour Bombs
What's Cooking
The recipes that rival restaurant kitchens.
Small Bites Dress It Up Main Attractions
by David Alligretti
Lawyer turned passionate home cook Kayla La Manna on walking away from the 9-5 and into her home kitchen.
by Ben Madden
Meet A Flavour Maker
Read More >
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There was a time when cooking wisdom flowed in one direction. Michelin-starred chefs and flawless TV cooks set the law and home cooks followed— measuring, timing, and striving for something just shy of perfection. Then something shifted. Maybe it was food blogs turning recipes into stories, not formulas. Maybe it was the arrival of smartphones in our pockets, making us the stars. Maybe it was the first time 20-somethings started filming pantry pasta recipes on TikTok, with zero apologies for the mess.
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Or maybe it’s just the natural evolution of a culture that is beginning to care less about credentials and more about authenticity. Whatever sparked it, we’re now deep in the era of the unorthodox cooks—creatives who don’t care about pedigree, who treat recipes as jumping-off points, and who remind us that good food doesn’t need a fancy certificate to be legit. Just real people, making real food. To figure out how we got here, it’s worth tracking back to those trailblazers who first gave home cooking the star treatment—the TV chef.
The Pioneers The old model was clear: if you wanted to be taken seriously in food, you trained. Culinary school, apprenticeships, years in hot, high-pressure kitchens—that was the path. And for many, it still is. But somewhere along the way, the idea that you had to go pro to matter shifted. Maggie Beer showed Australia that regional produce and intuitive cooking could stand alongside European techniques. Nigella Lawson broke with the clinical cooking show format, embracing the sensual side of food and the messy reality of home kitchens. And Iain "Huey" Hewitson, with his warm, no-nonsense approach, made cooking feel accessible to the average Aussie.
A New Path Enter the self-taught revolution. Now we have a new generation of creators like Kayla La Manna or Aaron Yong, who left their office gigs to follow their passion in the kitchen. They’ve built a whole new career fuelled by passion and creativity—with social media giving them the platform to do it. We’re now firmly living in the era of a new wave of food enthusiasts who see cooking as something approachable, malleable, and personal. Young Aussies who might have been intimidated by cooking are now trying techniques they've seen broken down on Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube, into accessible steps by creators who look, sound, and cook like them.
The Supper Club Renaissance Nowhere is the unorthodox cook movement more visible than in our booming supper club scene. These intimate gatherings blur the line between home cook and professional chef, creating intimate food events outside traditional restaurant settings, where strangers become friends over shared plates and stories. Born out of the COVID lockdowns, Melbourne's Club Sup is a prime example. Starting as small gatherings in galleries and artists' homes, founder and self-taught chef Sophie McIntyre personally cooked and hosted every session. Today, it’s expanded to hosting events at venues across Australia. The focus is on connection—encouraging guests to step outside their comfort zones and engage with strangers, fostering meaningful experiences that often lead to lasting friendships.
Plenty Of Room At The Table The rise of the unorthodox cook isn’t a rejection of culinary tradition—it’s an expansion. There’s still a place for classical training, for meticulous recipes, for the kind of world-class scholarly cooking that demands precision. But now, there’s also space for the ones who wing it, who prioritise joy over perfection, and who prove that great food doesn’t need a rulebook. There's room for both—and everything in between. So here’s to the disruptors—not because they’re tearing down the old ways, but because they’re adding new ones. The culinary world has never been more welcoming, and that can only be a good thing. The kitchen door is now wide open. Step inside.
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Garlic Scallops
These are ridiculously easy to make but taste like you’ve spent hours in the kitchen—perfect for impressing guests or treating yourself.
Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls
A fresh, vibrant twist on a classic, packed with crunchy slaw, creamy avocado, and your choice of chicken or prawns.
Packed with fresh veggies, kalamata olives, and creamy feta—all tossed in a zesty lemon-olive oil dressing—perfect for picnics, BBQs, or weekly meal prep.
Nasi Goreng-Style Cauliflower Fried Rice
A lighter twist on the Indonesian classic—this nasi goreng is packed with savoury shallots, spicy chilli, sweet soy sauce, topped off with a crispy fried egg and crunchy peanuts.
Moroccan Coriander Chicken With Shaved Fennel And Green Olives
A flavour-packed dish of tender spiced chicken with crisp fennel, briny green olives, and zesty preserved lemon.
Mediterranean Pasta Salad
Glass Noodle Salad
Transport your tastebuds straight to Southeast Asia with this crunchy, tangy salad packed with vibrant veggies.
Garlic Chicken And Pork Paella
A one-pan winner that combines chicken, chorizo, and paprika with fluffy rice, infused with a zesty lemon kick.
Creamy Garlic And Herb Mushroom Pasta
Find comfort on a plate with this classic pasta’s rich, velvety sauce with tender mushrooms and a fragrant blend of Italian herbs.
Home cook and recipe creator Aaron Yong on finding fulfilment in food.
by Morgan Reardon
Tools Of The Trade
Kayla La Manna and Aaron Yong put their spin on trending flavours to bring us these simple, showstopping dishes using Gourmet Garden.
From The Culinary Creators To Your Kitchen
Kayla's Prawn Vodka Pasta
A cheeky twist on the cult-classic, this creamy prawn version by Kayla dials up the decadence without overcomplicating things.
• 2 tablespoons olive oil • 2 shallots, finely diced • 2 teaspoons garlic paste • 1-2 teaspoons chilli paste • 500g raw prawns • 1/4 cup vodka • 2 large tins/ jars tomato paste
• 2 tins san marzano tomatoes • 1 teaspoon salt • 1/2 teaspoon pepper • 1 cup cream • 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese • pasta shape of your choice (I love fettuccine or rigatoni)
Ingredients
Over medium-high heat, sauté your shallots and garlic paste with your olive oil until fragrant. Add in your tomato paste and chilli paste, cooking for a few minutes before adding in your vodka and really let that cook out. Add in your prawn cutlets, stirring constantly to ensure they cook evenly. Once they change colour after 2 minutes or so, add in your san marzano tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Pour in your cream and parmesan cheese. If you would like a smoother sauce, this is where you can blend it. Cook your pasta al dente and place it into your sauce with a splash of pasta water and mix. Top with grated parmesan and serve up.
Instructions
Prepare The Ginger-Scallion Sauce: Heat sesame oil and avocado oil in a pan. In a small bowl, combine ginger paste, diced spring onions, and salt. Pour the heated oils over the ginger and onions. Stir well and set aside. Prepare The Chilli Sauce: Combine chilli paste, garlic paste and ginger paste in a bowl. Add salt, sugar, and lime juice. Mix thoroughly. Stir in 1 tablespoon of chicken broth to achieve a slightly thick consistency. Prepare The Dark Sauce: Mix light soy sauce and sesame oil together in a small bowl. Assemble The Dish: Rub the cooked chicken legs with a bit of sesame oil and slice into bite-sized pieces. Arrange chicken on a plate, drizzle with dark sauce, and garnish with sliced cucumbers. Sprinkle dried coriander on top. Serve with prepared sauces and rice.
For The Chicken • 2 chicken legs • 1 teaspoon salt • 4 cups water • 2 spring onions For The Rice • 1 cup jasmine rice • 1 tablespoon avocado oil • 1 tablespoon chopped shallots • 1 teaspoon garlic paste • 1 teaspoon ginger paste • 1 1/2 cups reserved chicken stock
Aaron’s Hainanese chicken rice is a love letter to comfort food done right. Adapted from a family favourite, his spin is served with aromatic rice and zesty dressings. A classic reimagined, with serious flavour cred.
Aaron’s Hainanese Chicken Rice
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For The Ginger-Scallion Sauce • 2 tablespoons sesame oil • 1 tablespoon avocado oil • 1 tablespoon finely diced spring onion • 2 teaspoons ginger paste • 1/2 teaspoon salt For The Chili Sauce • 1 teaspoon chilli paste • 1 teaspoon garlic paste • 1 teaspoon ginger paste • 1/2 teaspoon salt • 1/4 teaspoon sugar • Juice of half a lime • 1 tablespoon chicken broth
For The Dark Sauce • 2 tablespoons light soy sauce • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Garnishes • Sesame oil, for rubbing • 1/2 cucumber, sliced • Dried coriander, for sprinkling
Prepare The Chicken: Salt the chicken legs thoroughly. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a large pot with spring onions. Add the chicken legs, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 15-20 minutes, skimming off any scum that rises. Once cooked, remove the chicken from the pot and immediately dunk in ice-cold water for 5-10 minutes. Then, remove and pat dry. Reserve the chicken stock for cooking the rice and preparing sauces. Prepare The Rice: Wash jasmine rice under cold water until the water runs clear. Heat avocado oil in a pot over medium heat. Sauté shallots, garlic paste, and ginger paste until softened. Add rice and stir to coat with the aromatics. Transfer the rice mixture to a rice cooker. Add 1 1/2 cups of the reserved chicken stock and cook according to the rice cooker's instructions.
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Food’s always been a central part of home cooking phenomenon Kayla La Manna’s life. Better known to many as @whatwouldkaylacook, the former lawyer fondly remembers embracing her love of food alongside her family. “We grew up in a household where dinner time was our most special time,” she says.
We spoke to lawyer turned passionate home cook Kayla La Manna on walking away from the 9-5 grind and into her home kitchen.
We never took our dinner up to our rooms or anything like that. We all had family dinner together every single night, without fail.
Where most kids were watching cartoons, La Manna was watching cooking shows. Name-checking Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Ina Garten (on her show Barefoot Contessa), and Giada De Laurentiis, La Manna says studying their approaches to cooking helped shape her own. Gravitating towards making family-style dishes, for her, “it’s about the food you want to eat day after day.” Despite the televised tutelage of world-renowned cooks, La Manna’s biggest inspiration in the kitchen is undoubtedly her mum. Throughout our chat, she pays tribute to her guidance.
“I’d scroll through my camera, and look at all these amazing dishes that I've made over however many years. I’d think ‘okay, I'm gonna have this for dinner’, and then I’d just be constantly thinking about that.” Now, sharing her love of cooking with a wide audience, La Manna splits her time between content creation and working at the family business, LaManna And Sons.
I guess I realised that law wasn't going to be my dream job when I would go and sit in my office, and spend the whole day wondering, ‘What am I cooking tonight?'
When it came time to choose a career, La Manna initially followed a different path. The world of law called, and she answered. But the draw of cooking would eventually prove to be too irresistible. Reflecting on her short time as a practising lawyer with a smile, La Manna explains, “I always knew law wasn't going to be my end goal.”
Looking forward, La Manna would love to have her own website, while “the end goal is to have a cookbook one day”. For those following along online, right now she’s prepping to share one of her most-requested recipes: homemade pizzas. “They're so simple, and anyone can do them. All you need is a barbecue, which a lot of people have.”
As much as I like to turn to different content creators’ food pages or just scroll on my Explore page, whatever recipe I'm trying to look for for inspiration, I still just love something tangible.
La Manna’s approach to discovering new recipes is refreshingly old-school, and despite her online presence, she praises the ever-reliable cookbook. “I think they’re probably something a lot of people have forgotten about, because we have everything at our fingertips on our phones these days,” she reflects. “You've got Instagram, you've got TikTok, you've got just absolutely anything and everything you could ever imagine on your phone.
This article is sponsored by Gourmet Garden and proudly endorsed by The Urban List. To find out more about who we work with and why read our editorial policy here.
To supercharge your pursuit of the next great family meal, check out Gourmet Garden’s range of lightly dried herbs and cold-blended pastes.
At a typical La Manna dinner, you’ll always encounter an abundance of pasta, schnitzel, lamb, salad, vegetables, fish. “There are so many different dishes on the table, and you don’t know where to start, and you have a food coma every night,” she laughs. “But because it’s all healthy food and good quality produce, it’s not like you feel sick. It’s a good food coma.”
I’ve learnt everything I know from mum.
“When I was younger, I would sit on the kitchen bench and I’d watch her cook, and I would slowly just start helping her, with her teaching me how to do things along the way.”
For those looking to get into cooking, she points to just how many options are available to those who want to jump in. “I would turn to either social media, or look up some good old fashioned cooking shows, or read a cookbook. Just read a cookbook,” she urges. “You don't need to go and make this really complicated roast dish with potatoes and beans and salad. Just start simple, and you'd be amazed at how easy it actually is!”
Start with pasta, it’s so easy.
For those days where time-intensive cooking isn’t an option, La Manna’s got a secret weapon. Convenient without sacrificing flavour, Gourmet Garden is a lifesaver for those days where she wants to make a quality meal without the prep. “I don't have time to chop up garlic all the time. I might need eight cloves for one dish, and I'm just not going to sit there and chop the garlic. It's painful. But this is so easy and quick. And you know, the taste isn’t compromised, which is amazing.”
Convenience is the number one thing, especially midweek.
For La Manna, what she does on a day-to-day basis in her full time job with LaManna and Sons and my content creation compliment each other perfectly. “I have a green grocer downstairs that has the freshest and best produce in the world, a deli, where I can get anything I need, and a cafe with incredible coffee and food,” she says.
Now, I'm just surrounded by constant inspiration.
You don't need a pizza stone or oven, though I do love them,” she adds. “Sometimes a good old-fashioned barbecue just really does the job.” So keep your eyes peeled for that.
Culinary Disrupters: Meet Kayla La Manna, Lawyer Turned Flavour Maker
by Ben Madden 20 May 2025
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Editor’s note: To read our editorial policy, click here. This article is sponsored by Revlon and proudly endorsed by The Urban List.
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At just 24, Yong has built a solid standing on Instagram, gaining hordes of followers for his unique cooking series—filmed at his Melbourne digs—where he trials everything from meal prep (spoiler: he’s not a fan of it), to his ‘Lets Go Smoko’ series feat. smoked mac ‘n’ cheese and coffee ribs. But his journey to becoming a much-loved home cook wasn’t linear. Growing up in the ‘burb of Glen Waverley, food was always at the centre of Yong’s family home, with his dad, drawing on his Chinese Malaysian heritage, serving up bowls of bak kut teh to the table—a rich braised pork broth. “My parents cooked very homely meals, it’s definitely a style that I adopted from them and became the taste and vibe I wanted to emulate in my own cooking,” Yong says. While watching his parents cook may have triggered his passion for food, it wasn’t until Yong moved out of home at 18 and had to fend for himself in the kitchen (there’s only so much KFC one can eat) that he began exploring his own cooking skills. But, unsure of what direction to go in after high school—the idea of full-time content creation just a pipedream—he decided to follow in his brother’s footsteps, studying commerce at uni. And that’s when Yong had his sliding doors moment.
We sat down with home cook and recipe creator Aaron Yong to chat fulfilment, food and how he turned a personal challenge into a whole new hustle.
It was more than cool, his daily vlogs—sharing his exercise regime, mindset and of course, his cooking—went viral. But when the challenge wrapped, Yong was left wondering what was next.
One day I was brainstorming ideas with a mate and he convinced me to do this fitness challenge, 75 Hard. He helped me make my first video and encouraged me to post it, and my page just took off—it was really cool.
“I did an accounting internship and there was this moment where I was like, oh, shit, I don't know if this is actually what I want to do. I got a taste of corporate life—and no disrespect to those who work in that world—but I just couldn’t see myself doing it,” Yong explains. Rejecting a graduate job offer in accounting, Yong took on a full-time job in retail and slowly let his creativity unfurl, creating videos recorded on his iPhone. “I've always enjoyed making videos and content, and I wanted to do something a bit more personal where I was talking to the camera, but I was afraid of hearing my own voice,” Yong says.
“It kind of became a game of just trying to figure out what to create,” Yong admits. “And honestly, I’m still figuring it out today. During the challenge, a lot of people liked the fact that I was cooking, so I transitioned into recipes and food content.” Which led Yong to yet another crossroads. With this content creation gaining traction— he even began creating videos for venues and brands—he itched to make his passion his full-time gig. And so, in April 2024, he did just that. “I thought to myself, I could try to balance full-time work with content creation, but I felt like for me to grow as a content creator, I just had to take that leap of faith,” he says. Completely self-taught in the kitchen and behind the camera, Yong began posting sleek recipe videos that made his followers want to lick the screen. Think: pancetta-loaded vodka pasta, smash burgers, and his take on char kuey teow—another childhood favourite. “I'm not here to make the most gorgeous-looking dish, or something that’s fine dining level,” he says. “I'm about cooking food that's homely, food that you want to just smash.” It’s Yong’s distinct lack of pretension around food that makes him so lovable. His pantry staples? Olive oil, brown sugar, salt and pepper. His favourite tools? A zester, good-quality knives, and an air fryer. And his favourite time saver? A tube of Gourmet Garden ginger or garlic.
For budding foodies wanting to follow in Yong’s footsteps, his advice is beautifully simple—just start.
Food definitely remains the catalyst of my videos—it’s the driving force—but in the future, I want to share my own story in there as well.
As Yong’s journey in food content expands, he’s keen to get back to front of the camera, revealing more of his authentic self while finding the right balance of fitness and cooking. “Anthony Bourdain is one of my favourites,” Yong says when asked who inspires him—joining his dad, brother and Masterchef alum Anthony Allan on the list. “I like how raw he was. He said it the way it was, and I think that's a reminder to continue to make videos where you're still yourself and to not lose touch of that.”
To kickstart your own home cooking journey, check out Gourmet Garden’s range of lightly dried herbs and cold blended pastes.
A lot of people have so much potential and talent but they’re afraid of putting themselves out there. Find something you’re passionate about and go for it.
75 Hard To Home Cook: Tracing Aaron Yong's Rise To Recipe Creator Fame
by Morgan Reardon 20 May 2025
Whether you’re taking inspiration from cooking shows, cookbooks, social media, or family recipes on your own home cooking journey, find convenience without compromising on quality. To supercharge your pursuit of the next great family meal, check out Gourmet Garden’s range of lightly dried herbs and cold blended pastes.
by Ben Madden DD Month 2025
At just 24, Yong has built a solid standing on Instagram, gaining hordes of followers for his unique cooking series—filmed at his Melbourne digs—where he trials everything from meal prep (spoiler: he’s not a fan of it), to his ‘Lets Go Smoko’ series feat. smoked mac ‘n’ cheese and coffee ribs. But, his journey to becoming a much-loved home cook wasn’t linear. Growing up in the ‘burb of Glen Waverley, food was always at the centre of Yong’s family home, with his dad, drawing on his Chinese Malaysian heritage, serving up bowls of bak kut teh to the table—a rich braised pork broth.
