The Good Cooks | Episode guide and recipes

Cook like the locals in Vietnam, Fiji, Indonesia, Philippines, Tanzania and Mozambique.

Mark Olive learns how an Australian poultry vaccine is improving Tanzanian village nutrition. Source: The Good Cooks

Six different Australian celebrity chefs, including Dan Churchill, Sarah Todd, Rebecca Sullivan, Luke Hines, Mark Olive and Paul West visit remote locations around the world to learn more about food security and sustainability practices. Each chef becomes an assistant to the local cooks in these diverse communities to experience and learn more about their unique food cultures, real-life challenges and some amazing recipes. Agricultural science and culinary creativity come together in kitchens around the world.

Episode 1: Vietnam

With irrepressible energy and enthusiasm, Dan Churchill a Sydney-born chef, who recently opened a new restaurant in New York, travelled to the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. He tried his hand at pork and crab soup, rice paper rolls and even catching, filleting and cooking a local water snake.

Recipes

1. Vietnamese pork and crab soup (bún riêu)

Vietnamese pork and crab soup (bún riêu) Source: The Good Cooks

2. Vietnamese fresh rice paper rolls

Vietnamese fresh rice paper rolls Source: The Good Cooks

3. Vietnamese snake (món ngon sa lam)

Episode 2: Fuji

As if being a mum, entrepreneur, chef and running three restaurants isn’t enough, Sarah Todd travelled to the tourist hub of the South Pacific, Nadi, Fiji to explore the fledgling tropical fruit industry being helped by Australian agricultural science and to cook like a Fijian.

Sarah Todd learns how to cook some traditional recipes using staple Pacific island ingredients. Source: The Good Cooks

Recipes

1. Fijian fruit lote

2. Fijian taro leaf (rourou) with root crop chips

3. Fijian feast cooked in the earth (lovo)

Episode 3: Indonesia

Aussie food writer, TV presenter, and chef Rebecca Sullivan went to West Timor in Indonesia to meet some beef farmers and to learn how to cook their way (with rather a lot of chilli).

Recipes

1. Kupang’s smoked beef (daging se’i Kupang)

2. Boiled corn (jagung katema)

3. Beef rendang curry (rendang daging)

Beef rendang curry Source: The Good Cooks

Episode 4: Philippines

Aussie fitness/wellness coach and cookbook author, Luke Hines travelled to Guimaras Island in the central Philippines to cook some local delicacies and learn how captive breeding of giant grouper is important for the future of the Asian fishing industry.

Recipes

1. Sweet and sour fish

Sweet and sour grouper Source: The Good Cooks

2. Sour soup with tiger grouper (sinigang)

3. Coconut water chicken soup (binakol)

Episode 5: Tanzania

Mark Olive, aka ‘The Black Olive’, is a well-known celebrity chef with a charismatic style and creative approach to cooking Australian bush foods. Mark saw first-hand how an Australian poultry vaccine is improving Tanzanian village nutrition and to learn how to cook like a local in the remote Rift Valley.

Recipes

1. Chai masala tea

2. Chapati fried with egg

3. Fried cowpea balls fritter

4. Boiled chicken in a tomato stew with potatoes, carrot and capsicum (mchemsho wa kuku)

Boiled chicken in a tomato stew with potatoes, carrot and capsicum (mchemsho wa kuku) Source: The Good Cooks

Episode 6: Mozambique

Passionate about connecting people to how their food is grown, Chef and TV presenter Paul West took an adventure across the Indian Ocean to Mozambique to see how one of Africa’s poorest nations is being supported through an Australian-led research partnership.

Recipes

1. Cassava with balsam apple (xiguinha de cacana)

Cassava with balsam apple (xiguinha de cacana) Source: The Good Cooks

2. Prawns and squid with Alfonso’s secret sauce

3. Corn porridge with cassava leaves (xima com matapa)