BEST NEW TALENT
Thi Le ANCHOVY, MELBOURNE
But for a quirk of fate, Thi Le would be the proud owner of a chicken shop. A good chicken shop, mind you, serving sticky rice instead of chips, plus a whole slew of Asian condiments. But on her current form at Anchovy, anyone would have to agree it would have been a grotesque underselling of her talents.
So we have eBay to thank for denying Le the chicken rôtisserie central to her business plan when she boldly stepped out on her own after only six years toiling in professional kitchens. Luckily they were kitchens that counted – Christine Manfield’s Universal, Andrew McConnell’s Cumulus Inc and Supernormal, and The Town Mouse with
Dave Verheul. All laid good foundations for a rôtisserie-less Le when she was forced to think outside the square for her Richmond business with partner Ji-Yen Lee. And thus Anchovy was born.
Anchovy is a name of rare facility. Le and Lee wanted something that referenced South East Asia without being too gimmicky. “We wanted something that screamed Asia while still being elegant. We didn’t want to call it Mrs Tong’s or Aunty Le’s,” says Le. “And fish sauce is the foundation of South East Asian cooking.”
The food that has been coming out of that ridiculously small kitchen has been a wake-up call for Melbourne. Modern and finessed, it has South East Asia in its essence, particularly with Le’s family roots in Vietnam, and a modern Australian delivery that serves up the unexpected. Take her Insta-classic Vietnamese blood pudding – bright with Shaoxing wine and star anise, teamed with pickled ginger and served in a cosberg leaf. Or the raw beef dressed in a perfectly judged mixture of sesame and mustard oils, fish sauce, lime juice and tamarind, topped with pickled and deep-fried shallots, and teamed with rice crackers.
Le blessedly hails from a different field to the modern crop of brash, look-at-me chefs. Even so, one senses the steel behind her softly spoken words – a confidence this young woman has in her own impressive abilities that surely will only grow stronger.
Christine Manfield, who first met Le in 2010 at Tasting Success, a mentoring program for women chefs, understood early on that Le was a leader in the making. “She has an implicit understanding of balancing flavour and texture,” she says, “a real flair for composing dishes that show a true understanding of craft.”
And at the ripe old age of one, Anchovy is settling into a happy groove. “At the start we were always changing things, making more work for ourselves. Now we know how things work, where we can push it,” says Le.>