Restaurateur, Chef, Author, Television Host, Gastronomic Traveler.
Luke Nguyen was born in 1978 in Thailand, shortly after his parents fled Vietnam as boat people. After spending some time in a Thai refugee camp, his family eventually settled in Sydney, Australia.
Luke’s passion for cooking was inspired by his food-obsessed parents who opened a Vietnamese noodle house in Cabramatta in 1985, where Luke worked throughout his childhood.
In his teens, Luke moved out of the family business and began working with prominent Sydney chefs and restaurateurs.
In 2002, he fulfilled his dream by opening his very own restaurant - Red Lantern. An award-winning Vietnamese restaurant, set in a heritage listed terrace on Crown St in Surry Hills.
Luke is the author of two bestselling and award-winning cook books, Secrets of The Red Lantern and The Songs of Sapa.
Luke is also the presenter and producer of his own cooking and travel show, Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam on SBS. A ten part series cooking his way from Saigon to Hoi An. Luke’s second series is due to be released in October 2010.
In 2009, Luke Nguyen and his partner Suzanna Boyd founded the little lantern foundation in Hoi An, which gives disadvantaged youths an opportunity to undertake a hospitality training program in little lantern’s operating hotel – restaurant and bar.
In his spare time, Luke hosts 13-day culinary discovery trips to Vietnam – guiding adventurous foodies from the northern mountains of Sapa down to the mighty Mekong Delta.
