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SAM LOW - Food & Beverage

@_sam_low_

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🍚 | Author of ‘Modern Chinese’
🏆 | MasterChef NZ 2022 Winner
☕️ | NZ Barista Champion
🎙️ | @ate.ate.ate.pod
Agent | @johnson_laird
👇🏼 Book Me |📍NZ

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A little reintroduction 💭

I’m Sam! born in Fiji, raised in New Zealand, and shaped by the flavours of my Chinese heritage. I grew up between takeaway shops and a coffee machine, became a barista champion, won MasterChef NZ, and now spend my days sharing stories through food.

I’m a cookbook author, recipe developer, and podcast host, but at the heart of it all, I’m someone who believes food is culture, memory, identity, and resistance. I’m deeply passionate about Chinese gastronomy, third culture identity, and uplifting community through storytelling.

Whether you’re here for the modern Chinese recipes, the Traditional Chinese Medicine journey, or demystifying Asian grocery items… Welcome! This space is for all of us.

#thirdculturekid #chinesegastronomy #modernchinesefood #foodstorytelling #aotearoaeats #samlow taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @_sam_low_

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a year ago

MODERN CHINESE 🍚🥢✨

I am soooooo excited to announce my debut cookbook! Been over a year in the making and it’s finally here 😭❤️

Featuring 70+ easy everyday recipes, Modern Chinese aims to demystify Chinese cooking with a collection of accessible, easy recipes that can be cooked with ingredients from the supermarket (even the western one!). In this book I pay homage to my multicultural roots while adding a new narrative to what it means to cook Chinese food today with guides to help you to build your own Chinese pantry at home.

Having grown up in a diasporic Chinese household, I’ve created recipes with a unique take on nostalgic traditional classics including personal stories, collaborations with other artists, poets and makers.

✨ Coming October 2023’ ✨

#modernchinese #cookbook #recipebook #chinesecooking #homecooking #masterchef #chinesefood #kiwichinese #newzealandchinese taken in New Zealand by @_sam_low_

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3 years ago

I AM NEW ZEALAND’S MASTERCHEF 2022!!! 👑✨

This is insane! I feel so blessed, my heart is full and filled with joy.
Never would I have ever thought I would be in this position, where I got to dig into my truth and use as fuel to give me purpose and pride.

I did this for little Sam, a shy, scared, closeted, obese Fiji born Kiwi Chinese boy who was bullied, sexually confused and racially discriminated growing up. Owning my identity, reconnecting with my cultural heritage and being proud has empowered me to push through in life and give me the strength to go for my dreams, nothing is impossible. This is for all you little Sam’s out there.

I couldn’t have done this without my community, the support of people that I have surrounded myself with. Through all the good and the hardest of times, they constantly remind me of my self-worth and make me believe that, I am enough.
To my teachers and mentors, thank you for believing in me, especially during high school for pushing me to enter coffee and cooking competitions.

I want to thank the entire production for making sure we were all looked after whilst we’ve been filming, especially our mental wellbeing.
Thank you to the network for bringing MasterChef back to NZ. The diversity of contestants, judges and representation on screen, celebrating kai Maori, Matariki and the beauty of Aotearoa made it truely special.

The judges, I am so grateful for your mentorship and inspiration. Terrifying at times but all the more for me to shoot for the number 1 spot.
@nadialimcooks 💃🏼
@chefvaughanmabee 🧙🏼‍♂️
@michaelpdearth 🕺🏻

To my fellow contestants, I thank you for sharing so much of yourself, your generosity made my time in the competition feel like we’re one big crazy family.
To Elliot (@flamingochefnz), I couldn’t have asked for a better finals cook off than with you, I am so grateful to have met you, you inspire me. You’re now forced to be my friend for life. ILYSM ❤️

I don’t know what’s next for me, but I do know what it should feel like. Thank you all for the coming along on this crazy coming of age journey with me, it truly has been emotional to say the least.

Love, Sam.

@master.chef.nz
#MasterChefNZ taken in Queenstown, New Zealand by @_sam_low_

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4 years ago

Ep 122 | White Pepper
HOW TO SHOP AT YOUR LOCAL ASIAN GROCER

White and black pepper both come from Piper nigrum, a tropical vine native to South Asia. Pepper reached China through ancient trade networks and became an important spice in Chinese cooking and traditional medicine.

Black pepper is harvested before fully ripe and dried with its outer layer intact. White pepper is made from riper berries that are soaked and processed to remove the outer fruit, leaving the pale seed behind.

In Chinese cooking, white pepper brings an earthy, warming heat to soups, congee, stir-fries, marinades and dishes like hot and sour soup.

In traditional Chinese medicine, pepper is traditionally associated with warming the interior, dispersing “cold” and supporting digestion.

You’ll find it whole or ground at your local Asian grocer. Whole peppercorns hold their aroma longer, while ground white pepper is convenient and potent. A little goes a long way.

🎥 Filmed at Jadan, Auckland, New Zealand.

#WhitePepper #ChineseCooking #AsianGrocer #ChineseFood #SpiceGuide taken in Jadan Supermarket 中區亞洲超市 by @_sam_low_

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15 hours ago

Banana & White Chocolate Protein Cookies 🍌🍪

I’ve been seeing a lot of banana flavoured snacks being promoted recently, and I regularly consume banana flavoured protein powders with my smoothie so when I was thinking about a cookie flavour to make next it was this, a textural delight and a banana white chocolate combo that never fails.

Ingredients
120g unsalted butter, softened
100g (1/2 cup) white granulated sugar
40g (3 Tbsp) light brown sugar
100g banana flavoured protein powder (or 100g vanilla protein powder w/ 1 tsp banana essence)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100g (3/4 cup) plain/all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup vanilla wine biscuits/wafers (roughly broken)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips or chopped up white chocolate of choice

Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla and mix until combined.
Add dry ingredients and the banana whey protein, mix until just combined.
Fold in white chocolate and broken vanilla biscuits.
Scoop into balls and place on a lined baking tray.
Bake at 180°C until golden around the edges but still soft in the centre, about 10–12 minutes. Cool on the tray for 5–10 minutes before moving them.

Share and save this recipe if you love banana flavoured foods too!

#banana #cookie #foodrecipe #easybaking #baking taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @_sam_low_

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2 days ago

A little life update…
I’m officially adding Sydney to the mix.

From November, I’ll be splitting my time between Auckland and Sydney, working across both New Zealand and Australia.

Auckland is still very much home, just expanding my world, my work and hopefully my community across the Tasman. Excited for the new people, projects, opportunities and experiences this next chapter brings.

Also! Sydney friends… if you know of a nice sublease, rental, real estate agent or friend-of-a-friend with something available, please send them my way…. Will need a place from mid-November.

And to any Australian brands, agencies n creatives who’d love to work together…
Hiiiii my DMs are very open ❤️

Sydney, see you very soon taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @_sam_low_

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5 days ago

Travelling with @intrepidtravel wasn’t just about ticking off famous Korean dishes, we got to experience the food in context and connect with the culture behind it.

A deeply fermented doenjang tofu stew
Jeonju-style bibimbap
Homestyle baekban
Aged gochujang from the gochujang master
Fresh seafood grilled over charcoal by the seaside in Busan

If, like me, food is one of the biggest reasons you travel, check out Intrepid Travel’s South Korea Food Adventure yourself.

@intrepidtravel @koreatourismanz
#ad #IntrepidTravel #OnlyIntrepid taken in South Korea by @_sam_low_

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6 days ago

A little montage of the preparation that went into a banquet I cooked over the weekend for some of my closest friends.

I spent the days leading up to it gathering produce from all my favourite places: the local farmers market, my Asian grocer and fishmonger, with a few special things foraged from my parents garden.

The menu:
Sweet soy-marinated, lightly pickled cucumbers

Kimchi tossed with pineapple & moon pear, Okinawa spinach and chrysanthemum leaves

Raw kingfish & John Dory over sweet baby daikon, dressed with yuzu, perilla oil & aged soy

Fried tofu fritters, my take on Cantonese pei pa tofu, with blended tofu, prawn, shiitake & lapsang souchong tea leaves, served with black vinegar caramel

Rice wine & ginger-marinated fried chicken wings, tossed in crab fat & salted egg yolk sauce

Roasted cabbage with shrimp butter, lime and honey

Steamed king prawns & Hokkaido scallops over vermicelli, with garlic, chilli & spring onion-ginger relish

Three-hour slow-cooked pork belly with cane vinegar, garlic, chilli & lime leaf, garnished with a medley of fresh herbs

Rice cooked in homemade fish stock, topped with crab & chrysanthemum flower gravy

My ultimate mango sticky rice platter with three different flavours of rice and ripe R2E2 mango (I’ve posted the recipe for this!)

Let me know if you want any recipes of the dishes that I’ve created from this feast 👇🏼

#FeastForFriends #CookingForFriends #AsianInspiredFood #WeekendFeast #homecooking taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @_sam_low_

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6 days ago

Iced latte with all the goodness of dairy, without the lactose? We’re so back! ☕️

In this episode of The Perfect Pour, I share with NZ chef @th.bro.kia all my top tips for making the perfect iced latte at home with @anchornewzealand Zero Lacto Milk.

My tips on perfecting the pour:
1. Use freshly roasted coffee beans – ideally roasted within the month
2. Distribute the coffee evenly in the basket by giving the portafilter taps on the side
3. Tamp the coffee as level as possible with one firm tamp

Welcome back to dairy Kia 💜 taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @_sam_low_

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7 days ago

My Ultimate Mango Sticky Rice Platter 🥭

Made this for friends last night and thought I’d share the recipe! Three flavours of coconut sticky rice: butterfly pea, pandan and Gula Melaka, with lots of sweet mango and crispy mung beans.

RICE
300g black glutinous rice + 300ml water
600g white glutinous rice

Soak rice separately for 4 hrs or overnight. Drain. Rice cooker the black rice with 300ml water, rest 10 mins. Divide white rice in half and steam 25 to 35 mins until tender with a slight chew.

COCONUT BASE: MAKE 3 BATCHES
300g coconut cream
100g coconut milk
Pinch of salt

Butterfly pea: 80g sugar + 1 tbsp dried flowers steeped in 100ml hot water, strained. Simmer with coconut base, then fold into half the white rice.

Pandan: 80g sugar + 100ml water + 50g chopped pandan. Simmer with coconut base, steep 10 mins, strain and fold into remaining white rice.

Gula Melaka: 80g Gula Melaka (or dark brown sugar) + 100ml water. Simmer with coconut base until dissolved, then fold into black rice.

CRISPY MUNG BEANS (OPTIONAL)
Soak ½ cup yellow mung beans for 4 hrs or overnight. Steam or simmer until tender, dry well, then fry in 3 tbsp neutral oil until lightly crisp. Drain and season with salt.

Arrange the three sticky rices with plenty of ripe, sliced mango. Serve mung beans on the side.

Tip: Use coconut milk and cream with high coconut content and minimal additives.

Save this recipe and share it with a fellow mango sticky rice lover!

#MangoStickyRice #MangoStickyRicePlatter #ThaiDessert #StickyRice #MangoLover taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @_sam_low_

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7 days ago

12 recipes I’ve uploaded recently that you should make at home

When developing recipes, often they are inspired by what’s happening around me, food I’ve been eating lately, produce that’s in season, something I tried at a restaurant recently, or a dish I’ve been curious to try and make… the main thing I focus on is it’s approachability, food you can actually recreate at home so they can be in your meal rotations.

All 12 recipes listed are up on my Reels. Have a scroll through and find something you want to cook.

Follow for new recipes every week and share my account to people who might benefit from it. Lotsa Love. Sam ❤️ taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @_sam_low_

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12 days ago

Chilli Cumin Lamb on Potatoes. AD

Inspired by the Served Back Series from @woolworths_nz and especially @choprasid’s epsiode on lamb, I am showcasing how quality, fresh Woolworths ingredients can be transformed into elevated but easy-to-recreate meals.

Serves 4

1kg washed baby potatoes
Salt
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 220C fan.
Boil the potatoes until tender and lightly smash on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. Roast for 20min or until the edges are crisp.

400-600g lamb meat
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
⅛ tsp ground white pepper
Pinch black pepper
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp rice wine (optional)
⅛ tsp garlic powder
⅛ tsp onion powder
2 tsp cumin powder
2 tbsp oil
Mix the above ingredients together and set aside.

½ red onion (sliced)
1 capsicum (sliced)
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp chilli flakes
3 tbsp olive/cooking oil

In a hot wok with oil, cook the marinated lamb for 5-8min until cooked through, add the rest of the ingredients and stir fry for 2 min.
Serve lamb stir fry over the roast potatoes and side salad.

#WoolworthsNZ taken in Auckland, New Zealand by @_sam_low_

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13 days ago