Dominique Woolf - Dominiques Kitchen Easy everyday Asian-inspired food

Photography by Richard Clatworthy

Half-Thai mum of three, entrepreneur and keen home cook, Dominique Woolf won the Channel 4 television show The Great Cookbook Challenge with Jamie Oliver in 2022. Having been a singer-songwriter and recruitment consultant in a previous life, Dominique decided to change careers and focus on her first love food after realizing just how much she enjoyed getting creative in the kitchen. She trained at Leiths School of Food and Wine to immerse herself in the industry and hone her skills, then became a food writer, before starting her own business, The Woolfs Kitchen, in the middle of lockdown 2020. Initially selling a range of sauces inspired by those her Thai auntie used to make, she has now expanded into chilli oils, pastes and nuts, too. Dominique is passionate about sharing her love of big, bold flavours and Asian-inspired cuisine.

Instagram: @dominiquewoolf

Twitter: @dominique_woolf

Website: thewoolfskitchen.com

For my husband Gordon and our three expert food tasters, Logan , Florence and Grace .

Writing a book is no mean feat, and when we started The Great Cookbook Challenge TV show, as well as the excitement and glamour of the publishing deal that awaited the winner, we knew that there was an incredible amount of hard work and slog ahead of them, too. Dominique has done an astounding job not only is it the first cookbook shes ever written, shes done it in record time.

In this book, youll get honest, humble, utterly delicious food, inspired by brilliant ingredients and flavours from across Asia. The recipes are super achievable and I know first hand that Dominique has really put in the hours to perfect each recipe and make sure that it will deliver for you, at home. Thats whats brilliant about Dominiques approach shes busy, just like the rest of us, running her own successful business and parenting three adorable kids, and she needs to get good food on the table, fast.

Her enthusiasm and quiet work ethic shone through from day one, and shes a worthy winner. So, read on, enjoy and get cooking!

Its not often that time stands still. But thats what happened when I stood there, in the final of The Great Cookbook Challenge with Jamie Oliver , at the end of a whirlwind experience, my mum and husband beside me, hoping that my name would be called out.

Ever since my Dutch grandmother, Granny Woolf, bought me my first ever cookbook when I was 9, Ive harboured a secret desire to write my own. I could never have predicted it would manifest in quite the way it did I mean, weve all watched TV competitions, and the idea I would actually win one is quite mind-boggling.

Presenting the judges with my humble traybake on the very first challenge in round one, I wondered whether I was out of my league. Regretting the decision not to do something more elaborate, I held my breath as they tasted it. I never could have guessed that my Tamarind, honey & sesame chicken (), in all its beige glory, would help propel me on the trip of a lifetime.

To have a panel of respected food experts taste your cooking is a daunting prospect for anyone let alone me, a messy, somewhat chaotic home cook. Week after week, my nerves were frayed as I gave it my all. Somehow, miraculously, I got through to the final. Having Jamie as our mentor was pretty surreal as well. The Naked Chef was the first food TV programme I ever watched over 20 years ago, and Jamies books and recipes have played a huge part in my cooking and my development as a writer. I still cant believe it.

Food has always been my biggest passion, my sunshine on a cloudy day. Pre-kids I greedily ate my way around London, exploring every cuisine I possibly could at any opportunity. Holidays were only ever about eating (OK, and maybe getting a bit of sunshine!) that heady feeling of standing in a street food market in Bangkok or in a pintxo bar in San Sebastin. Just intoxicating.

Now, with a young family, both eating out and travelling are rarities. Cooking has become an integral part of my life my way of exploring the world without leaving the kitchen.

From an early age, my Thai mother fed my brother and me satay, stir-fries and noodles. I vividly remember the smell of red curry filling the house, even though it was too hot for us to eat. She taught me the importance of tasting food throughout the cooking process, and always making sure there was balance a little sweet, a little salty, a little spicy.

Thai and Asian-inspired cuisine is unsurprisingly where I naturally lean. It is my midweek go-to, my perfect comfort food, my special night out. To me, whipping up a cheats curry or a last-minute stir-fry is second nature, but in chatting to friends I realized this wasnt the case for everyone. They would tell me how much they loved food from across Asia, from fragrant curries to flavourful stir-fries, but that cooking these dishes felt daunting; they had no idea where to start. That planted a seed that grew into the concept for this book.

I wanted to show people just how easy it is to use some of these much-loved flavours in their everyday cooking. This is not about recreating traditional dishes I wanted to share the kind of meals I cook at home, inspired by my Thai mum and auntie and my granny (who was raised in Indonesia), as well as my travels over the years. I want to spread the joy of eating delicious home-cooked food.

Like many of you, I know what its like to be busy, home late or over-tired, when cooking from scratch is the last thing on your mind. I know what its like to be stuck in a food rut weve all been there!

What I want more than anything is to inspire you to get cooking and for you to feel that same spark of excitement when eating as I do. I hope youll find my recipes easy to follow, and achievable on any night of the week. Theyre all simple to make, packed with exciting flavours, and I hope theyll help you fall more in love with Asian-inspired cuisine.

This book started life in the most unusual of ways and I cant tell you how privileged I feel to be writing it. What a journey its been so far I sincerely hope its just the beginning.

In order to create the recipes in this book, youll need to hunt out a few slightly more specialist ingredients. Most youll find in the supermarket, and all are easily available in Asian shops or online. Once you have these ingredients in your possession, the world really will be your oyster sauce.

An important consideration to me in writing this book is to maximize the use youll get out of those ingredients. Theres nothing more annoying than having half a jar of paste languishing at the back of your fridge for five months with no purpose. I have tried to give you at least a couple of recipes for each specialist ingredient where I can, to help you make the most of each purchase. So if you are flicking through the book and wondering why there are four miso recipes, for example, now you know! Its to give you the best value and to make your storecupboard work for you.