Reaching 350 episodes feels a little surreal, and I couldn’t think of a better guest to mark the moment than someone I’ve spoken to before and genuinely admire. Sitting down again with Ian Ho at Yum Sing House reminded me why I love these conversations so much. Ian is one of those chefs who gives generously with his time, his stories, and his honesty and this time around, we went deeper than ever into the mindset behind the craft. In our first chat, we talked about food, creativity, and the energy of a busy kitchen. This time, we explored the inner workings of a chef’s psyche: how Ian navigates pressure, how he’s learning to draw boundaries, and how he’s growing his style of leadership while stepping into an already‑established team. He spoke openly about adapting to a new kitchen, finding his rhythm, and learning to let go of the things that don’t matter. We also talked about nostalgia, collaboration, and the evolution of Yum Sing House’s menu, including the radish cake he’s transformed from a humble staple into something personal and expressive. Ian’s reflections on creativity, constraint, and identity in food were thoughtful and grounded, and they made this milestone episode feel especially meaningful.
Conversation with a Chef: Hi Ian, it’s so nice to see you again and I always love Yum Sing House. The food’s always really great, and there’s a great atmosphere at night, and it’s in a really fun part of town. How long have you been here now?
Ian Ho: I think this is month four for me. It’s been pretty hectic going straight into Chinese New Year and then we’ve got so many collaborations happening for the next three months or so.
I saw that there is a kitchen takeover in May with Geoff Marrett who was at Yardbird? He was born in France, but worked in Hong Kong, and is coming in for a day on May 16th. Day drinking with sake…
What could possibly go wrong? It’s getting cold now as well, and it’d be nice to have a little warming alcohol, let’s say.
When there are collaborations or kitchen takeovers, are you still in the kitchen?
This one, yeah, I should be in the kitchen as well, but it’s mostly all about him and the soccer producer as well and giving him that space to shine, to showcase what he can do. He’s a great chef, and a friend of the business as well.
Have you done those kinds of collaborations before?
No, not really, to be honest. It’s quite a new thing for me. I look forward to it.
It’s pretty exciting and there’s things you can learn or be inspired by, perhaps by new people coming in.
Absolutely, I think anyone new, it’s nice to just have some fresh eyes or people doing fresh things, even if they’ve done it a 100 times and it’s really boring for them. But for someone else, everything’s really fresh, it’s cool.
For these other chefs that come into the kitchen, do they come in beforehand and get a feel for the space?
Yes. They’ll see if their menu makes sense, and maybe you’ll have a little chat about how they want to do things, and then really boring logistic stuff to be honest, like what plates suit their food? They’ll come and scope it out.
I’m always impressed by that though. Chefs turning up in other kitchens and doing pop ups or supper clubs or like the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival where people come from overseas and then they take over a kitchen.
It’s not for everyone. You have to have a certain kind of personality. My good friend, Harry Mangat from Biji Dining does pop-ups everywhere. He did six months in Tasmania last summer. Then he’ll do another six months somewhere else, and then he just goes off travelling for three months backpacking around Europe. Maybe not for me, I like a bit of stability. I love a holiday, who doesn’t, I suppose? And travelling as well, but I’m not sure if doing pop ups every six months is for everyone.
Working in Yum Sing House is the most Asian restaurant I have worked in and it is very Chinese leaning. My background being Chinese Malaysian, it might not be the most authentic Chinese food in that way, but there are so many flavours that I’m used to, and so I’m bringing those flavours to this autumn menu.
Ian Ho, Yum Sing House
Coming into Yum Sing house, you’ve created the autumn menu. I read that it’s very nostalgic. Can you talk me through that? What does that mean?
Working in Yum Sing House is the most Asian restaurant I have worked in and it is very Chinese leaning. My background being Chinese Malaysian, it might not be the most authentic Chinese food in that way, but there are so many flavours that I’m used to, and so I’m bringing those flavours to this autumn menu, like the radish cake, for example. Radish cake is a pretty boring dish, to be honest, but I think I brought in familiar flavours, familiar ingredients, and just tweaked things. And the cold tofu dish with XO sauce, or almond XO sauce, it’s actually vegan. That goes with the Chinese donut as well. So, it’s all sort of familiar, yet you’re putting things together, and giving them a slightly more updated presentation. But flavours, you understand, straight away: XO sauce, and Chinese donut, tofu, they all work.
Is there a dish on the menu that’s the most personal to you on the menu?
I think the radish cake for now. I enjoy that I made a boring dish interesting, and the flavours of the fried radish cakes that you get back home in Malaysia. The egg floss gives you the impression of a stir-fried egg, and then you got a little bean shoot salad, which, back, back home, it’s probably just a big toss up in the wok. And then this one looks better, it’s a more refined dish.
First, obviously, the cooking of the protein itself, you have to nail that. And then for me, I know I’ve got the protein, the sauce, which should work with it, and then I just let the dish take me where it should go. That’s how I work. That’s how you connect ingredients that you want to use.
Ian Ho, Yum Sing House
When people come here for dinner, what would your advice be? They’re very hungry, what would be the best way to get a sense of that menu or of you? Where should they start and then move on to in terms of dishes?
That’s a good question. It’s not really about me. There are so many staple dishes that the last chef did a really good job with. The prawn toast is amazing. It’s so different and that’s down to him. If I was here, I’d get that 100%. I’d get the radish cake for something different. The Crispy Typhoon Shelter Barramundi immediately brings you back to Hong Kong style food. The tofu, you love it or hate it. I love it. So, I’d get the tofu dish as well. There are so many other things. The spatchcock that’s been on the menu forever, that’s another staple. You should definitely get that as well. Oh, and the pork dish: pork and blood plum with daikon, pickled daikon, and pickled green chilli. It’s our take on sweet and sour pork. But it’s just completely reimagined, I think. You wouldn’t think about sweet and sour pork, but those are the flavours, it’s got sour, it’s got crisp pickles as well and then heat from the chillies. The chillies are hot, so you want to be careful when you do pick those. It’s marinated in our own five spice. That’s a collab between myself and my sous chef. I’ve been really lucky to get him. He’s a good guy. Came with the furniture and he’s done a really good job for me as well, so I’m very proud of that dish between me and him.
When you’re coming up with a dish between two of you, where do you start? Does someone start throwing some ideas of flavour out there, how does that work?
It’s really different every time. Sometimes a supplier might come to us and say, I’ve got really great produce, like the plums, which were in season, and we think about how we incorporate this and which dish it would go well with. So we thought we thought about the pork. I wanted to update that a little bit as well. First, obviously, the cooking of the protein itself, you have to nail that. And then for me, I know I’ve got the protein, the sauce, which should work with it, and then I just let the dish take me where it should go. That’s how I work. That’s how you connect ingredients that you want to use. We had daikon and after we put the daikon on, I thought the chillies would go really well to lift the dish and give it a bit of accent. A bit of spice always does that.
Once you’ve made the menu and it’s printed, and you’re making the dishes over the course of a season, do you sometimes tweak those dishes?
Yes. I will never say no to making it better. It also depends on the availability of things, especially these days. Things aren’t so available. Some things happen, there’s a surprise monsoon happening in Queensland, for example. Or there’s a cold snap that kills some of the green veggies. You have to be versatile. Roll with punches.
I feel like the last time I spoke to you, we talked about, it sometimes being quite good being restricted because it allows for more creativity. Recently I spoke to a chef who talked about growing up really poor, and he had to learn to cook for his family, and they didn’t have very much, but it made him really good at thinking about what to do with very little and that whole problem solving thing.
It definitely still applies. But I don’t have that sort of background. I think it’s more like I used to work at a place where there were two head chefs and all the specials would go to them and I was left with the scraps. So I got really good at that. If I wanted my stuff to go on, I had very limited stuff to work with.
You were talking about how great your sous chef is, what’s it like coming into a kitchen where there is already a team? What’s your style for entering the kitchen and taking on a team?
You have to go in and then you work out how people respond to you. Everyone’s different. You have to organise yourself accordingly to different people. You need to make known certain things that you want to change and also be very open. They might be doing things differently that you can incorporate and it actually might be better. So, be versatile and accepting of different ways of doing things. You can’t go in and just change things and say, this is my way, you have to figure out what works. There’s a reason why things have been done the way they’ve been done. Then you just tweak it all, or influence things from there. I think that works for me personally.
It’s an open kitchen. Have you worked in a lot of open kitchens?
Yes, actually. For the longest time, The Smith was open. Taxi was really open as well. I actually prefer the open kitchen since it’s nice to not feel like you’re in a jail or in a cell.
And then I guess it can be good looking out at people and seeing them enjoying your food as well.
I draw clearer lines now. You can’t let yourself be too affected by things, by everything? You have to prioritise your work, what’s really important to be bothered about, are you really going to be bothered about this little thing? That was a big thing for me; huge when I was younger. Gradually, after so many years, I’m only starting to get to the point where I realise how to prioritise my own self.
Ian Ho, Yum Sing House
I guess you have to get used to the flow of a new kitchen. How long does it take you to feel like that it’s yours?
I think it takes a few months. You’ve got to go in and then figure out all the processes and see how you can implement things the way you want to do it. Maybe this job particularly, there are so many new things that crop up. You roll with the punches and then you settle into a rhythm. And then you all of a sudden, you feel like, okay, I can do things with inner flow and that’s when you start feeling like a kitchen is yours.
How do you process some of those challenges? It’s been really busy and you’ve got things that you’ve had to work through here. I remember last time I spoke to you, we talked about how you thought about things a lot and it was quite pressured and I wonder, is it getting easier for you to work through some of those things and not take things personally?
Yes, as I’ve grown, I guess. Getting older, might not be growing, but you find ways to cope with different things. I draw clearer lines now. You can’t let yourself be too affected by things, by everything? You have to prioritise your work, what’s really important to be bothered about, are you really going to be bothered about this little thing? That was a big thing for me; huge when I was younger. Gradually, after so many years, I’m only starting to get to the point where I realise how to prioritise my own self.
I think it’s definitely something that comes with age and maybe learning just to do that Parisian shrug of, well, this is what we’re working with and there’s nothing I can do about it think that’s a good attitude. Try and be more Parisian.
I agree. It’s a skill you have to learn and you have to be conscious about. At the end of the day, what can you do with other people? You can’t change someone, the only person you have influence on 100% is yourself. That’s where I’m at. It’s awesome in theory.
What are you looking forward to in the next few months at Yum Sing House?
I am looking forward to really settling in and getting the menu to reflect myself and the team and try not to piggyback too much off the old chef’s menu. They’ve done such a good job. It’ll actually be fun to improve upon that, or add my side to things on that. Prawn toast will never go, don’t worry.
Thank goodness. You’re back in the city too after some time away. There must be a different energy being right in the CBD, is there?
I think so. It’s always busy. I feel like every time I walk down the street, I’ll see something new.
It’s exciting. I agree. Well, it’s great that you’re here, because now I’ve got a great chef that I’ve spoken to before and one of my favourite restaurants. All the best for the next few months, and getting into the swing of it even more, and I look forward to coming in and having some prawn toast and radish cake.
Yum Sing House, 22 Sutherland House, Melbourne CBD