The humour of a culinary coincidence isn’t lost on chef and artist Sandy Ho. “I’m making a fish toast, and I didn’t even think of it…toast for TOAST.” Quick to laugh and extoll the virtues of brothy fish poached in turmeric, ginger, and chilli atop crispy buttered toast laced with garlic mayo on a chilly, post-blizzard day in New York City, she explains, “It’s the perfect, wintry plate for breakfast, lunch or dinner - simple to assemble and easy to make.”
Sandy’s bright, inventive cooking - think savoury potato donuts piped with whipped beet cream or crab-stuffed nori rolls edged in flower petals and finger lime caviar - is the product of both her upbringing and years of culinary travel. The daughter of Vietnamese immigrants in Australia, Sandy grew up in the Sydney suburb of Belmore. “There were very few Vietnamese families in the neighborhood, but it was an incredible melting pot of food and culture,” she says.
Raised in a traditional household, Sandy helped her mother in the kitchen and remembers gathering at the family table to an ever-changing menu. “My mom is an incredible cook,” she says. “I loved watching her cut things. It was meditative being in a space where you’re in presence and practice with someone you love. Not only did we have traditional Vietnamese food, but my mom would go to our Greek neighbors and learn how to make lemon chicken; she’d go to our Lebanese neighbors and learn how to roast lamb.” Her dad’s rule was to try everything once. “With frogs’ legs or chicken hearts, he’d say, ‘Take a bite, and if you don’t want to eat it after that you don’t have to.’ That instillment of curiosity and creativity stayed with me.”
Sandy studied painting and drawing at university in Sydney, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts, before moving to Melbourne to further pursue a career as an artist. She soon found herself gravitating towards work in bars and restaurants which led to the decision to take a break from the art world at large. She enrolled in a butchery course and worked her way up in restaurants with revered chefs in Melbourne. Then came, as she puts it, her “Eat, Pray, Love year.”
Much like author Elizabeth Gilbert writes about in the book, the ending of a relationship spurred a trip to Italy that, for Sandy, included a week-long sailing trip. Even though she was a passenger, she ended up cooking on the boat every day. “I fell in love with it,” she says. The sailing company offered her a job, so she cancelled the rest of her European adventure and shifted to two years cooking at sea. “Going into port and meeting local makers and farmers, and having an Italian tomato in the summertime - I loved that feeling.”
When she was ready to return to land, she chose Los Angeles, both for its proximity to Australia as well as for its culinary landscape. Rather than go back to restaurants, she made the natural progression to private chef and stylist, and she quickly gained a word-of-mouth following that led to working in events. “The more of my work I put out there, the more it came back to me,” she says. But right as her new career began to take flight, COVID happened, obliterating private events in LA altogether. “I started to focus on what kind of food was important to me and asked myself what I wanted to put out into the world.”
Merging her art school background with her culinary roots and world travels, the result was Sandita’s, a line of rainbow-hued dumplings she hand-rolled in her home kitchen. Using vegetables to create natural dyes, each batch was exquisitely vibrant, each piece a work of art, or a “labour of love,” as she calls it. She posted them online and they became a sensation.
“When I made the first one, I thought it would be such a great gift to give to people. Dumplings are the perfect freezer snack. I knew I had something special that would make someone smile,” she recalls. “As an immigrant living in the U.S., not knowing where the world was going to go, what made me happy was spending every day cooking. If I couldn’t be face to face with people, then creating art out of food was the perfect marriage of everything that's been before me.”
After COVID restrictions were lifted, Sandy had a robust new audience. She went back to private event catering, focusing on artful, bespoke events for discerning brands looking to add elevated experiences to product launches. She took her work a step further and self-published a cookbook series as well. To her surprise, the first issue - a run of 600 - sold out immediately.
“I wanted to do a cookbook that’s artful, that speaks to heritage and also trains you to cook something,” Sandy says. “I love the idea of what’s on the cutting room floor in an artist’s studio. You don't just see the finished products, you see their palate, what colors they’ve mixed, the paint brushes they’ve used. I really love that idea but for a chef or a cook.” She speaks enthusiastically of future volumes and plans to release two more in addition to rereleasing the first volume as an e-book. “I’m really proud to put my voice into something like this and have it be in the hands of people who are interested in the story.”
Now based in New York, Sandy’s fulfilling a lifelong dream of living in her favorite city. “I love my neighborhood,” she says of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Her gastronomic artistry continues to expand into, now, worldwide events she posts on Instagram. An image of marbleized, cured kombu egg yolks shares space alongside a loving homage to her favorite dish, lasagna. “The Béchamel! Those silky sheets, the ragu and the red oil that seeps out after it’s been cooking,” she enthuses. “It’s the best.” Having landed in a place she envisioned she’d always be is what continues to propel her forward. “I want to be in the energy of this city that gives back as much as you put out,” she says. “I’m excited to continue taking risks and saying yes. I am so hungry for more.”
Brothy Poached Sea Bass on Fried Toast
Serves 2
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Equipment:
1 10 inch skillet
1 Medium heavy bottom pot or saucepan
1 Slotted spoon or spatula
Ingredients:
2-4 slices stale bread (sourdough or ciabatta)
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups water
2 tbs fish sauce
2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
⅛ tsp turmeric ground
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
3 Thai chillis, split in half lengthways
1 inch ginger, sliced
½ tbsp lime juice
300 g fillet of sea bass, skinned and deboned
2 bunches / 300g of scallions, thinly sliced
1 inch of ginger, finely grated
3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 tbsp fish sauce
3/4 cup of vegetable oil
3 tbs mayo (I added turmeric and grated a clove of garlic in mine for an added punch!)
Scallion oil
Pickled onions, pickled chilis or your favourite chili crisp to your liking
Recipe:
Heat skillet over medium heat, add butter, oil and swirl to completely melt
Add sliced bread to the pan and toast on each side for 1-2 minutes until crisp, golden and lightly charred. Set aside while you prepare broth and fish.
In a medium saucepan set over high heat, bring all ingredients for broth to a simmer
Turn heat down to low and gently place fish in the broth
Cook for 4 minutes on low until the fish is opaque and tender. Gently remove fish using a slotted spoon and place onto a lined sheet pan or plate. Set aside
Increase the heat and reduce the broth by half (about 3 minutes). Turn off heat and add fresh lime juice
Place scallions ginger and garlic into a heat proof bowl
Heat vegetable oil in a saucepan until just smoking or reaches 375F
Carefully pour oil over scallion mixture
Stir to combine and leave to cool
Place toasts on shallow serving plates and top each with piece of fish
Ladle over half a cup of hot broth
Dollop a spoonful of mayo and scallion oil over the fish and garnish with fresh herbs & pickles
Sandy wears the Linen Cotton Fine Knit Sweater and Garment Dyed Apron Linen Skirt. The Speckle Enamel Platter, Contrast Rim Enamel Plate and Cotton Canvas Project Apron also feature.
Words by Andi Teran.
Photography by Youn Kim.
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