Why fusion food doesn't need to be authentic, as Glasgow chef opens up on first cookbook

Food is the great equaliser, as the saying goes. It brings us together and educates us and, for me, it’s a way of showing you care.

I’ve cooked a few times in the past few weeks for friends. These are usually easy pasta dishes, one being my mother’s veggie lasagna that I perfected in lockdown due to it being immensely comforting, but also because I couldn’t actually go to my parents and enjoy the original.

While I don’t tend to cook what would be perceived as traditional Scottish dishes, and sadly I can’t bake my great gran or nanny’s clootie dumpling due to the recipes being lost, I can make some of my mum’s dishes. They may have come from magazine clippings or old cookbooks, but I have been made hers using the additions she prefers.

One chef who is cooking the food of her mother and gran is one of Glasgow’s favourites Julie Lin. From her roots, when she had a street food van to appearing on MasterChef and to opening her own restaurants, Lin has always cooked a fusion of Scottish Malaysian food that reflects her heritage. She is set to launch her first cookbook, Sama Sama - meaning Same Same - in spring 2025.

The book is set to “broaden your ideas of authenticity” and the blurb reads: “Sama Sama celebrates all parts of Julie’s identity (Malaysian, Chinese and Scottish) with heart-warming stories of food and self-discovery, reminding us that food is the thread that ties us all together”.

While the 90 recipes have yet to be finalised, but include Chilli Crisp Puttanesca, Steak au Sichuan Poivre and Kaya Croissant-and-Butter Pudding, Lin is sure her satay sauce, which is from her gran, will make the cut.

It is something that is often on the menu and is a hero part of the menu of her first supper club. Speaking to Lin recently, she told me about modern fusion cooking, saying: “When we think of the term ‘authentic food’, it's actually quite a backwards view on how we cook because it’s important to honour traditions and methods and techniques that you've had from a country.

“But I also think, for me, to say that I was cooking authentic Malaysian food in Glasgow is not right because you don't have the same ingredients. You don't have the same climate and the same atmosphere. Fusion [food] got a bad name in the ‘90s and it's about reclaiming that word for its respectful use, and show what we can do in Scotland and in the UK by showing the diverse culture here, but also not claiming it to be authentic all the time. Because it doesn't have to be.”

It is books and restaurants like this that remind us it’s OK that our cooking isn’t authentic or ‘needs’ to be a certain way. The main reason for cooking a meal is about provision, but also about love. I just hope my friends don’t get sick of my mother’s veggie lasagna anytime soon.