David Tan operates Nasi Rice with his family on Howitt Street in Wendouree, about 5 kilometres outside of central Ballarat.
Three generations of the family have been chefs, and David and his siblings have each grown up around rich, homemade food.
“I actually grew up believing everybody can cook,” David told the Brolga. “It’s kind of funny, it was only in my 20s I realised that wasn’t true.”
The space: The Nasi Rice space was initially acquired by the family to function as a central kitchen and storage space in 2023, and it became operational this year.
When David returned to the family business in 2024, after spending several years working with Imperial College in London, he began shifting the space around to be a retail store.
Now, he and his mother, Bee, produce up to 650 dumplings and dim sims in the space per week for wholesale with their own family recipe.
Story so far: Don, David’s father, first moved to Australia from Malaysia in the late 1990s, followed soon by Bee. David moved in 2007, and his sister, Angeline, left a software job to join the family business as well.
“Everyone has had a different journey,” he said, adding that the family all moved at different times, and got involved in the business at different times.
He added that, last year, the family realised the areas they have lived and worked in coincidentally followed the same pathway as Victoria’s first Chinese immigrants during the gold rush, starting in Robe - where many ships dropped off passengers to avoid the £10 poll Victorian tax on Chinese immigrants - followed by Bendigo and Ballarat.
The food: David told the Brolga a few of the family’s signature dishes are Hainanese chicken rice and his father’s rendang recipe, which they have previously incorporated into pies.
Image: Nasi Rice
David said his preferred cooking method is actually baking - he likes the scientific methodology behind it, and used this thinking to create the curry-ayam pie in Ballarat's Best Pie Competition earlier this year.
The pie was entirely gluten-free, with a crust constructed exclusively from potato.
Image: Nasi Rice
Rock Lobster: Don’s first restaurant was in Robe, South Australia. David said Don introduced a new way of cooking lobster to the locals - as a noodle dish, rather than steamed, salt boiled or fried.
“We had a few instances where people kept bringing in lobsters to the shop and went, hey can you whip this up for me?” he said with a laugh.
Looking ahead:
For the past 7 years, David’s father has operated Don’s Kitchen out of Midlands Bowls Club in Invermay Park. He said his dad is “always the head chef”. Soon after the contract for Don’s Kitchen finishes this Sunday, the business will be joining Nasi Rice with plans to create a hybrid restaurant-cafe space.
“I have left a lot of furniture on wheels,” David said with a laugh. “To make sure we can always move things around.”
Image: Nasi Rice