Warm and welcoming, understated and charming. If, as they say, a home reflects the people who live in it, there’s surely no better example than that of lawyer-turned-chef, MasterChef winner, author, TV presenter and now podcast host Adam Liaw. For Adam’s family, their Sydney home, and the pieces that dwell in it, are a true reflection of their personalities and the way they love to live. In addition to their travels together, Adam cooks around the world for television series Destination Flavour, while his wife, Asami, is back and forth between here and her native Japan with the couple’s two adorable children, Christopher and Anna.
Yet all this travelling – and exposure to gorgeous pieces that tap into the couple’s beautifully understated aesthetic – has created a bit of decorating negotiating. “Asami and I have a deal,” explains Adam. “Pretty much the equivalent volume of whatever I bring back is what I need to throw out. There’s lots of nice stuff that we bring back from overseas – and lots of crappy old stuff that I collected beforehand!” HB sat down for a chat with Adam to discover a bit about his carefully curated Sydney home.
After a decade in this beautiful home, Adam and Asami’s recent purchase of a renovated Victorian home in Roseville for $5.26 million means that the couple have listed this property for sale.
Their new five-bedroom home has a contemporary extension at the rear, with open plan living areas including a luxurious entertainer’s kitchen fitted with high-end kitchen appliances, landscaped gardens and a heated swimming pool.
NEWS FLASH
What attracted you to this home?
“In Japan, the value of property is very, very closely related to proximity to the train station. We literally walk five minutes to the train station from here.”
What’s your favourite part of your home?
“The tatami room. It’s such a versatile thing. It can function as a dining room, storage, or a lounge for just lying around. It’s multipurpose enough to use regularly. These days a space in your house that only gets used on special occasions seems a bit old-fashioned.”
“Every Japanese person can sit cross-legged for a very long time, but for most Australians, it’s a bit of a challenge – I can’t do it either,” says Adam with a laugh. “So we designed this as a ‘horigotatsu’. Instead of sitting right on the ground, the tatami is an entire raised platform around the room, with a hole under the table for your legs. It’s a lot more comfortable and the posture is just like sitting in a chair. Raising the platform gives us lots of storage, as well.”
The old kitchen just had to go. Why was this?
“It wasn’t a bad kitchen, it just wasn’t exactly the way I like it – I’m a bit particular with that kind of thing!” With a doubleheight ceiling, beautiful finishes and carefully selected features, the kitchen, naturally, lies at the heart of the home.
In one corner sits the sake barrel from their wedding, which they often repurpose as an ice bucket. “Instead of cutting a cake, a Japanese wedding has a ceremony called ‘kagami biraki,’ which is where a barrel of sake is smashed open with a wooden mallet,” explains Adam. “The barrel itself was a gift from the sake brewery in my wife’s home state of Ishikawa, as they are friends of our family.”
Are there any rules in your home?
“We don’t like clutter, but I guess most travellers’ houses end up being very cluttered because you’re always inspired to bring so much back.”
How do your curate your many travel mementos?
“Asami and I have a ‘one in, one out’ policy. We can bring back whatever we like from our travels, but it needs to replace something we already have of equivalent size. It helps reduce our clutter, but also avoids impulse buys because it means we have to love something enough to think about what at home we’d need to get rid of.”
Living room
The couple knocked out a false wall in the original kitchen and dining area to create a much-loved and used open-plan living space, which is enjoyed by all the family. During the renovations, the couple also included new built-in bookshelves made from Tasmanian oak. “I’m a firm believer that every house has to have a nice bookshelf,” says Adam, adding the kids are far more likely to pick up a book with such easy access.
How would you describe your home’s style?
“There are a couple of Japanese details that have been incorporated, but it’s still an Australian house for an Australian family.”
Adam’s podcast
Ever on the lookout for more ways to fall in love with food, Adam launched a podcast called How Taste Changed the World. Designed to delve into the history of our five tastes – sweet, bitter, salty, sour and umami, Adam speaks to chefs and scientists the world over who are passionate about food, where it comes from and where it can take us. Check it out here.
