First Look: XO’s chef AK bringing street food to NewActon

Posted on 17 October, 2024

Update: AK’s will be opening on Monday 28 October.

When Anand Kumar (AK) Ramakrishna hung up his chef’s apron following the closure of his iconic restaurant XO, he was going to do one of two things.

Write a cookbook or create a new place.

Well, his hundreds (possibly thousands) of recipes will have to wait another few years because on Monday 28 October, AK’s in NewActon opens for its first service.

Taking out the tiny kitchen that used to house Ethiopian canteen Fekerte’s, AK is thrilled to be bringing his own brand of hawker-style street food to NewActon.

Understandably, there’s a buzz about this place.

AK created major waves across the city’s culinary scene when he and business partners Kent Nhan and Greg Lally ran XO.

And his mastery of spices and repertoire of recipes has been a life-long process.

AK was just five years old when he began frequenting his grandfather’s restaurant kitchen in Ipoh, in his homeland of Malaysia.

Amma’s chicken curry – destined to be AK’s signature dish.

It was here that he learned the basics of cooking, skills he would later hone making food for his younger brothers (while his mum worked long shifts as a nurse) and then take to Australia when he embarked on his professional career.

His mother’s instinctive talent in the kitchen was also a major influence on AK and we can thank Amma for sharing her famous steamed barramundi dish when it featured on XO’s menu.

Given his family’s collective obsession with food, there was never any doubt AK would become a chef, specialising in the Malaysian Tamil flavours of home, while also studying the intricacies of French cooking and spending many years fine-tuning his Italian culinary techniques while working in Sydney.

His national success at XO has been a source of enormous pride to his family and the flavours of his humble home dinner table will dominate the new menu.

While AK’s will be a small affair, AK cannot help but think ambitiously.

“Part of me wants to keep it simple and make big pots of amazing curries each day, while my mind goes into overdrive on what I can do.”

Not wanting to spill too many beans at this stage, he will admit the likelihood of an XO collaboration or pop-up later down the line.

Time off from owning his own place has made him itchy to get back in the kitchen to create the honest, humble, hawker-style food he grew up with. And in many ways, AK is honouring the legacy of Fekerte’s two-or-three-dish food-stall offering which was also a go-to for lunches at NewActon.

Chicken rendang and Amma’s curry.

While he stays focused over the next weeks and months of bedding in a Monday to Friday lunch service, AK is also keen to test himself operating a dinner service one night a week when he can “get more adventurous”.

Note to diners, AK has held a life-long obsession with fried chicken so that’s likely to make an appearance.

For opening week and beyond it’s more likely he will stick with tried-and-true recipes including Amma’s curry (his mum’s chicken curry recipe) a stir fry or two and maybe a dahl to eat with rice.

“I will make sure I tick the boxes for dietaries, including the vegos and gluten-frees and I want to make sure that people can get their favourites each week while also maybe trying a new dish.”