Meera Freeman is the author of The Flavours of Vietnam. She is a food consultant, runs cooking classes specialising in Italian, Thai, North African and Vietnamese cuisines and leads popular walking tours through the Asian food stores along Melbourne's Victoria Street. Her involvement with the Vietnamese community there has seen her dubbed 'First Lady of Victoria Street' by the traders she visits. Now considered an expert on the food of Vietnam, she has been invited to lead tours to that country and is often asked to write or comment on Asian cuisines.