Advocator of Singapore heritage cuisine and Chef Partner, Rempapa

“I started cooking at an early age, as free kitchen help, in both my Eurasian paternal grandfather’s and Peranakan maternal grandmother’s kitchens. My grandma stood strong in the belief that Peranakan cuisine was the most complex and diversified cuisine Singapore has to offer.

D’Silva points out that his grandmother was usually reticent, and because of that his “time with her was very precious, especially when she told me stories of the food that was prepared and the special occasions they were served on.”

“Unfortunately, Grandma passed away when I was 25 and the one saying that has endured in my head when I cook is, ‘If your heart and soul is not in sync then the food will not be remembered.’ Cooking good tasting food is achievable but cooking food that will be remembered a lifetime requires a certain amount of ‘soul’, and you can’t buy soul.”

Today, the memory of D’Silva’s grandmother lives on in his menu, with items such as babi pongteh, “a dish Grandma used to prepare only on special occasions. This Peranakan dish is a blend of fresh garlic and preserved soya beans with dried shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and braised pork.” Elsewhere, a Peranakan chap chye “evokes nostalgia for simpler times and meals, prepared by Grandma during festivities like Chinese New Year. This dry variation of Chap Chye in the Peranakan style uses both prawn and pork broth. Shitake mushrooms, white cabbage, black fungus, tau kee, lily buds, and dark fermented beans are among the ingredients that are slowly braised to bring out their flavours into the dish.”

Head chef, Straits Bakery

Ch’ng’s sharp tongue in Peranakan cuisine was fostered by his godmother, who always invited him to prepare ingredients for family meals together as a child. “The spiciness of the shallot always stimulated my tears,” he recalls of pounding rempah (spice paste) with his godmother. The secrets of preparing Peranakan cuisine, he says, is to “cook with patience”—from “gathering the ingredients, cutting and pounding, and sweating the rempah fragrance, until fully cooked. No shortcut, same as life.”

“I couldn’t take spicy food when I was a child. So she created a dish called ‘lumpa yang’, which is coriander chicken in English. It’s a [...] Peranakan style of green curry. The colour comes from the paste of fresh coriander, coriander seed, cumin, fennel, turmeric and other rempah. This recipe uses only coconut milk instead of water and reduced until it’s dry. The chicken fully absorbs the flavour of spices with a little sweetness from caramelised coconut milk.” 

Straits Bakery, 2 Havelock Road, B1-10/11 Havelock 2, S(059763), +65 9831 5769

Read more: Mother’s Day 2023: Where to get the best cakes for mum

Chef-founder, Naeum

“Growing up, I observed my grandmother and mother in the kitchen, which  sparked my interest to cook. However, both of them were initially not very  approving of my decision to enroll in culinary school at the age of 15. I was determined to stick  to this path as I believed it could be fulfilling for me. Eventually, they were, and  continue to be, supportive of my decision to build a career in this industry.”  

Today, Han’s flagship restaurant Naeum operates on episodic menus that change every few months, which “reflect the different food stories” in his personal journey—including his grandmother’s and mother’s cooking. “My family is very close-knit, so whenever I think of a theme for a new episode, I will reminisce about the things I enjoy doing during a particular season, and my family would naturally be part of these memories. The longer I’m away, the more I miss home,” Han says. “So I look to these moments and weave them into each episode that’s personal and close to my heart.  

In Han’s menu, you’ll find dishes closely intertwined with his family history. Take the white kimchi, for instance, taken from his grandmother who escaped North Korea during the Korean War—the “only  tangible reminder left of her original home in the north”. It features as a key ingredient in the doeji-galbi bap—a hearty rice bowl with marinated Duroc pork and black truffle—in Han’s Episode 5: Front Yard Barbecue menu. 

The white kimchi is also the star of the show in the somyeon, which is similarly inspired by his mother. “My mum is a working mother,” Han tells us, “so she only has time to cook for the family on  Sundays. She would cook cold kimchi noodles, which became a Sunday tradition.” Han adds his own twist to  the noodles by adding Binchotan-grilled Kurobuta black pork belly and mixing his grandmother’s white kimchi with crab soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar and more aromatics. 

Executive Chinese chef, Yì by Jereme Leung

“Growing up, I had home-cooked food made by my grandmother. During her time, all ingredients were homemade, and each dish always conveyed a warm and delicate taste. To this day, the rich flavours of her cooking and meal times with her hold lasting memories within me.”

At Yì by Jereme Leung, Yap continues to channel the memory of his grandmother in his dishes. “Our steamed Iberico pork patty with black garlic & Taiwanese mullet roe is one of the dishes inspired by my grandmother,” he tells us. “Each component of the dish is created by hand, from the slicing and mincing of the Iberico pork to the mixing of water chestnuts, mushrooms, black garlic with minced pork. Much like how my grandmother made each ingredient by hand, this dish is also a reflection of her hard work and dedication to serve good food.”

A dish in the restaurant’s exclusive Mother’s Day set menu from May 13 to 14 is also inspired by his grandmother, the steamed live prawns with Chinese wine, shrimp paste & egg white custard. “When I was a child, this was one of my favourite dishes made by my grandmother. She would make a steamed egg custard with rice wine and topped it off with shrimp. Specially for Mother’s Day, this dish has been enhanced to feature fresh big head prawns with fragrant homemade prawn head oil and egg white custard blended with 5-Year-Old Chinese Wine. The dish pays homage to my grandmother for all the fond memories of food that she has created for me.”

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