Food brings people together.
Over a meal, one family hopes to bring people closer, spark conversations and promote inclusivity among people from all walks of life.
My Home Your Home is a private home-dining and entertainment experience run by TV producer Rose Sivam, 53, her home-chef husband Chris Choo, 49, and their 11-year-old daughter Aleia.
Every other month, the family invites people who may not have a chance to enjoy good food and professional entertainment to its five-room flat in Serangoon North to do so at no cost.
Guests have included seniors from old folks’ homes and young people with special needs.
Mr Choo, who has no formal training in cooking, said: “We did not just want to donate money or hand out packets of bee hoon to the needy.”
He added: “We did not want to evoke pity or superiority by giving money or distributing food. We wanted to evoke a sense of equality and sameness.
“We wanted people to meet one another, interact and see that we are all more similar than different. That starts with giving them a seat at the table.”
The idea of hosting an inclusive dinner came about after the family invited some friends from the Singapore Cheshire Home, which is for the chronically ill and the disabled, over for Christmas in 2016.
Having grown up around elaborate dinner and birthday parties thrown by her mother, Ms Rose often entertained her friends and families.
The couple had also started running in February last year (2017) private home-dining business Relish.Sg, where they host dinner and entertainment. They usually charge about $78 per person.
Inspired by how their guests from the Singapore Cheshire Home enjoyed the night, they decided to extend their professional home dining service to the less privileged.
“I was not a volunteer or someone who had the opportunity to interact with people from homes. But this experience let me meet people I would not have met otherwise, and it opened up my mind. I wanted others to experience that too,” said Mr Choo.
He and Ms Rose would invite guests from less-privileged backgrounds, at no charge, to dinners along with paying guests. They usually play host to about 35 people for the dinners.
Mr Choo said it is often his family that learns the most from these interactions.
“We once had a blind painter,” he said. “He was making bread with us when I was talking to him and I completely forgot that he was blind. His other senses were so sharp. He knew exactly what he was doing.
“In that moment you interact with him for who he is, beyond the labels of his disability.”
The middle-aged painter, inspired by the dinner and flamenco dance – which he could not see but could feel the rhythm of – went home and wrote the Chinese character for “home” in golden ink.
The calligraphy gift now hangs on the wall of the couple’s home.
People have contacted the family through Facebook or offline to offer help in various ways.
Some offer to provide transport, while others want to volunteer their time or chip in towards costs. For each dinner, the family raises funds through donations or sponsors to try to cover costs.
Ms Rose hopes that more people will join in and turn the idea into a movement across the country.
“Anyone can invite even just two or three people into his own home and share food and a conversation with them,” she said, adding that she also offers advice to those who are interested in hosting similar dinners. “I hope that people can be open and see that everyone is worth their time.”
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Source: The Straits Times, 17 October 2018