BY TANG LENG ZE
After a long hiatus… MasterChef Yang is back with a new season!
Cooking lessons have been popular among CNYSP scholars for years. When we, the Holistic Development Portfolio, surveyed scholars last year, more than three quarters looked forward to having us organise cooking lessons again. In fact, it was the most popular choice out of the other possible events we listed.
Perhaps after their experiences in a sterile, pristine lab environment, which at times feel foreign, the scholars may be craving for a similar hands-on experience, but with a warmer and more familiar environment.
This year, the focus of MasterChef Yang is local cuisine. As part of the CNYSP curriculum, scholars will get opportunities to travel overseas for exchange and Final Year Projects. Living abroad for months, they are bound to crave for local delights. What better way to enjoy them than whipping up these meals by themselves? They will also make friends overseas, and with these recipes in their belt, they can prepare them for their hosts, spreading Singapore’s food culture.
This time around, the Holistic Development Portfolio is organising 3 different cooking sessions within the campus, at our very own culinaiRE!@Tanjong. We have invited Chef Priscill Koh (@taitaichef) from TaiTai Chef Academy as our Culinary Trainer. Having worked with our campus’ Residential Education to organise culinary workshops for 4 years, she is no stranger to NTU. Jovial, entertaining and meticulous, she sure knew how to infect us with her passion for food.
Our first session, MasterChef Yang Episode 1, was held on 7 February 2022. It featured learning how to make Roti John and Burbur Cha Cha. In this 2-hour session, Chef Priscill explains how to efficiently and skillfully prepare both dishes at the same time. Aside from just teaching us the different culinary methods, she explains the origin of the food, spreading the appreciation for local cuisine.
Did you know that Roti John was said to be created for British sailors who were craving for hamburgers back in the 1960s? However, as local Malay hawkers had little impression of hamburgers, they created “hamburgers” with a local twist: minced meat and sliced onions placed between French loaves, topped with eggs and followed by sizzles of ketchup and chilli sauce. The name Roti John embodies our colonial history with even its name being a mix of the East and the West.
I’m sure most readers are no strangers to Burbur Cha Cha, a starchy dessert thickened with coconut milk and topped with sago pearls. It may seem like a simple dish but it actually takes hours of preparation. In fact, Chef Priscill had been boiling the sago for 2 hours before the class itself. In her iteration of the desert, Chef Priscill is scrupulous to use less sugar. In order to ensure the dessert remains rich in flavour, she uses ample amounts of yam and sweet potatoes. The end result is a fragrant, delectable treat.
During the session, participants were entertained by Chef Priscill’s demonstrations – particularly impressed by how she skillfully sliced the Japanese Cucumber into diagonal strips. As a bonus, she introduced the participants to her homegrown micro-greens, such as Jade Bok Choy, for use as garnish, and even explained how to grow them.
At the end of the session, the participants were proud of their creations (and voracious to try them). Leaving the kitchen with rumbling stomachs, they cannot wait to try their self-prepared feast.
Do keep a look out for our next two sessions coming your way. We will be preparing different dishes and we hope you are curious about what they are. Until then, see you!
Check out the recipes here.