Sylvie, who started learning to cook under supervision around the age of six, has 2,300 recipes saved on Pinterest.
The Year 9 student at an international school is a fan of British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, whose creations – such as a chocolate “nest” dessert, surrounded by dry ice – display a kind of “mystical” artistry, she says.
Sylvie and her 15-year-old sister have been involved in making family meals since they were younger. Their mother, Ms Penelope Foo, the founder of a cooking school called Hungry Mummies, used to suggest cooking together if they came back from school feeling down. They would bake puff pastry laced with cheese and pesto, scarfing the snacks hot from the oven.
Ms Foo, a 43-year-old divorcee, says: “Cooking also kept the children from bickering. The calm would take over and you go into a flow state.”
Sylvie, who cooks at home at least once a week, describes it as a journey of self-discovery.
She says: “When I was a kid, I didn’t understand the point of cooking because you could’ve just bought the food. As I got older, I realised that making food is not about convenience. It was more about what you like and what you’re capable of.”
She used to prefer baking before experimenting with savoury Thai and Korean dishes, then delving into exploring individual ingredients.
She says: “Making people happy with my food is definitely my goal. Knowing I can make a dish again is empowering.”
Mapo tofu, a spiced tofu dish cooked with minced pork, is part of teenager Sylvie Black's homecooking repertoire. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
Growing appetite for cooking classes
Teenagers who cook for their families are rare in a culture where takeaways and express food delivery is common, and where even adults may not cook regularly.
Even though young people face barriers to becoming home cooks, some service providers are reporting growing demand for cooking programmes for children and teens.
Mr Daniel Tan is the founder of cooking school Food Playground in Chinatown. He says his school holiday cooking programmes for children, aged 10 to 18, have seen a 15 per cent year-on-year increase in participation since they were launched in 2020.
Food Playground’s two-day cooking camps first drew interest from parents wanting to keep their kids occupied during the Covid-19 pandemic, he says. They start at $300 and children learn how to cook dishes like chicken char siew, char kway teow and shepherd’s pie.
“Because of their busy lifestyles, most parents do not cook often. Usually, they get their domestic helpers to do the cooking. Still, they do realise the importance of cooking, baking and knowing about nutrition as life skills for their children,” says Mr Tan.
He adds that young people were also drawn in by shows like Culinary Class Wars (2024), a South Korean cooking competition on Netflix.
Over at Faith Acts, a charity based in Queenstown, its weekly in-house Junior Chef programme for primary schoolchildren has expanded since 2021 to include cooking workshops at two primary schools, says its head of youth services Brian Zhang.
Mr Zhang says that learning to cook helps children gain confidence quickly. He has seen them no longer afraid of using a knife a few months into the programme, whereas learning to play music with a degree of proficiency, for instance, takes longer.
He says: “The pupils enjoy the sessions. A lot of them are excited to da bao (takeaway) the dishes they made for their parents. But many parents may not be confident about letting them cook at home.”
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The obstacles facing youth who may want to cook more include parents’ anxiety about their child using a gas stove at home; parents and their older offspring returning from work or school late and feeling too tired to cook a meal; the adults not having the time to shop for groceries; and a reluctance to wash up and clean the kitchen afterwards, says Mr Zhang.
Ms Foo has seen demand at Hungry Mummies’ cooking classes for children and teenagers rise about 30 per cent from 2023. She teaches young people from six to 18 how to cook dishes such as Korean fried chicken, miso ramen, salmon fried rice and lava cake.
Lessons at Hungry Mummies, which she launched in 2014 from her Telok Blangah HDB flat, start at $90 for a two-hour session.
“I teach more kids than I do adults now,” says Ms Foo. She adds that the adults who took her classes included 40-somethings whose mothers never allowed them into the kitchen, asking them to study instead.
She has noticed a “disconnect” with some young people when it comes to local foods. Some participants cannot distinguish between ingredients such as ginger, garlic and onion, or identify what a spatula is.
She has also encountered children who do not know what “tau gay” is, calling them “bean sprouts” or “dou ya”, the Mandarin equivalent, instead.
TikTok recipes versus traditional cooking
Providers and families say the benefits of having their children cook, usually once a week on weekends, extend beyond family bonding.
A spokesperson at self-help group Singapore Indian Development Association (Sinda) says: “There has been a steady interest in cooking-themed workshops among children and teens in recent years. Such Sinda programmes usually see full registration, especially among families with children aged six to 14.
“When children cook regularly at home, they are also able to contribute meaningfully to household needs This helps build self-esteem, responsibility and a sense of ownership – qualities that spill over into other areas of life, such as schoolwork or leadership roles.”
Jaswant Yoon Kai Jie Muthu, 17, (right) with his father, Mr Mike Muthu Sangaiillai, a manager in the construction industry, enjoys cooking with his parents once a week. ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY
Jaswant Yoon Kai Jie Muthu, 17, is a volunteer at Faith Acts’ Junior Chef programme, which he participated in as a primary school pupil.
Jaswant, now a first-year polytechnic student, says: “As a child learning about cooking, I also learnt resilience. There were times when our food got burnt and we were sad. There would be multiple opinions and I would wonder, why did they say that about my food? But I learnt to take in constructive feedback.”
Jaswant, an only child, enjoys cooking dishes like carbonara on the weekend with his parents. His mother, 49, is a clerk and his father, 51, is a manager at a construction firm.
He says: “There are things that modern chefs don’t teach. It’s good to keep traditional methods as they are the heart of cooking.”
He looks for recipes on Instagram and TikTok. One advised him to use tomato puree for the classic Chinese dish of tomato and eggs, which his mum vetoed in favour of fresh tomatoes.
Helping to lighten the load
Lukesh Terrence Jessen, 14, (right) and his mother Ms Shamala Masilamany, a marketing and finance manager, show the kampung fried rice with chicken dish he cooked, a family recipe. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Secondary 2 student Lukesh Terrence Jessen, 14, is one of several home cooks in his six-member family. His parents and his eldest brother also like to cook. Lukesh has a twin brother and an eight-year-old sister.
Lukesh participated in the second season of Vasantham Junior Chef, a cooking competition for children that aired on meWatch in 2024.
He has had his share of cooking mishaps since he started cooking in earnest around the age of 12. He has burnt dishes, added too much salt, and had hot oil splatter on him.
He likes cooking dishes like quesadillas, lime and cilantro chicken, and Ramly burgers.
He says: “I improved my knife skills through watching YouTube videos and I cook from the heart. The satisfaction comes when you put in so much hard work and people compliment your dish. I prefer home-cooked food as there’s no better food than my mother’s cooking.”
His mother, marketing and finance manager Shamala Masilamany, is the household’s primary cook most of the time.
With Lukesh, her husband, aged 40, and her 26-year-old eldest child chipping in, the family’s domestic requirements are better understood and shared.
Ms Shamala says: “Cooking is not a gendered role. I’m happy that when my family members see I’m tired, my husband will cook, the boys will clean the kitchen. They say, ‘Talk to us instead.’”
Kampung fried rice with chicken
Kampung fried rice and chicken, a family recipe cooked by Lukesh Terrence Jessen, 14. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
A family recipe from Lukesh Terrence Jessen, 14, and his mother, Ms Shamala Masilamany, 45.
Ingredients
Paste for fried rice:
1 large red onion, sliced
3 large garlic cloves, sliced
Chillies – adjust spice level to preference, from none to 3 whole red chilli padis and 3 whole green chilli padis for a spicy kick
1 chicken stock cube
Chicken marinade:
½ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp chicken curry powder
1 tbsp cornflour
½ tsp sesame oil
A pinch of salt
5 chicken drumlets
3 eggs
1 handful of ikan bilis
6 stalks of kang kong sliced if preferred
2 tbsp oyster sauce
Salt to taste
Overnight rice roughly the amount from 1½ standard paper cups of uncooked rice
Canola oil
1 small cucumber, sliced, for garnish
Instructions
1. Mix the chicken marinade ingredients with the chicken drumlets and marinade for two hours.
2. Blend the ingredients for the fried rice paste in a food processor.
3. Fry ikan bilis in some canola oil in a wok or large pan. Remove the ikan bilis and set aside.
4. Put the blended fried rice paste in the oil that has been flavoured by the ikan bilis, and fry the paste until it is cooked.
5. Add the 3 eggs.
6. Add the oyster sauce.
7. Add the leftover cooked rice.
8. Add the kang kong.
9. Add the ikan bilis that had been removed earlier.
10. Add salt to taste, if desired.
11. Dish out and plate the fried rice.
12. In a pan, fry the marinaded chicken in about 3cm of canola oil over medium heat.
13. When the chicken is fully cooked through, remove from the oil and serve with the fried rice.
14. Add sliced cucumber to garnish.
Serves three
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Venessa Lee is a feature writer and senior correspondent at The Straits Times.
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