Feb 15, 2009
At home with Peranakan cooking
Philip Chia is so passionate about Nonya food that despite his cooking school's closure, he continues to teach from his flat
By Huang Lijie
Call him the little Baba.
Mr Philip Chia is a skilful Peranakan cook whose passion for sharing Nonya recipes might remind one of Yue Niang, the female protagonist from the hit Channel 8 drama, The Little Nyonya, who selflessly taught other characters how to whip up tasty Nonya food.
Indeed, he is so enthusiastic about Peranakan cooking that he goes the extra mile when hosting Peranakan food promotions in hotels such as Fairmont Singapore, by dressing up as his alter ego, Bibik (Peranakan patios for matriarch) Chia, to hold cooking demonstrations for diners in the restaurant.
The youthful-looking 49-year-old, who stands at 1.67m tall, also used to run Rice Cooking Studio in Pearl's Centre in Eu Tong Sen Street. There, he taught students how to cook Nonya dishes such as ayam buah keluak (chicken with black nut) and chap chye (assorted vegetables).
His good intentions, however, were thwarted when he was forced to close the nine-month-old school abruptly last September because the landlord wanted to repossess the space.
With only two weeks' notice to relocate and lacking the funds to re-open the cooking studio elsewhere, he worried that he could no longer share his culinary interest with others.
He says: 'My friends were especially eager to learn how to cook Nonya food after the Channel 8 drama, The Little Nyonya, aired. They were asking me how to cook dishes that appeared on the show, such as rempah udang (glutinous rice with spicy dried shrimp wrapped in banana leaf).'
Unwilling to disappoint his foodie friends, the bachelor decided to teach them the art of Peranakan cooking from the kitchen of his three-room flat in Clementi.
He says: 'I spoke with a staff member at the HDB Clementi branch office and she said it was okay as long as I kept it small and did not disturb my neighbours.'
The Housing Board (HDB) permits small-scale businesses such as tuition, baking and hairdressing services to be conducted in flats, without prior approval from HDB. However, these home-based activities have to adhere to a set of guidelines, which include not causing nuisance to neighbours and not employing other workers or staff.
Mr Chia has been teaching friends at his flat since last November and finds the closure of his commercial cooking studio a blessing in disguise.
He says: 'My classes are small and infrequent, and it is less taxing on my health.' He had a heart attack in 2007 and underwent a balloon angioplasty procedure.
The self-taught cook began his informal culinary training under his Peranakan nanny, the late Madam Lim Lian Neo.
He says: 'My father sold me to my nanny when I was a baby because he had no money to pay her fees for looking after me. He had a gambling habit.'
Growing up under her care, though, proved to be a good thing for Mr Chia.
He says: 'My nanny was a great cook and I would often help her out in the kitchen as a young boy, pounding sambal belachan (spicy shrimp paste) and frying shallots. That was how I learnt to cook everything from sambal udang belimbing (spicy prawns with sour fruit) to sambal lengkong (spicy fish floss).'
His nanny died when he was 14 years old and he returned to live with his father and four older siblings - two brothers and two sisters. His mother had died when he was young.
While his relationship with his father was strained, he was close to his paternal aunts. Food was the bond between them and his three aunts would happily share their Peranakan recipes with him as he jotted them down carefully in an exercise book.
They taught him how to cook dishes such as Nonya mee (stir-fried noodles with fermented soya bean) and kueh lapis (layered cake). During school holidays, he would bake kueh lapis and sell it to supplement his allowance.
Although he was keen on cooking, he did not pursue it as a profession in his youth.
Instead, he worked as a waiter in a Nonya restaurant after finishing his O-level exams, seizing the first job opportunity that came his way. He later went into hospitality services in various hotels in Singapore before switching to the travel agency line.
It was only in 2001 that he decided to follow his heart and answer his true calling in life - cooking.
He took a 50 per cent pay cut from his last job as a senior executive in a travel agency, to conduct cooking demonstrations for various cookery brands in department stores such as Robinsons.
His heart attack two years ago, however, made him realise that he needed to take his interest further. So after he recovered, he started Rice Cooking Studio with an investor from China.
While his mission to share the joys of Peranakan cooking has been scaled down, he says he has no regrets.
'I still get to do what is close to my passion and because these classes are not commercially driven, I don't have to just teach the usual Peranakan dishes that everyone wants to learn.
'I can encourage my friends to learn forgotten Peranakan dishes such as babi tohay (pork cooked with fermented red wine lees and brandy), which I find important to pass on to future generations.'
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