The Way of Kueh Savouring & Saving Singapore’s Heritage Desserts
Written by Christopher Tan
Published: July 2019
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Cooking instructor and author Christopher Tan is back with the definitive book on kuehs, sharing everything you need to know about kueh culture in Singapore.
More than just a collection of recipes, The Way of Kueh delves into kueh culture with a lyrical, and at times humourous, contextually rich approach, focusing on kueh families and genres, key kueh heritage cooking techniques, and kuehs with special historical or social significance, or particularly endangered status. It includes well-researched and detailed recipes, backstories, interviews with kueh artisans, short essays on pertinent topics like the colonial ancestry of various kuehs, and helpful glossaries on key ingredients and essential kueh-making equipment.
The book is not only intended to just instruct readers on kueh-making techniques. It is also meant to preserve a tradition that’s uniquely ours, by inspiring Singaporean families to get together and make kueh.
About the Author
Christopher Tan (www.foodfella.com) is an award-winning writer, cooking instructor and photographer. His articles, columns, recipes and photographs have appeared in many international publications, including Singapore’s Sunday Times and Straits Times, The Peak Selections: Gourmet & Travel magazine, and America’s Saveur magazine.
A cooking and baking teacher at The Kitchen Society where he frequently holds kueh-themed classes, Christopher has also presented talks, demos and tasting sessions revolving around cuisine and culture at many venues, among them Singapore’s National Museum and Peranakan Museum, the Culinary Institute of America’s Napa Valley campus, Le Musee Quai Branly in Paris and The Sydney International Food Festival.
He has authored and co-authored numerous cookbooks, including Inside the Southeast Asian Kitchen: Foodlores and Flavours, an ASEAN-commissioned volume on the foodways of its constituent nations; Chinese Heritage Cooking, a celebration of traditional Singaporean Chinese recipes, and Nerd Baker, in which he shares the joys of home baking.
Christopher is a committee member of Slow Food Singapore, a local grassroots non-profit association devoted to preserving heritage food and culture. Slow Food Singapore has organised an annual Kueh Appreciation Day since 2015, during which kueh makers gather to showcase and celebrate this local snack.
Format: Paperback
Size: 19cm (W) x 25cm (H)
Pages: 272pp