SINGAPORE \u2013 Think heritage food, and images of old kitchens probably come to mind. Cooks who work without written recipes. Mind-boggling processes and techniques. Delicious food not glammed up for social media. The taste of days gone by.<\/p>\n
Some young people are working hard to stop the days from going by. They are making it their mission to keep heritage food relevant \u2013 and delicious \u2013 to new generations of eaters.<\/p>\n
Cookbook authors Yeo Min, 30, and Emily Yeo, 39, have opened Museum Of Food in Joo Chiat Road, offering cooking classes and walking tours. Ms Shiny Phua, 28, runs Ah Ma\u2019s Legacy in Sin Ming, selling ang ku kueh and muah chee made using her grandmother\u2019s recipes. Then there is Mr Matthew Lim, 34, who has stepped in to run his family\u2019s restaurant, Westlake, which marks its 52nd anniversary in 2026.<\/p>\n
They have to tread a fine line \u2013 not watering down the taste of the food and, at the same time, presenting it in ways that will resonate with and excite younger people.<\/p>\n
Where: <\/b>02-01, 102 Joo Chiat Road Museum Of Food co-founders (from left) Emily Yeo and Yeo Min in their cooking studio and exhibition space in Joo Chiat Road. <\/p>\n ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n At Museum Of Food, two-year-olds are encouraged to smell and squish pineapple tart dough together with their hands. Older kids knead dough, shape tarts and dollop jam on them.<\/p>\n Hands-on cooking classes can get messy, but founders Yeo Min and Emily Yeo are undeterred. They want kids to not just appreciate kueh and cookies, but also have lasting memories of them.<\/p>\n Ms Emily Yeo, 39, an educator and author of The Little Book Of Singapore Food Illustrated (2022), says: \u201cIt\u2019s the idea of seeding a memory.\u201d<\/p>\n The mother of four children, aged between 11 months and 11 years, has run cooking classes for kids. \u201cTen years ago, when I started, I wanted children to go into the kitchen. I\u2019ve sort of achieved that. The average pre-schooler has done at least a pizza or a brownie or cookie class. They are comfortable coming into the kitchen and doing basic things. <\/p>\n \u201cSo, let\u2019s use their interest in food to teach them about who we are as a people. What did our grandmothers eat? Yes, we have very indulgent McDonald\u2019s meals, but beyond all of that, what is uniquely us?\u201d<\/p>\n Reaching out to kids at a young age is crucial, Ms Yeo Min, 30, author of Chinese Pastry School (2023), believes.<\/p>\n \u201cSingaporean kids are quite cultured,\u201d she says. \u201cWe met some who looked at pandan leaves and asked if it was matcha. Their reference points are quite global, so we need to catch them fast.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are trying to seed that core memory for 30 years later, when these kids go out and remember making pineapple tarts. Even a vague memory is something. Hopefully, when they grow up, they will crave these heritage foods and become customers of heritage businesses. That\u2019s how you have sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n They registered their non-profit in August 2024, and have been running cooking classes and other programmes since then in rented premises. <\/p>\n Batu lesung or mortar and pestle are some of the cooking tools on display at the Museum Of Food in Joo Chiat. <\/p>\n ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n In April, they started operating from a proper physical space \u2013 the museum is on the second floor of a Joo Chiat Road shophouse. The new, 1,600 sq ft Museum Of Food has space for cooking classes, a small kitchen and display space for the traditional cooking tools and crockery they have collected, and vintage cookbooks.<\/p>\n They work with schools and corporations to design experiences. Those for kids cost about $40 a person, those for corporations are priced at about $80 a person. Sessions can run from one to three hours. <\/p>\n Workshops for the public are priced between $20 and $120 a person. These have included ones teaching people to turn vegetables into achar or pickles, and using sustainable species of fish and locally grown vegetables to make yong tau foo.<\/p>\n They have also organised walking tours of Joo Chiat.<\/p>\n In 2025, they chalked up some 2,000 paid customers for their programmes. Now, with a proper space, they want to do more.<\/p>\n Plans include having monthly open house sessions, where they pick a food topic and have people come in to talk to participants, who will be encouraged to share their experiences too. Potential topics include school canteen food, wedding and funeral food, and Asian vegan and vegetarian food.<\/p>\n Ms Emily Yeo says: \u201cThere\u2019s a huge, gaping hole that no one is filling. Okay, so I teach you to make Hokkien mee. To get the best taste, you buy this prawn, this and that ingredient, and let\u2019s go.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we really want to do, and what we see no one doing, is bring the whole story of how our grandmas used the entire prawn, for example, from the head to the shell. Because back in the day, everyone was very thrifty. We draw the story of it, rather than just hand our students a recipe.\u201d<\/p>\n Where: <\/b>B3-09 (Unit 3) Thomson V Two, 11 Sin Ming Road Ms Shiny Phua, owner of Ah Ma’s Legacy, makes tortoise-shaped kueh using her grandmother’s recipe. <\/p>\n ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Kueh-maker Shiny Phua grew up enjoying her grandmother\u2019s from-scratch home-cooking.<\/p>\n \u201cMy grandma would always complain about us buying this or that,\u201d the 28-year-old says. \u201cThen three days later, the dish would appear in front of us. She had figured out a way to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n Madam Goh Ngin Keng died at the age of 93 in 2019, but her recipes live on in her granddaughter\u2019s business, Ah Ma\u2019s Legacy. The 10-seat cafe in Sin Ming serves tortoise-shaped ang ku kueh, muah chee and steamed glutinous rice, made using Madam Goh\u2019s recipes. <\/p>\n The idea for Ah Ma\u2019s Legacy came when Ms Phua was working towards a bachelor\u2019s degree in design communication in LaSalle College of the Arts. For her thesis, she looked at whether Generation Z had a connection to traditional food.<\/p>\n She says: \u201cA big part of my research was on different types of kueh and whether the younger generation view them as part of their foodscape. We are so integrated with so many cultures that we lose our roots. And because this is happening so fast, a lot of kids don\u2019t get to experience what is local. <\/p>\n \u201cI had the privilege of living with my grandma, which allowed me to eat a lot of her type of food. And that made me understand what is traditional. A lot of my peers don\u2019t have that connection.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ah Ma behind the legacy – Ms Shiny Phua’s grandmother, Madam Goh Ngin Keng, who died at age 93 in 2019.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Ah Ma\u2019s Legacy was a brand she came up with in the thesis, as a tool to educate people about traditional food.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a way of appreciating food,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s through the process of making it, knowing the backstory. Every food in the world has a heritage and origin. If you know that, you appreciate it more. And if you know the process, you will have a greater appreciation.\u201d<\/p>\n She had wanted to host workshops, but the Covid-19 pandemic hit. The keen cook and baker decided to sell her grandmother\u2019s Sweet Potato Gu Kueh, filled with peanut or coconut for $2.50 each, and Shallot Oil Muah Chee, made with glutinous rice flour, for $5 a portion instead.<\/p>\n At the time, she was working in sales and marketing, and this was a side hustle. She would sell about 160 ang ku kueh a week in boxes of four.<\/p>\n In 2022, she quit her job and started selling kueh made in a production kitchen. In 2023, she opened the cafe.<\/p>\n Shallot Oil Muah Chee at Ah Ma’s Legacy comes in three variations: (From left) Goma & Almond, Salty Pistachio and Peanut & White Sesame <\/p>\n ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Her customers span the ages. Young families drop in with their children, seniors visit for snacks and drinks, and kids attending tuition centres in the building make their way down to have her food. Some come so regularly, she knows what type of ang ku kueh they want when they turn up.<\/p>\n Like her grandmother, she uses sweet potatoes to make ang ku kueh skin. But unlike her grandmother, she does not use food colouring to tint the kueh. Instead, she colours them with beetroot, pandan juice, purple sweet potato and other ingredients.<\/p>\n She says: \u201cWhen I baked for my grandmother, whether it was pandan cake, cookies or bread, I would not use food colouring. Even when I make la mian, I use spinach juice to make it green. There\u2019s no need for food colouring. If I serve my food to another person\u2019s grandma, I don\u2019t want to put food colouring in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Prices for her Sweet Potato Gu Kueh range from $3.80 for one filled with Sweet Mung Bean to $6 for Pure Pistachio, filled with roasted pistachios and pumpkin seed butter. The fillings are designed to appeal to young and old \u2013 flavours include Peanut & White Sesame, Salted Mung Bean, Taro Milk and Milo Gao.<\/p>\n Shallot Oil Muah Chee is priced from $5.50 for Peanut & White Sesame to $9.50 for Salty Pistachio. She also has Ah Ma\u2019s Teochew Glutinous Rice ($8.50) and, for vegetarians, Shroomy Black Glutinous Rice ($5).<\/p>\n She says: \u201cPeople making traditional food have a hard time finding successors. I feel that my role in this is to encourage a new generation to see that this is viable. <\/p>\n \u201cAs a kid, I wanted to open a bakery. I saw that it could be a success because there were a lot of role models out there who were able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Admission: <\/b>By appointment only
Info: <\/b>www.foodmuseumsg.com<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/picture><\/div>
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Open: <\/b>11am to 4pm (Wednesdays and Thursdays), 11am to 6pm (Fridays to Sundays); closed on Mondays and Tuesdays
Info: <\/b>Go to www.ahmahslegacy.com<\/span><\/a> and @ahmahslegacy on Instagram <\/p>\n<\/picture><\/div>
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