Girls Can Cook

Back when she was a trainee in a Japanese restaurant, Singapore-born Aeron Choo was treated like any other male kitchen staff. She worked equally long hours and had to carry her fair share of heavy buckets of hot water. No one batted an eyelid when she inevitably spilled some and scalded herself.

Once the last customer left the restaurant, the now 23-year old was forced to do the 'woman's job' of washing all the socks and aprons that everyone in her male-dominated kitchen had worn that day.

"No one cared because they see it as your choice," she recalls. "You choose to work as a sushi chef. So you cannot cry in front of them no matter how much they bully you. You cannot show them that you're weak, otherwise you're finished." She pauses. "Maybe when you go out to throw the rubbish, then you can cry."