Peranakan recipes unlocked from a private kitchen

WHEN it comes to cooking, Rosaline Soon doesn't have any heartfelt story to tell about growing up with a loved one who cooked her favourite meals and taught her secret family recipes dating back generations. Her story is far more prosaic - she simply taught herself to cook two decades ago.

But that didn't stop her from publishing three cookbooks of her family's Peranakan recipes - tangible labours of love that prove her dedication to the craft.

"My children always said I'm not a cook because I only started cooking about 20 years ago when I opened my restaurant called Ming's Cafe & Pub. I used to rely on maids because I was working," says 73-year-old Ms Soon, who used to be the vice-president of public relations at the former Overseas Union Bank (OUB).