A Very Hungry Librarian Spills the Beans on Hosting “From Book to Cook”
From Book to Cook is a cooking show on YouTube that recreates recipes — dating as far back as a century ago — found in books from the National Library’s collection. Very hungry librarian Paddy Ong talks about his experience working with talented guest cooks, and having to puzzle out traditional recipes and using abcooking equipment.
I must admit that I went with my gut when I said yes to hosting this series. Besides not having any experience whatsoever being a host, I am also not an accomplished cook (I once took two hours to make a pasta dish). But the topics piqued my interest and the list of dishes to be featured made me hungry, so off I went, ready with an open mind and empty stomach.
I ended each filming day nourished in both body and mind and learning so much more than I thought I would from each of our guests. Connecting to the past through the food we made and ate was most meaningful, and so here are some of my musings from each episode:
Episode 1: Sharing Court with the Spice Queen Chef Devagi
Dish: Rundang, inspired by Mrs W. E. Kinsey, The Mem’s Own Cookery Book: 420 tried and economical recipes for Malaya (Singapore: Kelly & Walsh, 1929). (Call no: 641.59595 KIN)
Chef Devagi was a consummate professional on set, and I appreciated her generosity in sharing her deep knowledge of food. With 34 years of professional experience under her belt, she made working in the kitchen look effortless, which was exactly what I needed as a novice cook/host. I learned about the different types of spices and their various functions in cooking, from adding aroma and flavour to preserving cooked food.
She also opened my eyes to food as medicine, which taught me to be more conscious about the kinds of food we eat and how they contribute to our overall health. This holistic thinking about food has become more prevalent in recent times, but it was illuminating to learn that humans have been applying these principles for hundreds of years.
An author of 22 books, Chef Devagi’s depth of knowledge in food history really came to the fore as we explored how spices have been used and prepared through the ages. She emphasised the importance of roasting spices before they are ground into a powder as this process draws out their oils and aroma.
She also drew from her own personal experience about how people would send their whole spices to a grinding mill before bringing the spice powder back home to “air” out, cool down (it was hot at the grinding mill) and stored in jars.
One fun thing that Chef Devagi taught me was how to use a batu giling (grinding stone). It was not easy! You would need both strength and technique to grind the spices without spilling them all over the counter. I think I would need a lot more practice to master using the batu giling!
In this episode, we made “rundang” from Mrs Kinsey’s book, which has been mildly controversial online because it’s a recipe that uses curry powder, not a typical ingredient for rendang. A few eyebrows were raised at this. But, of course, we were not making a traditional Malay rendang but one from a book that was primarily used as a guide for incoming “Mems”, or wives of colonial officers, who would have to take care of household affairs.
It was also surreal tasting the Kinsey rundang with the knowledge that this was the same dish eaten almost a century ago. Being meat-based and using similar spices, the rundang also brought to my mind the Eurasian dish, Curry Feng. It was a reminder of how the confluence of cultures in our little corner of Southeast Asia facilitated the birth of new tastes and flavours.
Episode 2: World War II Recipes with Lee Geok Boi
This episode was a little different as we did not follow a recipe from a wartime cookbook (producing a cookbook during a time of severe food shortage would have been the last thing on anyone’s mind). Instead, we tapped on Geok Boi’s deep knowledge of the Japanese Occupation — having done extensive research for her book Syonan: Singapore under the Japanese 1942–1945 — to come up with a plausible recipe from the common, and few, ingredients available then.
I imagined us as enterprising wartime foodies: harvesting our own backyard crop of tapioca, chilies and parsley, before foraging for clams along the beach at low tide. What emerged was an appreciation of how a little ingenuity could go a long way in creating tasty meals from the slim pickings people had then.
Even though young Singaporeans would have heard stories of wartime Singapore many times while in school, it was a humbling experience eating this dish, something I will remember the next time I walk down the aisles of endless options in our supermarkets today.
Episode 3: Creating delicious Nasi Lemak with Toffa
Dish: Nasi Lemak, inspired by Siti Radhiah, Memilih Selera (Singapore: Harmy, 1953)
I had a lot of fun cooking with fellow librarian Toffa in this episode. It felt like we were children who had been given free rein of the kitchen. Using the batu giling (grinding stone) and batu lesung (mortar and pestle) also reminded us of the hard work involved in making meals for the family. There was something about foregoing the convenience of a food processor that made this dish delicious. Chef Devagi alluded to this in her episode as well when she explained how grinding and bashing is better at releasing the oils in the fibres of chilies and herbs.
The nasi lemak and accompanying dishes from Siti Radhiah’s Memeleh Selera were so delicious that I recreated them for my family and friends during the Chinese New Year celebrations. There was so much preparation involved that I had to employ the help of my family to do the big cook. We had a fun time grinding the spices and aromatics, cutting up the ingredients and taking turns to keep an eye on the progress of each dish. The food brought us together even before it was set on the table.
Episode 4: A Hearty Helping of Wheat with Christopher Tan
Dish: Milk Noodles, inspired by The Proof is in the Eating (Singapore: Printed by the Govt. Print. Off., 1969). (Call no. 641.6311 RTS)
In this episode, we explored Singapore’s rice shortage in the 1960s, and the subsequent Eat More Wheat campaign that was created to promote wheat as a staple. Christopher Tan, an avid collector of old cookbooks, stumbled upon The Proof is in the Eating, a compilation of recipes from one of the many cooking competitions held during that period. Christopher is a food writer with a deep knowledge of Asian food and its historical contexts, having himself written many cookbooks, the most recent of which is The Way of Kueh.
I admired Christopher’s resourcefulness in experimenting with different types of presses to create the noodles, before discovering that a murukku press, of all things, was the implement of choice to create noodles with the desired texture. It was my first time making noodles from scratch, and the process was not as painstaking as I thought it would be (aside from almost scalding my hands when pressing the noodles inches away from the boiling water).
As we sat down and ate the noodles we had made, in both “soup” and “dry” forms, I appreciated how Christopher viewed cooking as an act of love and service, whether making a meal for oneself or for others.
This episode was also an exploration of how there are “no rules” in cooking, and that with a little imagination, anything can be made delicious.
Episode 5: Reflecting on Home Economics with Sheere Ng
Dish: Spaghetti “Bolognese”, inspired by Hamidah Khalid & Siti Majhar, New Home Economics 1, 2nd edition (Singapore: Longman, 1986). (Call no. 640.7 NEW) and Hamidah Khalid & Siti Majhar, New Home Economics (Singapore: Longman, 1983). (Call no. 640.7 NEW)
The episode on Home Economics recipes with Sheere Ng was a very nostalgic one for me. We both reflected on our experiences as students in Home Economics classes, and Sheere’s insights on how food could be a lens to explore other issues were eye-opening. In this case, I was enlightened by Sheere’s exploration of Home Economics as a reflection of what the “ideal Singaporean female” meant throughout Singapore’s development from the pre-independence years to the 1970s, 80s and 90s.¹
I recall being disappointed with my own Home Economics classes in the early 2000s, where, instead of developing skills in the kitchen, I was taught how to make a simple fried rice with convenience foods such as frozen peas and cubed ham. The intention then was not to turn students into gourmet chefs but to impart basic skills needed to feed oneself with readily available ingredients.
Today’s Home Economics syllabus is less about delineating the roles of boys and girls in the household, and more about empowering them to take charge of their own nutrition, finances and other skills needed to be independent.
At the end of the filming this series, I came away with the realisation that food is something very much entwined with the human condition. It is the one thing we interact with three times a day (or more) for every day of our lives, yet its meaning goes beyond simple sustenance. To know food is to know the stories about ourselves. Through the recipes we explore in this series, the team and I hope both your curiosity and tummy will be satiated.
Note: For more about the show and the recipes used in the video series, check out the From Book to Cook page on BiblioAsia.
Paddy Ong is an Associate Librarian at Queenstown Public Library. He works with the Programmes and Exhibitions team to help readers satiate their curiosity beyond books.
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[1] Sheere Ng, “Recipes for the Ideal Singaporean Female”, in BiblioAsia 13, no. 4 (2018): 34–39.
