Cooking for your family is one of the best things to do at home, but what if you have to serve ten family members every day?
In an interview with Mediacorp’s MasterChef Singapore Season Four contestant Jonathan Ng, he shared with theAsianparent how he feeds his big family, parents three children, and even his experience as a former contestant of a competitive show.
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When asked what comes to mind first, whether quantity or quality, when cooking for his family, Jonathan answered:
“With a family of ten at home, we can’t escape from quantity! But seriously, as a dad, I desire the best for my children and that includes them having the best food I can provide.”
This 37-year-old shipbroker is a father of three children, aged 8, 5, and 3, and they live in a home with his children’s maternal grandmother, grandaunts, godfather, and their dog.
“This does not mean that the ingredients are expensive or fancy, but instead we focus on the freshness and variety of the produce we use. With quality food as fuel, we believe our kids will be better equipped to take each day by the horns and to do their absolute best!”, he added.
In MasterChef Singapore Season 4 Episode 7, Jonathan Ng was unfortunately eliminated from the competition alongside another contestant Aizat Haikal Saini.
Although the farewell stopped him from getting the MasterChef title, Jonathan is still grateful and proud of his cooking journey in the show. With his experience, Jonathan realised the importance of heritage cuisine—soul food dishes that come from ancestors and were passed down from generations.
This family-guy chef explained:
“So many heritage dishes have been forgotten and lost; hence, allowing our children to experience and taste the recipes which are left has become personally important to us.”
“We believe in preservation so much that my wife and I currently run a home-based food business, Mama Mel’s, cooking food based on generations of family recipes in an effort to keep those flavours alive, hopefully for generations to come.”
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Jonathan Ng on Parenting and Living with Family Members
Living with other family members and relatives in one home can be really stressful for some of us. However, Jonathan thinks otherwise. He values the close relationship built among his children and senior members of their family as they live together under one roof. He shared:
“The best thing about living together as one big family is witnessing our kids develop close relationships with the senior members of our family.”
“As parents, generational relationship building has been a focus of ours since we believe that our kids will experience differing perspectives and develop a keen sense of care and empathy. In addition, the seniors are also motivated to get physically and mentally active, too! It’s a win-win!”
Another fascinating thing to know about Jonathan is his parenting style, where he values one-on-one parent time with each of his children. He likes to be immersed in conversations with them. Jonathan added:
“With 3 kids, one challenge we face is conflict resolution. Since they are still developing their social skills, there are constant squabbles between the siblings. As parents, our struggle is balancing our child’s sense of fairness and ego whilst guiding them to do the right thing.”
Seafood Bee Hoon Soup Recipe Ala Chef Jonathan
Choosing only one dish to serve for our family can be difficult to answer, especially for experts in the kitchen like Jonathan Ng. But, he was able to come up with an answer, which is Seafood Bee Hoon Soup! He answered:
“Depending on the produce available, the soup stock could be made from fish, prawns, crabs, or even lobster (on birthdays!). This dish [Seafood Bee Hoon Soup] is a true ‘work of heart’ since a significant amount of time is needed to coax and extract all that flavour from the seafood into the broth.”
He also shared with us the recipe for this dish!
Ingredients:
- Fish bones (600g)
- Sliced fish (400g) – you can use Batang or Mackerel
- Butter (140g)
- 5 slices of ginger
- Baby Bok Choy (1 bunch)
- Water (1 litre)
- Evaporated milk (250ml)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp white pepper powder
- Thick bee hoon (800g)
Steps:
- Add the water to a pot and bring to a rolling boil. Then add the fish bones turn down the heat to medium and boil for 45 minutes. Strain the fish stock and set aside.
- Heat up a deep pan and melt the butter. Add ginger and saute till fragrant.
- Add fish stock, salt, sugar, light soy sauce, white pepper and evaporated milk and bring to a light boil.
- Cook the thick bee hoon and set aside (tip, use a bit of cooking oil to prevent the bee hoon strands from sticking together).
- Add fish slices and baby bok choy to the boiling broth till cooked.
- Add thick bee hoon to the pot and serve hot.
Happy cooking, parents!
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Episode 9 of MasterChef Singapore Season Four will air on 8 Oct at 10 pm, while its finale will air at 9.30 pm on 15 October. All episodes will be available on-demand, on the same night via mewatch and the Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube Channel.
For more information, please visit mediacorp.sg/MasterChefSG.