An Awakened Being. Free-range Human. Career-switcher. An Extra Virgin Chef.
My name is Luan. Thank you for visiting my blog.
After 20 years in the corporate world as a communications practitioner specialising in stakeholder engagement, I have decided to hand over my keys to the executive toilet. I choose to spend my time now learning to cook. My sentence to lifelong learning consists of this transition from a frequent flyer to the deep fryer, and from the keyboard to the chopping board.
As part of this sentence I'm serving, I worked at 2 restaurants as a kitchen intern, taking more than a 95% pay cut. The first is a mid-range burger joint, and the second, I volunteered in a food-related social enterprise. Both restaurants were hailed by The Financial Times and CNN respectively as must-stops if you have only 24 hours to spend in Singapore. It has been absolutely liberating to be the most stupid person in the kitchen - no problems to solve, no strategy to develop, no one to impress - just cut the onions in equal pieces.
In between these 2 stints, I signed up as a student in a culinary school called At-Sunrice Global Chef Academy. It was here that I learned about Word of the Week, a best-practice I carried into this blog.
It's been almost a year now and from someone who had considered spreading jam as cooking, I have since organised and cooked at a few private dining events for friends, with an audacity to charge them for the food. They have been most encouraging and supportive. I'm part of the Yummly Global Foodie Blogroll Community and my home sous-vide duck breast has also been featured on the Asian Food Channel Official Facebook Page.
The other project that fascinated me has been my home-cured smoked salmon - something "reserved only for professional chefs", I had read later on. No apologies for when I was unintimidated as only the little ignorant birdling could be. But my biggest culinary feat has been to get my kids to eat vegetables.
While I continue to live this unscripted life with no clear destination, I know that life is too short not to 'waste' time to learn even more. I worship a Living God whose name is Jesus and He is the masterchef of my life.
Welcome to my frontier and I invite you to follow this journey of crossing the kitchen chasm on Facebook or Twitter.
My name is Luan. Thank you for visiting my blog.
After 20 years in the corporate world as a communications practitioner specialising in stakeholder engagement, I have decided to hand over my keys to the executive toilet. I choose to spend my time now learning to cook. My sentence to lifelong learning consists of this transition from a frequent flyer to the deep fryer, and from the keyboard to the chopping board.
As part of this sentence I'm serving, I worked at 2 restaurants as a kitchen intern, taking more than a 95% pay cut. The first is a mid-range burger joint, and the second, I volunteered in a food-related social enterprise. Both restaurants were hailed by The Financial Times and CNN respectively as must-stops if you have only 24 hours to spend in Singapore. It has been absolutely liberating to be the most stupid person in the kitchen - no problems to solve, no strategy to develop, no one to impress - just cut the onions in equal pieces.
It's been almost a year now and from someone who had considered spreading jam as cooking, I have since organised and cooked at a few private dining events for friends, with an audacity to charge them for the food. They have been most encouraging and supportive. I'm part of the Yummly Global Foodie Blogroll Community and my home sous-vide duck breast has also been featured on the Asian Food Channel Official Facebook Page.
The other project that fascinated me has been my home-cured smoked salmon - something "reserved only for professional chefs", I had read later on. No apologies for when I was unintimidated as only the little ignorant birdling could be. But my biggest culinary feat has been to get my kids to eat vegetables.
While I continue to live this unscripted life with no clear destination, I know that life is too short not to 'waste' time to learn even more. I worship a Living God whose name is Jesus and He is the masterchef of my life.
Welcome to my frontier and I invite you to follow this journey of crossing the kitchen chasm on Facebook or Twitter.
I like "that life is too short not to 'waste' time to learn even more".
ReplyDeleteYou and I are just a couple of 'young' women bored with Corp world, looking for new exciting challenges.
~ CK
Life is a choice. It is YOUR life.
ReplyDeleteChoose Consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.
Follow your journey to be our Masterchef....
PangYO
As long as you're happy :)
ReplyDeleteLife is short.
Well said, cannot agree more. It is never a choir when you do something you like and that makes your heart sings. Life is bliss when you can do something everyday that sends your energy to the roof!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the kind words of encouragement. The journey so far has been awesome, and I wouldn't do it differently.
ReplyDeleteHi Ya....coming here via QPC blog :)
ReplyDeleteHello Small Kucing, such a cute name. My daughter was just telling me last night that when she has her own cat, she'll name it Chairman Meow. LOL.
ReplyDeletecoming via Quay Po Cook... your blog is nice.. now let me go and browse the recipes :-)
ReplyDeleteGood luck and best wishes to you Luan!!
ReplyDeleteHello ATB, thanks for visiting. Food Science - how interesting. I've just "followed" your site and now I have a go-to person to ask any food science questions. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteHi there, bkk. Welcome to my blog and thank you so much for your kind words. Stay in touch - let me know when you like something you see here.
ReplyDeleteI like your blog. Came to your blog via Wendy's. Totally agree with you that we worship a living God...Matthew 6.24. "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
ReplyDeleteHi Mandy, amen and amen, and thanks for visiting. Glad to make another friend.
ReplyDeleteIt was a bold step you took. U are indeed brave :-D
ReplyDeleteIt's good to know another person has also left the corporate world to follow her passion. I did that in Oct 2006 and till today, I am following my passion. I also wanted to spend more time with my kids as they were in lower Primary during that time. Nonetheless, no regrets till to-date and I am glad that my kids appreciate ME being at home when they come back to school.
I am teaching at the moment and who knows, I may want to give up teaching and go back to school to learn baking. :>
Hey there Snoopy! Thanks for your word of encouragement. Yes, pursue passion unrelentlessly!
ReplyDeleteI love your introduction, very witty, made me laugh. Someday, I'd like to go to cooking school too.
ReplyDeleteHi Phong Hong, glad to hear you like it. And thanks for stopping by. Check out At-Sunrice or Le Cordon Bleu if you're interested.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, those chocolate swirls look pretty!
Awww .... this is so perfectly written! Had a few good laughs at your descriptions too :)
ReplyDeleteAnd now, I shall say "Hello, I'm your newest fan".
Hello Ping, my newest fan, and such a sweet one at that. Feel free to snoop around and let me know if you find something interesting to try! I am going to check out your blog now. So much to learn, so little time.
ReplyDeleteDear Luan,
ReplyDeleteI am a journalist from Germany working on a book about global parenting, comparing different parenting styles and childhood philosophies worldwide. I would love to a short interview by email with you. If you like to, contact me on
m.schonhoeft@yahoo.de
Thanks for sharing your story, I admire that you have the courage to do what you love. Truly by God's grace.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for your encouragement, Mich.
DeleteI have never stayed to a blogsite this long to read postings. I got hooked, your funny stories and your photographs are amazing. I am one of those who started to love baking ang cooking so intensely I want to try to take course in Sunrice...thought it may be embarrasing to start late....at 49! I want to create a food blog but still figuring out how to construct one properly...not very good in all these lay-outs, links, urls and all...don't even know what to put on my profile as below...sorry I will still be anonymous.
ReplyDelete