Cheryl Tan, A Tiger In The Kitchen

Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan is a smart woman with a big heart (and a big appetite). Last Friday I went to hear her reading from her new book, A Tiger In The Kitchen, a food memoir about discovering her Singaporean family by learning to cook with them.

Cheryl signing my copy of the book

Born and raised in Singapore ("the most food-obsessed city in the world"), Cheryl left home and family at eighteen to go to study journalism in the U.S. She became a successful fashion writer in New York, but at a certain point in her life she felt the Singaporean dishes that defined her childhood beginning to call her back. And back she went, in a quest to recreate the dishes of her native Singapore by cooking with her family. She finally learnt the secrets of her grandmothers' and aunties' kitchens, who, surprised and amused that she wanted to learn something so normal for them, ended up teaching her not only their cherished recipes, but also long-buried and fascinating stories of past generations.

Cheryl has also a great food blog, A Tiger In The Kitchen, with posts like this that will make you instantly hungry while also teaching you that some place in New York serves bull’s penis soup.