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Mr Peh collected 110 of his mother's recipes and improved upon them for his book Homecooked Meals (jia chang cai). The recipes include Hainanese chicken rice, black carrot cake, herbal soups and his favourite honey ribs which he cooks for his grandson. -- ST PHOTO: JOYCE FANG
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THE word 'cook' may not seem synonymous with Mr Peh Chin Hua, who is better known as a former Member of Parliament for Jalan Besar GRC.
But the 61-year-old community leader can actually whip up a storm in any kitchen, having earned his stripes in his mother's kitchen as a child.
'My mother had 11 children and the four elder ones were tasked with helping in the kitchen. That was where I developed my culinary skills,' said Mr Peh in Mandarin.
He has now published a collection of his 83-year-old mother's recipes into a Chinese cookbook, with proceeds going to raise money 'so children will not go hungry'.
'When I had a discussion with NTUC to sell my cookbook, we also talked about giving the proceeds to charity. They suggested the Straits Times' School Pocket Money Fund - which I thought was quite apt,' he said.
The fund was initiated in 2000 to help children from low-income families who go to school without an adequate breakfast, and do not have the pocket money to buy food in school.
The fund gives $45 a month to pupils in primary school and $80 to those in secondary school, relieving the financial burden of their parents. This year, it will support more than 9,000 schoolchildren. Now it will receive a welcome boost from Mr Peh's cookbook, which did not start out as one.
'My daughters and son live and work abroad and I would cook for them whenever I visit. They wanted the recipes so I put them together with photos and e-mailed them,' he said.
Mr Peh's son, Shing Huei, is The Straits Times' China bureau chief and is based in Beijing.
In 2006, Mr Peh's mother, Madam Soh Ah Bak, suffered her third stroke. When she emerged from a coma, she could not speak. Wanting to 'stir something within her to stimulate her', Mr Peh, who is a businessman, hurriedly pulled 75 of her recipes together and printed 20 copies to show her.
'It was really a rough draft but it succeeded,' he said.
His mother is her old self again, lucid and communicative, though wheelchair- bound. To ensure her legacy does not go to waste, he collected 110 recipes, improved upon them and published 800 copies. The cookbook will be launched today at all FairPrice outlets at $9.90 each.
juditht@sph.com.sg
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