"I prefer a heavier flavour in my food, so I have gone from lightly coating the ribs with curry powder to using it like a dry rub," he says.
He decided to bake pork ribs after he came across a recipe for sticky spare ribs by British TV cook Nigella Lawson. Her recipe called for the pork ribs to be marinated with ingredients such as honey and sweet chilli sauce.
The dish was a hit at his family gathering three years ago, but it was only last month that he thought of giving the pork ribs a curry spin while thinking of what to cook for a family dinner.
Over the past month, he has tweaked the recipe to add more salt to the marinade, on top of seasoning the ribs with soya sauce to inject more flavour. He has also tossed in chopped garlic to bake with the ribs.
"That was an accidental addition and the charred garlic gives a crunch to the pork ribs," he says.
His interest in food was piqued from a young age, when he used to pop into the kitchen while his mother was cooking and "became well known for stealing food".
When he was 14, his food horizons were broadened by watching cooking shows on cable TV, including The Naked Chef by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and Kitchen Secrets by French chef Raymond Blanc. Inspired by Oliver, he started cooking marinara and vongole pasta for his family for dinner.
His father, 62, is a retired air steward and his mother, 58, is a church secretary. He has an older sister, 30, who works as an events manager.
Over the years, he has grown more confident of his cooking and now has a reputation among his friends as the de facto cook at gatherings. He usually whips up three-course meals and his signature dishes include ribeye steak cooked medium rare, mushroom risotto with sherry wine sauce, Cajun seafood boils with clams, mussels and squid, and cheesecake.
His most challenging dish has been Beef Wellington, seared fillet steak encased in puff pastry, which he attempted for a Christmas party five years ago.
He recalls: "It felt very shiok when the dish turned out right. The puff pastry was difficult to handle as it gets sticky easily due to the high humidity here."
He says he enjoys cooking as it is, like performing dental treatments, "fun and hands-on".
He says: "It is impressive to see Chinese chefs such as Martin Yan chopping vegetables at lightning speed while talking."
With such complex dishes in his repertoire, it is surprising that he is not a fan of following recipes.
Dr Ong, who is single, says: "It can get cumbersome and frustrating to refer to recipes back and forth while cooking. It should be fun and up to one's liking, so you just need to trust your tongue."