Uncle Tan was the eldest child who had to give up pursuing his studies in order to support his younger siblings’ education. This was a familiar narrative of many elder siblings back in the 1960s. For Uncle Tan, his life as a chef began the day he met some Malay makciks in his kampong cooking nasi padang for a wedding. He was 15. He saw how they worked hard together to prepare the aromatic rempah and the delicious food and he wanted to be able to do the same. This became the craft he continued to pursue and sought to perfect, for more than fifty years.