THE DESIGNTRAINED CULINARY INFLUENCER: SHU HAN LEE

Here’s a common story: Singapore youth goes overseas to study (in this case, graphic design at London’s Central Saint Martins) and has to learn how to cook (terribly) for the first time in her life. Not many are able to transform that experience into a well-received cookbook though. Enter the 27-year-old behind Chicken and Rice, a tome of traditional South-east Asian recipes created with seasonal British produce in place of hard-to-get Asian ingredients, and filled with chic illustrations and photos by Lee herself. “To me, the ‘agak-agak’ (improvisational) way is the most authentic approach towards South-east Asian cooking, which is itself born out of a mishmash of culinary influences,” she says of the concept. Audiences certainly take to her “glocalised” style. Prior to the launch of the book in 2016, she had already been named one of the UK’s best food bloggers (her literary agent approached her after discovering her website www.mummyicancook.com), worked with industry titans such as Jamie Oliver, and written for The Guardian and Food & Wine. At press time, her Instagram account @mummyicancook had more than 44K followers. Now a strategist in the food sector post-graduation, she has in the works a

range of spice pastes due to launch later in the year.