The Singapore Food Festival will be held in August 2022. Conceived in 1994 to celebrate Singapore’s food culture, the festival is regularly packed with activities for all ages, including food tours, food symposiums, food tasting booths, exquisite private dining experiences, and food cooking demonstrations. The highlight of the festival in 2019, when it was held in July, was STREAT 2019, where 12 food establishments offered traditional and modern Singapore (Mod-Sin) cuisine held in an al fresco setting at The Promontory.

From heartland hawkers to Michelin starred restaurants, food is closely tied to Singaporean culture. However, as Singaporean women are increasingly involved in the workforce, traditional gender roles such as cooking are being reformed. Thus, in ‘Mapping Singapore’s Culinary Landscape: Is Anyone Cooking?’, a chapter in Food, Foodways and Foodscapes (World Scientific, 2015), Professor Vineeta Sinha (NUS Sociology) examines the responsibilities and struggles of Singaporean women in Singapore’s culinary landscape.

Historical upbringing of women has shaped Singapore’s culinary landscape. Whereas parents groomed future wives by inculcating domestic knowledge and motherhood skills, schools taught a mandatory ‘Home Economics’ class only for schoolgirls. These created social expectations that women should cook for their families, while men focused on formal work and being breadwinners. Although more women have since entered the workforce, these social expectations have remained. Without husbands contributing more to household responsibilities, the social expectation on Singaporean women to cook and care for their families has caused a decline in their mental and physical wellbeing. To alleviate pressure, cooking is substituted with eating out at affordable hawker centres. Prof Sinha notes that this alternative has become a routine practice for many Singaporean families.

This shift to eating out has shaped Singapore’s culinary landscape. Career men and women are now able to pursue culinary school and online cooking tutorials as leisure activities. Cooking classes are now widely available at government-run community centres and other non-professional cooking schools. Without the obligation to cook, Prof Sinha notes that these workers are better able to enjoy the process and retain the appeal of preparing meals.