Annette Lang and her seven students are cooking up a storm as I enter the room. Bright red capsicums have been stuffed with minced pork, ready to be simmered in a tangy tomato sauce for a couple of hours. And a whole snapper is about to be royally stuffed by nine pairs of hands and baked to a turn in the oven, next to a tray of richly colourful Mediterranean vegetables.

Like a queen bee, Aussie Annette presides over the big, square table in her living room, which has been permanently transformed into the food preparation area of her cookery school. It’s a hands-on operation, with a continuous stream of instruction and explanation from a woman who clearly loves both cooking and teaching.

While her class retires to the kitchen for a cup of coffee and a break, I ask Annette where she got the idea for Expat Kitchen.

Inspiration
“Brought up and treated to gourmet cooking throughout my childhood, courtesy of a great chef – my mum!”, says Annette, she’s a self confessed foodaholic whose obsession drew her into a career as a food buyer, designer and taster for various leading Australian department stores.

“I had my first exposure to foreign home help when the family was posted to India in 2001, and I had to train our cook to plan and prepare the sort of food we wanted,” she explains. “The scarcity of Western ingredients made it quite a challenge.

“When we moved to Singapore six years ago, I taught our helper Diosa to cook for dinner parties, and when my friends saw and tasted the results they wanted me to train their helpers, too. A light went on – A-hah! – and the idea for Expat Kitchen was born.”

Approach
She notes that her perception of cooking for expats is different. “Hainanese pork chops and upside-down pineapple cake don’t do it for me,” she says wryly. “Also, when I was diagnosed as diabetic a year ago, I decided that everything that came out of my kitchen had to be healthy and low in fat, but never bland and boring.”

Though they’re concentrating hard on the various tasks and absorbing the flow of instruction, Marites, Neti, Suharti, Annie, Eva, Lourdes and Gian are clearly having a good time. This is an intermediate class. Annette explains that the students have already done the beginner’s course, which includes the preparation of things like wonderful salads, Bircher muesli, and shepherd’s pie – dishes Westerners take for granted, but which are completely foreign to a Southeast Asian. As student Eva shyly says, “We’re Asian, so we like frying our food, but Westerners use the grill and the oven more.”

Achievements
Annette emails weekly progress reports to each employer, often with photographs of what the students have made. At the end of a course, each student goes back with a new repertoire of recipes and ideas. What’s more, she encourages them to ask questions, and even gives them her mobile number so that they can call her if they are having problems with a dish.

What has surprised her most, Annette says, is how passionate some of the girls are about cooking, how excited they are about their achievements and what wonderful cooks they have turned out to be.

“It’s often the dark horses, the quiet ones, who really take to it and go all the way to the advanced level to become gourmet cooks. It’s so rewarding for them, and that’s rewarding for me, too.”

Creativity
I enjoy watching Annette teach the class how to prepare prosciutto-wrapped stuffed fillet of beef. Every step is explained and put in context, and the jokes fly. She shows them the whole fillet before cutting it into portions, and encourages them to wield the mallet with gusto.

“Don’t be afraid to bang it – it’s already dead.” Everyone giggles.

Later, as they roll up the flattened pieces of fillet with strips of zucchini and mozzarella, she reminds them to be creative, and suggests other ingredients to stuff the meat.

Cooking is an art, not a science, says Annette. When the done-to-a-turn whole snapper is brought from the oven and placed on a garnished platter, and the roast vegetables are sprinkled with pumpkin seeds, they are indubitably works of culinary art.


For details on course content and timing, call Annette at +65 9150 9767, or visit www.expat-kitchen.com.