“I enjoy cooking but I don’t get to bake often. It usually needs patience and skill, so this time at home has been really great for me to practice making bread. I love the taste of cinnamon brioche rolls, so naturally I’d make a batch. The taste of soft, fluffy and buttery bread with the spice of cinnamon really warms the heart. Plus, the kids in my home get a treat.”

“I enjoy cooking but I don’t get to bake often. It usually needs patience and skill, so this time at home has been really great for me to practice making bread. I love the taste of cinnamon brioche rolls, so naturally I’d make a batch. The taste of soft, fluffy and buttery bread with the spice of cinnamon really warms the heart. Plus, the kids in my home get a treat.”

“After having several kinds of pasta with sausages, I developed this recipe for orecchiette on my own. Orecchiette is a pasta typical of Apulia, the southern region of Italy. It comes from the Italian word orecchia, meaning ‘ear’, and -etta, meaning ‘small’ as the pasta shape resembles a small ear. Here is one of my favourite ways to eat these little ear-shaped pasta. This recipe is so simple to make and just so good. I would pay money to eat it at a restaurant because that’s how much I love it.”

“This is a simple take on spicy tuna kimchi fried rice. I always found fried rice to be good comfort food. I usually have a kimchi fried rice recipe that I use but that requires a lot more prep. This is way easier, especially for inexperienced cooks because you don’t need to be too particular about seasoning and you can easily get the ingredients at any supermarket. But be sure to get Korean sesame oil because that is the soul of a  good kimchi fried rice. Be warned though, this is really quite spicy.”

“I love this dish because it’s easy to prepare and it’s a balanced meal on its own. You have your protein (tuna), veggie (kimchi) and carbohydrates. I timed it, and you only need 10 minutes to make this dish. As I’m staying alone during this period, I tend to overbuy just a wee bit while grocery shopping. So I’ve learnt to be more creative and efficient in my meal planning and recipes so that I utilise my ingredients before they go bad.”

“I used to watch this Korean program where they have to make quick and tasty midnight snacks and meals, and there’s where I learned about this dish. The original recipe had stir-fried kimchi and a dollop of spicy tuna on top of warm rice.”

“I made a tiramisu with my boyfriend to celebrate our anniversary and it’s one of our favourite desserts to have. I grew up eating a lot of tiramisus and my mum used to make a lot of them when I was younger. In recent years, cooking has been very therapeutic for me, and I’d like to think that I’m quite good at it. I think for cooking, once you learn the foundations it’s easy enough to create a great dish. I got this recipe online and made minor tweaks to it and it turned out amazing.”

“I think the secret ingredient in making food taste good is just having a good time and putting your heart and soul into it. Also, getting the best quality of food plays a major role and then you’ll discover how easy it is to make something taste good. Fresh tomatoes, herbs from the garden… you can’t beat that! In this case, it was making this with someone I love to share with the rest of the family – that I think was my secret ingredient.”

“This is a beet pesto with whole wheat spaghetti which I paired with some sauteed ramps. It’s essentially a basic pesto recipe – pine nuts (I used cashew though), basil, parmesan, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper – with an addition of roasted beets, Aleppo pepper and a dash or two of pasta water. I saw a recipe online one day but winged it on the spot based on memory and taste. That’s usually how I do things nowadays.”

“I was really enjoying cooking while in quarantine in New York at first because I could make all these recipes that I had saved. But now, 60-plus days later and counting, there are a lot of days where I don’t want to cook and want to just eat at a restaurant with friends. Sometimes making three meals a day feels like a chore, especially when I’m having one of those days where I’m feeling low. I generally still enjoy it though. I just got a KitchenAid so I’m excited to start baking more.”

“Pictured is what I call ‘Magma cookies’. They are big, thick, chunky cookies with molten centres and other toppings that I like.”

“I made these cookies from a combination of articles and recipes I found on Google, YouTube, as well as adding ingredients that I imagine would work well and taste nice together with the original recipe. It took quite a few tries experimenting with various ingredients to get them to how I like it. One of my secret ingredients would be to use organic, natural, high-quality ingredients. Cleanliness is also my top priority, be it in the cleaning of the ingredients or my utensils. And always put your heart and soul into making your food – it really makes a difference.”

“I actually didn’t expect to enjoy cooking or baking this much until I attempted it during the circuit-breaker period. I never used to have the time to try and improve my culinary skills in the past. This treat is one that I personally love to eat myself and it brings me joy to know that friends who have received it love it too.”