They’re known foremost for their style and creative pursuits, but what branding/marketing honcho Charmaine Seah-Ong and fashion practitioner
Sabrina Elman consider equally fundamental to their being is good food and the good times (and photos) that brings.
How important is food and meal times to your family?
“We’re one of those families who live to eat, and meal time has always brought us together. When we were kids, dinner was at 7pm every week day and everyone had to be home for it. My mum would cook the best meals and my dad always made it a point to be home from the office on time, no matter how busy he was.
It was when all of us (I have three younger brothers) got to catch up and we’d all be speaking at the same time, yelling over each other. My parents used to say that the neighbours must think we were fighting every evening given the ruckus we’d create. Decades later, nothing has changed except for the fact that now my two daughters add to the mealtime chaos as well.
We still gather weekly for family meals and during circuit breaker, we even resorted to having Zoom meals together. That meant that my brother Brandon who lives in Berlin would have to have a late breakfast or early lunch while the rest of us had dinner. I think it will always be important to us to come together for meals. It’s where we can sit and chat for hours with each other, and where our kids get to hear stories from when we were growing up, stories about our late grandparents. It’s how we’ve gotten to know each other more deeply.”
Charmaine wears cashmere sweater, Chaine d’Ancre Parade silver necklace, Chaine d’Ancre silver double ring, Kelly silver cuff, New Drag 22 leather handbag, and Carnets d’Equateur porcelain plates and bowl, Hermes. All other tablewear, Charmaine’s own
Tell us more about the weekly cookout sessions with the Seahs we see on your Instagram.
“#DamnShiokSeah is a Sunday cookout session with my siblings that started after circuit breaker. My mum has been cooking for us for years, so now it’s our turn to feed the family – but under her watchful eye of course.
It was my idea because I wanted to learn how to cook better but also wanted company while doing so. My youngest brother was also home from Canada for a few months thanks to Covid lockdown, so I suggested that we try out new recipes together on Sunday when we gathered for dinner at my parents’ place.
We’ll decide on a cuisine for the week – Thai, Italian, Indian, etc – and then each of us chooses a dish we will want to prepare, making sure that our dishes complement the rest. Sometimes I’ll prepare the main course, sometimes I’ll be handling a side dish. We take turns with that.”
Is this going to be a long-running tradition?
“I really hope so. It’s been so much fun cooking with my brothers and figuring things out together. Also learning from our mistakes – like attempting to make an omelette from 10 eggs is probably not the best idea. Who knew it would be so heavy and almost impossible to flip?”
What’s your signature dish?
“Nyonya Mee (pictured). It’s my husband’s grandmother’s recipe and I learned how to cook it only this year. We usually only get to eat this traditional Peranakan noodle dish during Chinese New Year and it consists of yellow noodles in a rich, pork, prawn and fermented soya bean paste broth, topped with sliced omelette, cucumber and served with a side of achar. But now that I’ve mastered it, we get to eat it whenever we like.”
What were some of the memorable dishes you guys have made?
“That would probably be Hainanese Chicken Rice. It’s one of those dishes that I always thought would be really difficult to cook, but we managed to whip up a more than decent one on our first attempt.
It was memorable because I needed to stuff the cavity of a whole chicken, but all my mom had were chicken thighs. So she asked me to tie the pieces together, and I was struggling with all these pieces of raw meat and yards of butcher’s twine while we made inappropriate jokes about bondage and S&M and manhandling meat.
I also accidentally misread the recipe and added two tablespoons of sugar instead of two teaspoons of salt. But hey, it turned out amazing regardless so maybe that was the secret ingredient!”
What’s the cuisine you guys love most and why?
“Japanese, hands down. The ingredients speak for themselves – you barely have to do anything to them to bring out the flavours and what you can get changes according to the seasons. There’s also just so many styles of cooking Japanese cuisine too so there’s just so much variety in terms of the food you can enjoy.”
Who’s the best cook in the family?
“My mother, obviously. But if you mean within my siblings I’m going to have to go with my brother, Russell because he’s been cooking the longest. I’ve actually never tried Brandon’s cooking but from the photos he’s sent, he definitely scores the highest for presentation.”
Minuit au Faubourg lizard skin shoulder bag and (jewellery, clockwise from bottom) Hermes Reponse double ring, matching earrings, Amazone Hermes ring, Collier de Chien ring, Chaine d’Ancre Punk double ring, Kelly Double Tour 18K pink gold ring with diamonds, and Amazone Hermes cuff
Can you share a little about the dish that you made for our shoot?
“It’s a homemade, New England-style lobster roll with a bit of a Japanese twist. I’d say I nailed the filing right on the money, but until I learn how to make my own bread I can’t say this is 100 per cent homemade. Is it comparable with the ones I’ve had outside? It’s probably 90 per cent there. And that’s good enough for me!”
Charmaine wears cashmere sweater, leather pinafore skirt, Chaine d’Ancre Punk mono earring, matching bracelet, Kelly Double Tour 18K pink gold ring (on right thumb), and Hermes Reponse double ring. (Jewellery on table, clockwise from bottom) Collier de Chien ring, Niloticus 18K pink gold cuff, Chaine d’Ancre Punk double ring, Amazone Hermes cuff, and matching ring. On both pages: Carnets d’Equateur porcelain plates, bowl and soy dish. All Hermes and all jewellery in silver unless otherwise stated. All other tablewear, Charmaine’s own
How important is food and mealtimes to your family?
“Our family bonds over food. We treasure our family time, and when we all come together you can expect a feast. It is truly the best feeling. When Covid hit, our mini food parties came to a halt. But it didn’t really slow us down because we still sent food over to one another as a form of showing love and care.
Are you big on entertaining or cooking – or both?
“I’d say I’m more of an entertainer. I love inviting my closest friends and family over. We’ll just chill and have a good time over movies and food. I mostly cook only for special occasions or upon request. Otherwise it’s ordering from our favourite restaurants. Rest assured anyone who comes to the Elman household will be well fed.”
What’s your signature dish?
“I don’t really have a signature but one of my favourite go-tos for potlucks is a creamy potato gratin or warm bread pudding with custard. I make a pretty mean sambal sotong too if I may say so myself.”
Sabrina wears leather vest and matching skirt, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Clash de Cartier 18K pink gold hoop earrings, matching necklace, and Pasha de Cartier 18K pink gold watch on alligator skin strap, Cartier. On table: Panthere de Cartier porcelain pencil holder and matching trinket tray (in foreground), Cartier Baby silver tumbler and matching spoon (in front of scale), Entrelaces de Cartier porcelain trinket tray (on scale), and Must de Cartier leather tote (in background), Cartier
Tell us more about the Odd Bread focaccia business you started.
“It was started by my sister, Sarah and I. A small business venture was something we’ve always wanted to do together but never knew what it was until this. We initially thought we’d explore the Chinese dumpling business because Sarah was in a dumpling craze at the time and already had the perfect name for it, ‘The Ugly Dumpling’. But all the stars didn’t quite align for that one.
Sometime in May, Sarah was baking and experimenting with some bread recipes and she asked if I’ve heard of focaccia bread; we test baked it that night and never looked back.”
Why focaccia of all things?
“We knew that we wanted to bring people together through our food. Focaccia can be enjoyed alone and shared with others. There are many ways to enjoy Focaccia – as it is, made into a sandwich, and more. It also evoked the concept of ‘breaking bread’ together.”
Are you trained in baking?
“We aren’t culinary trained, but we are culinary curious. We have been to a couple of bread-making courses in the past for fun and everything else was pretty much self-taught. I would say we are most definitely still learning and experimenting.”
How much work goes into making the bread?
“For every flavour we’ve introduced on Odd Bread, that recipe has undergone at least three rounds of R&D or test bakes. We want to make sure these recipes bring out the best flavours and use quality ingredients.
The total amount of time needed to bake a loaf of focaccia can take up about four hours or more. Time is needed for yeast to activate, the dough to rise and then proofed to the perfect size before the addition of toppings and baking. We also set aside a couple of hours for kitchen and ingredients prep. On days when we have orders, our day begins as early as 4am.”
What flavours are there and what’s your specialty?
“We’ve got our classic flavours like Tomato Basil Focaccia and Onion Marmalade with Peppers Focaccia, and more premium flavours like Rosemary Potato Focaccia, and seasonal specials which we introduce from time to time.
We also have what we call The Mini’s – a set of three mini focaccia in different flavours of tomato basil, onion marmalade with peppers, and spicy Italian beef cabanossi. We are all about flavours so we use fresh herbs, homemade garlic oil and some real good salt to elevate the taste to another level.”
Sabrina wears silk maxi dress, Tory Burch, and Clash de Cartier 18K pink gold hoop earrings, matching bracelet, Pasha de Cartier 18K pink gold watch on alligator skin strap, and Must de Cartier leather saddle bag, Cartier
Can you share more about the two bread we shot?
“We had one of Odd Bread’s classic flavours which is the Tomato Basil Focaccia and Garlic Rosemary Focaccia which is something off-the-menu. One can never go wrong with the tomato basil. Every bite is a punch of flavour while the crispiness of the basil leaves complements the juicy cherry tomatoes and soft chunks of garlic in our fresh garlic oil. To top it all off, all our focaccias are droused in olive oil and extra virgin olive oil. The garlic rosemary is just as tasty, and perfect for sandwiches or enjoyed on its own.”
From left: Cartier Baby silver tumbler, Clash de Cartier 18K pink gold bracelet, Cartier Baby silver spoon, Diabolo de Cartier glass and metal snow globe, matching wood and metal music box, Pasha de Cartier 18K pink gold watch on alligator skin strap, Entrelaces de Cartier wood jewellery box, and matching porcelain trinket tray, Cartier
Photography Vee Chin Styling Imran Jalal Charmaine’s Hair & Makeup Adelene Siow/Paletteinc, using Nars & Keune Sabrina’s Hair & Makeup Sha Shamsi, using Laura Mercier & Keune
A version of this article first appeared in the Dec 2020 Be Yourself Edition of FEMALE