Nyonya kueh can be easily taken for granted. But, as I am learning from Chef Jeremy Nguee and Chef Claire Ariela Shen, Nyonya kueh can be seen as an art form, and a symbol of a long, well-curated history. As they are prepping the entire set for the shoot, I ask casually about whether making kueh nowadays is harder when you don't have a machine helping to make things easier.
Chef Nguee points at the kueh salat, and he launches into a spiel, “The gelatinization of the starch happens at 65.1 °C, to be able to get it smooth without any bubbles and the correct texture, you have to pay attention to the rate and percentage of the gelatinization in the mixture. Sounds scientific, right?” he asks. I nod. “The problem is that the machines aren’t able to do so in large batches. The human, on the other hand, can. At the end of the day, you still have to do it manually and observe the batch by hand to get the best textures. The human can do it, because while it’s very technical, it also requires a level of precision that machines can never achieve.” What he means is this: good Nyonya kueh comes from the human touch. And Chef Nguee and Chef Shen are huge nerds on the topic. This is why they not only share the craft of making good kueh with everyone, they have also organised a symposium in order to share it with the masses, called the Kueh Kueh Symposium.
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