The inaugural #CookForFamily Bloggers’ Initiative took place on 6th August 2012, with a total of 111 bloggers who took part and cooked for their family!
When I first started this #CookForFamily initiative back in July, some had told me 20 was enough, and if I could get 80 I would very lucky. I am very heartened to see so many bloggers lend their support, and #CookForFamily even trended on twitter that day.
For those who has yet to hear about this, here’s what happened…
Chicken kebab which I #CookForFamily
What is The #CookForFamily Initiative?
The #CookForFamily is a Singapore food bloggers initiative – there is no competition, sponsors, or hidden agenda involved. It is created with a simple objective of getting more bloggers, and hopefully their fans and followers, to start cooking and bonding with their families.
Yes, I rejected every sponsor who came and offered a prize. Because I felt that bonding is the family is the greatest priceless prize. Why need the incentive? In fact, from this we know that every blogger who joined truly wanted to take part.
Why did I start organising #CookForFamily?
Frankly, I have had enough of the very negative vibes that the online sphere has been heading towards – lots of complaining, criticisms, and gossips. I wanted to do something, something meaningful to gather everyone together. Yes, this is likely to be the first bloggers’ group initiative of its kind in Singapore.
Also, I was quite affected when I first heard a story from a famous blogger’s family member: This blogger is always out for tastings almost every day, and that the blogger never really eats at home. Family members complain, but I suppose blogging take first place in this situation.
What happened during #CookForFamily?
The bloggers have picked a day in July to cook a meal for their family or loved ones, and have blogged about their cooking, experience and thoughts all on the same day – 6th August 2012.
Recipe of Simple & Easy-to-Cook Fried Bee Hoon
When I was younger, I liked to eat my mum’s bee hoon and she would fry it almost every morning. My mum does not cook anymore because she has difficulty in walking, and I feel bad that I have to buy takeaways for her all the time. She will sometimes complain that it is salty or not to her liking – especially fried bee hoon outside. So that’s why I cooked Simple Fried Bee Hoon for The #CookForFamily Initiative. My mum doesn’t say much (sometimes she complain that I mess up the kitchen.) But when she finished the entire plate, or say “quite ho chiak”, there is immense joy in my heart.
These are some #CookForFamily entries that I really enjoy:
Most Supportive: Cuisine Paradise and Ah Boy (Photo credits: Ellena Guan)
Cuisine Paradise had 3 generations cooking together for the #CookForFamily initiative, prepared many many dishes, and also encouraged many other bloggers to join in. Her Ah Boy also volunteered to join where he marinated the chicken wings using Wokkingmum’s “Grilled Chicken Wings with Fermented Beancurd” recipe. He chose this recipe because he knew that both his grandma and mummy enjoyed fermented beancurd which they always had with their porridge. Very sweet of him!
Most Touching: Melicacy (Photo credits: Melissa Koh)
For a person who had zilch experience in the kitchen, Melissa overcame her phobia of cooking (because she was badly scalded once) to cook Pesto Spaghetti for her family. The dish for her mum even came with a heart-shaped cheese cracker. What is really touching is that she also cooked for her domestic helper – how many children out there you know would cook for their maids? Also, her busy working mum purposely came back early for dinner and even posted her daughter’s cooking on FaceBook. So moved reading it!
Longest Distance: You Got Me Blogging (Photo credits: Razlan Manjaji)
Razlan grew up ten years in Singapore, but is now based in Hong Kong due to his studies and career. However, he still continues to straddle between the two countries because Singapore is where he considers as home. He decided to spread the word to his other Hong Kong friends – E-ting Food, Chopstixfix and Joie De Vivre to join in #CookForFamily Wow, I do hope one day that this Singapore-started initiative can go international.
Most Glam Family: Cheryl Wee (Photo credits: Cheryl Wee)
Singer Cheryl Wee had the challenge of pleasing both her dad and mum, who are famous hair stylists Mervin Wee and Jean Yip. As mum Jean Yip is a huge believer of cooking things from scratch, it was extra work for both daughters to cook laksa using fresh ingredients and no premixes. So the entire family had to get up earlier to accompany mummy to get fresh coconut milk, laksa leaves and also work doubly hard to pound the rumpah and spices. It is quite heartening to see the entire family – all very busy people – get together to enjoy cooking and eating.
Thank you to all 111 Bloggers involved in #CookForFamily
365days2play (Dawn Huang), A Juggling Mom (Susan), A Winsome Life (Melvin & Jacqueline), A&W Couple’s Blog (Abbey & Will), Acquisition of Taste (Andy and Ashley), AiMakan (Hazel Tay), Alvinology (Alvin Lim), An Escape To Food (HL Tay), AnythingAlsoEat (CY), AromaCookery (Julia Khoo), AspirantSG (Wee Heng), AteTooMuch, Calvin Timo, Celestial Delish (Celes Fernandez), Cheekiemonkie (Kelvin), Cheryl Wee Xin Hui, Chrispytine (Christine), ChopsticFix, Chunky Cooky (Joyce), Cloudy Windz , Coffee Table People, Cookieologic (Huijin), Cooksnapeatlove (Jacob Leong), Cuisine Paradise (Ellena Guan), Daniel’s Food Diary (Daniel Ang), Danny Love To Eat (Danny Tan), Darren Bloggie, Dominique’s Desk (Dominique Goh) , Double Image (Kevin Soh), Dreamers Loft (Meg), Dream2breakaway (Ying Zi), E-tingfood (Janice Leung), Fighting Fires & Baking Buns, Flora Yeo, Food Friend Or Foe (Brenda), Food.Recentrunes (Ivan Ng), Foodie Ah, Foodie FC (Fengchen), Foodie’s Kitchen , G.Nome Chromosome, Gastronautdiary (David Yip), Gninethree (Charleen), Gourmetestorie (Justin Daniel Pereira), HazelHearts (Hazel), HazelNutLife (Hazel Lam), HisFoodBlog (Rayner Ng), Hpility (Hong Peng), iisjong (Joey Ong), J Babies Dad (Isaiah), Jessie Food Trip (Ong Meng Ching), Joie De Vivre (Gary Suen), Keropokman (Philip Lim), Lady J’s Musings (Joanne), Lazy Foodies (Kaiyi), Le Petit Connoisseur (Stargirl), Little DinoEgg (Jenn Lim), Lobster Paints (Shi Ting), Lovin Greens (Huiyuan), Luxury Haven (Shirley Tay), Maameemoomoo (Sherie), Mamawearpapashirt (June), Melicacy (Melissa Koh), Memoirs Of Food (Daniel Hung), Mint Leong, Miss Tam Chiak (Maureen Ow), Miss Tiffany (Tiffany Wong), MissyGlutton, MoonBerry (Irene), Ms SkinnyFat (Cheryl Ng), Msfoodaholic (Karina Lee), Missuchewy (Charlene Chew), Mummy Blogs (Sandra Tan), Pengs Kitchen (Veronica) , Perhaps Always (Samuel), Pixieprodigy (Calvin Wong), Pling Thinks (Tracy Chua), Priscias (Priscilla), Raising Rock Star, RubbishEatRubbishGrow (Nathanael Ho), Rynaque, Sakura Haruka, Sarahs Loft (Sarah Khaw), Seng Kang Babies (Andy), SgFoodonFoot (Derrick Tan), Simple Happiness (Christina Teong), SkiesofLove (Angie), Slurp (Jason), Smithankyou (Smith Leong), Story of Bing, Super Adrian Me (Adrian Eugene Seet), Superfinefeline (Karen), Teru2xBozu Goes Hungry, That Silver Girl (Silver Ang), The Dead Cockroach, The Dessert Prince (Edward), The Dining Table (Javan), The Dirty Stall, The Fatty Rie (Siew Lin), The Food Canon (Terry Wong), The Food Recipe (Jozel), The Gingerbread Mum (Adora Tan), The Hungry Cow (LeRoy), The Love of my Life, Twice As Delicious, The Super Girl, Velvet Chronicles (Nuramima), You Got Me Blogging (Razlan), Yummy Koh (Chris), Yumyumformytumtum (Peter Oh)
I hope that our little initiative has convinced you to spend a little more time with your family. Yes, we all have busy lives and stress, but this is no excuse for us to keep a distance from our families. Try cooking for them – you are likely to find immense joy.
Yes, I will definitely continue with #CookForFamily during Year 2013. Let us target… 200 Bloggers!
Join The #CookForFamily Initiative
The #CookForFamily Update – 83 Bloggers Have Joined!
The #CookForFamily Update – 97 Bloggers Have Joined!
More Than 100 Singapore Food Bloggers To Cook For Their Families
I Love To #CookForFamily – Recipe of Simple & Easy-to-Cook Fried Bee Hoon
Thanks for the initiative! PS my blog post came 2 days late…
Thanks for the invitation, and mention in this post! Hope the next round will have even more overseas bloggers joining in. I have just completed my annual Europe tour and discovered some new, simple recipe, so hope to be able to share more then.