After her second maternity leave, a Chinese-Malaysian mother in London found herself with almost no free time. She and her husband both worked long hours in finance, with video calls running from 7am to 9pm.
Their days were a cycle of nursery runs, meetings, dinner, baths and chores, and with no family nearby, they had little support beyond full-time childcare. Supermarket meals and takeout felt too salty, too sugary and too limited.
We Wanted a Chef. We Got a Cultural Lifeline
So she posted in a Facebook group for Malaysian moms in the UK, looking for someone to batch-cook for them. That is how they found Evelyn, a pastry chef on furlough during the pandemic who was skilled at Chinese-Malaysian cooking.
For about $150 a visit, Evelyn came once a month for four to six hours and cooked three dishes, split into around nine freezer-friendly portions. These included ayam tempra, chai boey, babi pongteh and ginger spring onion chicken.
The family saved their weekends for their children and could simply reheat a container with rice on busy weekdays. The mother also learned about ingredients, tofu types and searing techniques from Evelyn.
The arrangement lasted about four years, until the family left London. She calls it a reminder that you have to build your own village, and says they got a stand-in “aunty.”
