Fiona Lim Pei Wen’s scientific contributions

Culinary Biographies is a two-year collaborative research project that examined Singapore’s intangible food heritage from a longue durée perspective. Between October 2018 and October 2020, Singapore’s documented 700-year history was surveyed, tracing the pathways through which ingredients, culinary techniques and regional culinary philosophies converged in Singapore. We found that many of these conjunctures established crucial precedents for some of Singapore’s most iconic food offerings. Our study makes three key contributions to the dialogue surrounding Singapore’s food history and heritage: ● Singapore’s food offerings are multi-layered historical artefacts that resist cultural ownership and monopolisation. ● Food history offers an accessible yet nuanced avenue for recovering a people’s history of Singapore. ● From a 700-year perspective, Singapore’s iconic edibles were most heavily influenced by creative and destructive forces during the twentieth century.