{"id":1401,"date":"2026-07-31T23:51:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T15:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/?p=1401"},"modified":"2026-07-31T23:51:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T15:51:43","slug":"the-ideal-cook-contest-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/?p=1401","title":{"rendered":"The Ideal Cook Contest, 1971"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Allan Pang<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2018The big hunt is on for the best cook in the territory. Man, woman or child.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Source: NewspaperSG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1971, from June until July, every newspaper publication in Malaysia and Singapore was actively on the search for the \u2018best cook in the territory\u2019<\/em> through their advertisements of \u2018The Ideal Cook Contest<\/strong>\u2019. Everyone living in the Northern half of Malaysia; Penang and Ipoh, up until the Southern and Central half; Kuala Lumpur and Malacca, including the people of Singapore, were invited to test their cooking skills, with the winner being awarded prizes that amount to SGD20,000. Beyond the competition itself, let\u2019s dive into what gave this contest its historical significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Nyonya Kuih Kitchen
Source: Wikipedia (https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Nyonya_kuih_kitchen.jpg)\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t merely a contest, but also a way to advertise products and various brands. Before winning the title of \u2018best cook in territory\u2019, one must be a customer first. Evidence of buying a product from involved brands (Ideal Milk by Nestle, Shellane, or New Zealand Lamb) was required to enter the contest, with the New Zealand Lamb Information Bureau having the most crucial role in the competition, which can be seen from the repeated mentions in advertisements and news reports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2018In this contest, you can double your chances of winning by including a \u201cSavoury\u201d recipe that uses New Zealand Lamb, available from provision stores within refrigeration facilities.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\nThe Straits Times, 8 July 1971<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This was where the New Zealand Lamb Information Bureau came in. It was not a local organisation, but a transnational agency that promoted lamb and lamb products from New Zealand. Throughout the 1970s, its presence could still be seen in English newspapers in Singapore, usually through advertisements, reports, or cooking-related features. One example appeared in The Straits Times on 8 July 1971, when Linda Quo, a Hong Kong-trained \u201chome economist,\u201d was featured during a cooking demonstration in Penang. The dishes she prepared were interesting on their own: a \u201cMalay style lamb curry\u201d and a \u201cWestern lamb cutlet.\u201d Both dishes were different in style, but they shared the same main ingredient, New Zealand lamb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Report from the Straits Times, 8 July 1971
Source: NewspaperSG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Singapore\u2019s case shows a slightly different story from Malaysia. Food supply there was closely tied to imports, and New Zealand meat had already found its place in the market. In a report by The Business Times on 3 September 1977, Singapore was said to have imported SGD13.7 million worth of beef and SGD3.5 million worth of lamb from New Zealand between July 1976 and June 1977. This showed that Singapore was not a small market for New Zealand meat, which explains why the New Zealand Meat Producers Board later appointed a merchandising officer to handle both the Singapore and Malaysian markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what happened at the end of the contest? Unfortunately, none of the available newspaper reports revealed who won. What The Straits Times did report, however, was on one semi-finalist whose story stood out, challenging the idea that cooking belonged only to women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Abdul Jalil bin Salleh, the semi-finalist reported by the Strait Times
The Straits Times, 26 September 1971<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During this time, cooking and kitchens were strongly associated with women; it was common to think women were the ones who belonged in the kitchen. Husbands who were only \u201cgalloping gourmets\u201d were fast going out of fashion among Singapore women, so why not get ahead and outdo women at their own kitchen game? This was what 18-year-old Abdul Jalil bin Salleh believed in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jalil stated, \u2018More men should take up cooking as a hobby. At least, they should learn to cook\u2026 and stop seeing the kitchen as something beneath their dignity.<\/em>\u2019 He noted how women have slowly crept into men\u2019s \u201cdomain\u201d by getting involved in male-dominated professions or hobbies, and it was time for men to shrink the so-called woman\u2019s world. After all, the world\u2019s renowned chefs are men. By the end of the contest, Jalil was the only noted male semi-finalist of the \u2018Ideal Cook Contest\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Jalil\u2019s statement towards the end carried a patriarchal tone, which was definitely not a desirable replacement for the gender stereotypes that already existed. He did not make it to the finals of the contest, where some of the final dishes included lamb biryani rice, potato basket, and tutti frutti pudding. The competition itself encouraged contestants to create recipes with \u201ca local flavour.\u201d In a way, this reflects what makes Malaysian cuisine stand out: the diversity of food across different communities, including Malay, Indian, Chinese, Peranakan, and many others. Despite the racial politics that continued to exist over the years, Malaysia has also developed a culinary image that highlights cultural diversity to the wider world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A typical Malaysian cuisine with satay
Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Further Readings<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Gaik Cheng Khoo, \u2018Defining \u201cModern Malaysian\u201d Cuisine: Fusion or Ingredients?\u2019 in Culinary Nationalism in Asia, ed. Michelle T. King (Bloomsbury, 2019), 111-29.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Nicole Tarulevicz, Eating Her Curries and Kway: A Cultural History of Food in Singapore (University of Illinois Press, 2017), chapter 5.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Allan Pang \u2018The big hunt is on for the best cook in the territory. Man, woman or child.\u2019 In 1971, from June until July, every newspaper publication in Malaysia and Singapore was actively on the search for the \u2018best cook in the territory\u2019 through their advertisements of \u2018The Ideal Cook Contest\u2019. Everyone living in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":1402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-myunbd"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16.png",775,599,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16-300x232.png",300,232,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16-768x594.png",768,594,true],"large":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16.png",775,599,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16.png",775,599,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16.png",775,599,false],"smart-post-landscape":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16-775x570.png",775,570,true],"smart-post-portrait":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16-600x599.png",600,599,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"AZRI FARHAN BIN HANIF","author_link":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/?author=15"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Allan Pang \u2018The big hunt is on for the best cook in the territory. Man, woman or child.\u2019 In 1971, from June until July, every newspaper publication in Malaysia and Singapore was actively on the search for the \u2018best cook in the territory\u2019 through their advertisements of \u2018The Ideal Cook Contest\u2019. Everyone living in the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1407,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401\/revisions\/1407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}