As far as food presenters go, Chua Lam must be my favourite. Not only are his shows interesting, he is the someone who could do Singapore proud if our strait-laced and prudish moralists do not reject him as one of us. The sex, chauvinism and lechery aside, Mr Chua has a rather “innocent” and conservative approach towards food.

Like Mr Chua, I’m not a fan of fanciful “fusion” dishes which are more visual than gustatory. Creativity is nice, but ironically, the “original” stuff do get boring after a while. Eating is something we need to do several times a day. Somehow familiar flavours don’t get us feeling bored.

There are many kinds of cooking shows out there. Some are dramatised, some are academic and some combine cooking with travel and exploration. I have no clear favourites, but the programmes below and their “actors” are so spontaneous and humourous. The undetectable scripts share words of wisdom and flash a hint of sexiness which probably won’t be appreciated by the folks at AWARE. Enjoy.

I guess to be the next Chua Lam, I would also have to operate outside Singapore. I’ll dream on.