Food, agency and self expression
Some of the women who had positive experiences with food were on track to becoming professional chefs and opening restaurants of their own in Indonesia. To highlight these kind of experiences, I will focus on one woman’s experience of being a domestic worker in Singapore.
Putri has been working in Singapore for many years and has managed to turn her experiences of being a domestic worker into a process of learning and achievement. When Putri first arrived in Singapore, she had little to no cooking skills, which made her job as a domestic worker, in which she was required to cook for her employers, a very stressful experience. To make matters worse, Putri's employer, Madam Yun, used to invite her friends over for dinner parties prior to Putri even developing her skills in cooking. With perseverance and determination, Putri pushed herself to learn how to cook by reading cook books in the library, and with her sheer stubbornness, she became very talented in cooking and baking. These parties encouraged Putri to consistently improve her cooking skills and enact her creativity in the kitchen. Putri’s proficiency in cooking was demonstrated when she entered and won a national cooking competition in Singapore. She has also attended cooking demonstrations with internationally renowned chefs and Madam Yun regularly takes Putri out to eat in fancy restaurants, so that she can try new foods that she can then make at home. Madam Yun has also taught Putri many recipes of her own, which Putri will use in a restaurant that she plans to open back in Indonesia when she returns. When we met, Putri explained to me that cooking is a therapeutic and creative process for her, where she can try new recipes and make dishes from across the globe. By allowing Putri to have the freedom to experiment with new recipes, Madam Yun encourages the improvement of Putri's cooking and baking skills. This domestic worker has turned her job into an educational process, in which food has become her mode for asserting agency. |