Ex-Corner House Chef Sells Curry With Mum For Charity During Covid-19 Pandemic

Jason calls the project the “Mommy Boy Chicken Curry” pop-up online shop. The idea is simple: you check for sale dates through his Instagram account @chefjasontan_sg, place your order via the “Mommy Boy hotline” at 98345087, and collect it from Blk 20 Teck Whye Lane on the day of the sale. He then donates the proceeds to an orphanage and an old folks’ home — Jason is in the midst of deciding which two to work with. Prices for the chicken curry range from $24 for a serving of two whole chicken thighs (cut into eight pieces; feeds about two pax), two Idaho potatoes and two portions of steamed white rice, to $90 for a serving of eight whole chicken thighs (32 pieces; feeds about eight pax), eight Idaho potatoes and eight portions of steamed white rice.

Photo: Jason Tan/Instagram

Jason says he will donate 50% of the sales proceeds to an orphanage and a senior’s home. “We're definitely burning (money), but making money was never the objective. I really just want to do something for kids and old people — a lot of attention has been paid to healthcare workers, and rightly so. But these two are groups within society whom I feel needs the most help [right now].”

Photo: Jason Tan/Instagram

“My mama’s (pictured above) chicken curry is quite famous!” says the chef, who obviously goes around raving about his mama’s cooking (he has also spoken about it in a Chinese newspaper interview two years ago). “People I know are always asking to try her curry. So I thought: why not cook it for everybody to try through this charity pop-up? It is a win-win.”

Photo: Jason Tan/Instagram

For the first pop-up happening on 10 – 12 April, only 50 servings are available for pre-order for each of the sale days. However, these were all sold out within 15 hours of Jason’s post on his Instagram account on 5 April, announcing the sale. He wasn’t expecting it at all. “A lot of people told me that pick-ups are very unpopular. People like their food delivered to them!” he exclaims. “If I had known that the response would be so good, I would have capped the daily limit to maybe 30,” he laughs.

Photo: Jason Tan/Instagram

The dish, called “Mummy Boy Chicken Curry” follows a recipe by Jason’s Fuzhou mother, who created it through years of trial and error. Everything is made from scratch, including the rempah (spice blend) base which requires some six hours of constant, slow stirring. And working from his family’s three-bedroom HDB flat kitchen — which the hulking chef describes as a tight space — Jason no longer has the luxury of high-tech conveniences at his restaurant, such as the Thermomix (a multi-purpose cooking appliance that can blend and churn). So, this means going back to basics — chopping, mincing, frying and stirring all by hand. Jason describes the lightly spicy curry as “a bit lemak and thick, unlike most (Chinese style) curry in Singapore which is quite watery.”

Photo: Jason Tan/Instagram

“My mother is a devout buddhist and has always been big on giving back to society. I, too, have always wanted to do charity work. And since we are now at home together, I saw this as an opportunity to bond with my family, ‘steal’ my mother’s recipes, and also do good at the same time!” says Jason. He might be the revered ex-head chef at Corner House, and one who has done four-hand collaborations with celebrity chefs like Gaggan Anand; but at home Jason is relegated to the role of junior cook. “My mum is the executive chef, my dad who has been helping her in the kitchen the sous chef. My older brother and I are the commis cooks!” jokes Jason. All four of them cook the curry together.

While we applaud Jason for his big-hearted gesture, 65-year-old mama Tan is the true hero here. She is undergoing medical treatment which is physically taxing — yet she's spending time to cook this laborious dish with her family, all for charity. However, this also means that Jason cannot be 100% sure when the next sale date might be: “It's very tiring for her, so I need to see how she is before I put up the next sale date.” The chef predicts that it's likely to happen fortnightly.

Customer Bing Blokbergen Leow, a brand & communications consultant for F&B businesses was one of the lucky ones who managed to snag Jason's and his ma's first batch of curry. "What struck me the most was how aromatic Jason’s ‘Mommy Boy Curry’ was," she raves. "It had a pronounced fragrance of lemongrass, with a deep orange-red gravy that was thick and rich. The rempah is made with a combination of fresh red chilli, chilli padi and dried chilli — so you get a well-balanced layering of spice notes, which is further enhanced by other ingredients such as onions, garlic, candlenut and lemongrass. The coconut milk rounds it up with its lusciousness". Sounds amazing, we want some too.

Photo: @bing_leow/Instagram

Jason is actually in the midst of setting up his independent restaurant on Tras Street, following his departure from Corner House (pictured). The yet unnamed restaurant will be co-owned equally between Jason and an overseas investor. The plan is to continue serving a renewed version of his signature fine-dining “gastro-botanica” food — contemporary cuisine which gives equal weight to botanical ingredients as meats, and the restaurant is slated to open this September. That is the plan, for now; but things might just change: “If the curry business turns out so well, I might just turn the Tras Street unit into a curry production kitchen!” says Jason jokingly.

For more information on the Mommy Boy Chicken Curry pop-up online shop, check out @chefjasontan_sg

Photo: Corner House/Instagram