Among the many Americans competing in the culinary category of the SkillsUSA National Competition this year will be Mrs Stella Lim-Elder, a Singaporean.

Mrs Lim-Elder moved to Oklahoma, US, after she married a 50-year-old American, Mr Donald Elder, in 2004. She took up a course in culinary studies only last year. And before she knew it, she is in the national competition.

“I feel like I’m bringing Singapore and America together in my own way. If I win and they interview me, I will tell them I’m from Singapore,” she said.

Mrs Lim-Elder, 49, told The New Paper that she decided to study culinary arts at Oklahoma’s Tulsa
Technology Centre after she was told that her Singaporean teaching credentials are not recognised there.

She said: “I’ve been a teacher for over 20 years, so I did not want to go back to school to learn how to teach.

Cooking Vs Dentistry

“I decided to take up something different and it was between culinary arts and dentistry. I shadowed a culinary arts class and fell in love with it.”

The US permanent resident will represent Oklahoma in the nationwide competition after winning the SkillsUSA State Culinary Competition. SkillsUSA, in its 44th year, is a non-profit organisation serving
teachers and high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including health. These include Web designing, first aid and cosmetology.

In the competition, students show off occupational and leadership skills. At the annual national-level SkillsUSA Championships, more than 5,000 students compete in about 100 skill areas.

“I’m the first one from my school and from Oklahoma to take part in SkillsUSA,” said Mrs Lim-Elder, who is the oldest student in her class of mainly 17- to 19-year-olds. If she wins, Mrs Lim-Elder will be awarded a scholarship to study culinary arts in a US university.

She is now back in Singapore to visit loved ones and track down long lost friends. This is her first long visit to Singapore after moving to the US. But she is excited to head back and prepare for the competition.

She said: “I will only have about four days to prepare after I get home and before I leave for Kansas – where the competition is being held from 23 Jun.”

It is a six-hour competition held over five days. Preparation will include reading up on cooking technicalities for the theory part of the competition, perfecting her stock preparation and even practising cuts on about 45kg of potatoes.

This will be her 10th cooking competition and the biggest one yet. It was her teacher in the culinary arts programme who encouraged her to go for the competition.

She said: “My teacher, Mr Michael Yip, is an American-born Chinese. Asian food there is not like what we have here, so when he tasted my cooking, he was very impressed. He learns from me and I learn from him.”

Former Students

She has taught in many primary schools in Singapore including St Gabriel’s, Catholic High and Maris Stella High. Mrs Lim-Elder is very close to her former students from Maris Stella High as she taught the same class from 1984 to 1986.

One of them, Mr Chan Yoong Han, 34, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s violinist and the Singapore Festival Orchestra’s concert master, said: “She made a deep impression on all of us students. It is good to know she is happily based in the US and we can’t wait to try her cooking.”

It was Mrs Lim-Elder’s Peranakan grandmother and her father who imparted their skills and love for cooking to her.

“I always do something different with my cooking to bring out the Asian in me. My cooking has a lot of fusion. I improvise and write my own recipes when I can’t get Asian ingredients there,” she said.

Mrs Lim-Elder attributes her go-getter spirit to Singapore. “Maybe it’s the Singaporean in me that is pushing me to go further. I am kiasu (afraid to lose) – going abroad and doing well there makes me proud to be a Singaporean.”

This article was first published in The New Paper on June 11, 2008.