Interview with Way Ling Wiesser

We interviewed Way Ling Wiesser for the tip on Store And Handle Food Properly, here’s the full interview:

Describe yourself and what you do.

I’m a British born Chinese; Domestic Goddess and Foodie Enthusiast; Mother of 2, + gorgeous 3 legged cat; and Ambassador for the Singapore Food Revolution, voluntary arm of the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation.

Why is it important to have proper food storage at home?

Food needs to be stored properly to maintain freshness at all times. Particularly in Singapore where the humidity is so high, opened food goes soggy within 5 minutes of being exposed to the air.

How do you ensure that food is stored properly? Are there different storage methods for different food items?

I store cheese in a separate box so that the smells don’t invade the rest of the fridge. For deli items such as shaved ham, I change the supermarket paper that it comes wrapped in – I use baking paper and this maintains the freshness of the deli meat – if I leave it in the supermarket paper, it goes off in about 1 day.

I also use a special fruit and vegetable cushion in the fridge to prolong shelf life and prevent bruising of my fresh produce – I bought this in the UK, I don’t know if it is sold in Singapore but I would definitely recommend it.

For all leftovers, I store in a mixture of glass and plastic containers in the fridge – I always leave everything to cool completely before closing the lids and placing in the fridge. Everything is always covered well, even if it’s only going in for an hour or so.

I have a lot of different sizes of storage containers and find that the really small ones very useful for tiny leftovers. My favourite tip is to save any leftover wine in small containers – perfect for quick defrosting and adding into a pasta sauce! I also need big containers as I like to bake and cakes and muffins have to be stored in the fridge here in Singapore.

I’ve recently bought an extra fridge as I was having so many problems trying to fit everything into my existing large fridge. I keep the spare fridge at a slightly “warmer” temperature and use it to store all my opened sauces, cakes, chocolate and wine.

I have become much more conscientious about leftovers and will try to finish everything before making a fresh meal – I used to throw away a lot of stuff because I would bulk-buy but now I just have to shop more often and be much more strict about what meals I’m cooking. I’m also cooking smaller portions now in order to minimise the need for storing leftovers.

Where do you learn proper food storage from? Is there influence from your family?

My family are Chinese and my Dad is a chef, now retired. He still cooks really big meals of multiple dishes, traditional Chinese style. Of course, there is always too much food and we are used to storing leftovers and finishing off the following day. It would be alien for my father to cook less as he would be horrified if we cleared the bowls and left anyone “hungry” – so portion reduction is not a consideration here.

Interview and Image credit: Way Ling Wiesser