ONG, what if we just open a restaurant,” I said one day, after thoroughly enjoying some of his cooking.

“No way. Cooking is an event,” Ong answered resolutely.

“Ah, as if he’s a poet waiting for inspiration,” I told myself.

But that was Ong Hok Ham. If the mood to cook caught him, for some peculiar reason, he would invite over some friends to enjoy his latest creation. Sometimes it was truly delicious, at other times it was palatab