SINGAPORE — If you’re looking for recipes straight from your grandmother’s kitchen mixed with local and traditional Peranakan food, then Rosaline Soon and Julia Tan are the two people to look for.

The duo previously released two cookbooks — Grandmothers’ Recipes and More Grandmothers’ Recipes — and have followed those with their latest offering, Grandmothers’ Recipes: Sweet And Savoury, which includes local snacks and desserts that those with a sweet tooth would enjoy, such as kueh salat, lek tau suan and onde onde.

According to Rosaline, the third book came about because she found herself with the happy problem of having too many recipes.

“There were so many dishes that if I included those dishes in the first or second book, it would have been too much,” said Rosaline. “So my son suggested to have a third book for the snacks and desserts like traditional kueh and savouries that mothers can take and pack for their children to take to school … It’s dishes that mothers have requested for.”

Oddly enough, Rosaline never went near a kitchen until some 20 years ago, when she started her restaurant, Ming’s Cafe and Bar, on Upper Thomson Road. According to the 73-year-old, she never had the chance to cook because she was the youngest in her family of 14. However, thanks to her acute sense of smell and taste, she was always fond of cooking and making recipes better. And yes, she had her share of kitchen mishaps.

“I started off very brave, not knowing how to cook and decided to start my own restaurant ... You see this mark on my hand? I was splashed by the oil when I first started trying to perfect the kueh pie tee,” she said.

These days, she regularly holds cooking classes for beginner cooks and domestic helpers, but will there be a fourth book? “I have enough recipes for a fourth book, but I don’t really want to do it now, because I’m tired!” she quipped. Kimberly Fong

Grandmothers’ Recipes: Sweet & Savoury is available at all leading bookstores for S$40.