Melissa Leong

I always want to be - and appear to be - competent. When I don't achieve that, I don't respond well.

My journey into the world of work after that was a bit more piecemeal than I would have liked, and it took a while to find the place in the world where I truly felt I belonged.

Knowing how much was sacrificed to give me the opportunity to find the thing that lights me up isn't lost on me, and it's something I know a lot of people can relate to, whether their parents arrived here in Australia recently or not.

I have a huge workload. I don't know how to say no sometimes.

It's amazing that you can use your own body weight to exercise, and it's something everyone can do with no need for a huge budget.

I've really missed my Reformer Pilates sessions during lockdown because I'm someone who likes to workout with a lot of toys!

I would have these massive eating sessions with my chef friends where we'd go out for a whole day and eat all of the things, and it never occurred to me once that all of my friends are dudes who are six-foot-something or 150 kilos. I would just match them to the toe.

I do love fashion as a mode of self expression, and I appreciate it for being wearable art.

To be considered part of the fashion zeitgeist is fun, but it will never steal my focus from my qualifications as a food writer, presenter and communicator.

I am a tiny lady with curves... that's who I am.

I am flattered that so many people have resonated with my style and that beauty and fashion standards in the media continue to grow in their inclusivity and reflection of the real world.

Dad was a draughtsman; he's now retired. Mum was a nurse who spent a lot of her time in ER and oncology. She's such a compassionate, generous person. If I was meeting her on the worst day of my life, I'd be very grateful to have met her.

Eating matzo ball soup for the first time was akin to a religious experience because of how deeply contemplative it was. It made me realise that something as simple as chicken soup - in any culture or religion, or through any perspective - can be very symbolic, nourishing and meaningful.

I don't really like being asked how I feel about being a 'household name.'

I believe in spirituality more than I believe in religion. But I like the idea of there being something bigger than us. What that is, I can't say for sure.

It's about learning how to slow down... I think this Covid environment that we're in there's a lot of sadness and a lot of pressure going on in terms of the uncertainty, but what it is teaching us or forcing us to do is appreciate the small things: be grateful for a slower pace of life.

As a food writer, it's my job to know each and every cuisine on this planet as well as I can.

I am very proud of my family and my heritage and my history, and I'm also proud of my own achievements.

If the experiences in my childhood have helped me become strong, then I can articulate those experiences and perhaps tell people out there that have gone through the same thing that they're not alone.

I think it's important to be vulnerable and to pay attention to your emotions.

I think as a kid, you just want to be accepted by the people around you and largely I was.

To be a white man calling out racism is important.

There's no sugar coating it: drought isn't sexy. Nobody wants to hear about it, and many of us who live an urban existence don't know much about it, if we're honest.

I'm a big believer in digging deep when I travel to a new place.

Everybody deserves to be seen and to be heard. Regardless of whether that is your culture, your language, who you love, your ability, or the way you chose to live your life, everybody deserves to be seen and be heard.

I always want to celebrate inclusivity wherever I can.

The symbolism of certain foods trip the nostalgic wire in all of us, whether the context is cultural heritage or geographic location.

In these increasingly self-focused times, emotional connection through food remains perhaps more than ever, the vital glue that holds us together or helps us reconnect with something we lost.

Growing up in a Singaporean Chinese family, for me food is almost the primary means of communication between family members, both immediate and extended... hey, it beats discussing which cousin did better at end of semester exams, or who's getting married next, right?

I love any of Rick Stein's television productions - the way he speaks about food is with such love and respect.

I have an affinity with Mediterranean cuisine. Spending a few summers in Italy, France, Spain and Turkey, there's something brilliant about freshly caught fish, slashed, scattered with a few herbs, a squeeze of lemon, a slug of good olive oil, then thrown on a grill.

My family taught me to be adventurous. As fearless eaters, mum and dad were never afraid of exposing us to strange textures, scents, and offally bits - the works.

Singaporeans are food people, period. My first memories, let alone of food, were of sitting on the floor of the kitchen with my mother, watching her pound aromatics to make sambal and later on, learning to stuff wonton pastry.

I like showing people I can do something they wouldn't have pegged me as being able to do. I've always wanted to defy expectations.

I've been mentored by editors who encouraged me to be constructive and never cruel.

I always set out to be open-minded and open-hearted in everything I do.

There's no point in sanitising your past. I believe everybody deserves to evolve and change their perspectives. To be human is an ongoing process.

I have not yet had the great fortune of visiting India, but I really hope to one day. I am in love with the vibrance, diversity and energy of India.

I am a huge fan of so many Indian regions and dishes, but if I had to pick one, as simple as it is, 'dal' will always have my heart.

Mental health is not a novelty; it's part of who we are and we need to treat it as if it were a broken arm or any other kind of medical consideration.

For me, a big part of anxiety and depression was not knowing how to say 'no' and wanting to please too many people... part of this process is learning to draw the line and slow down.

I believe in being able to reserve things to yourself. That's the way I was brought up.

I live a very straight forward life and my job is public, my life isn't. That's a very clear delineation I've made from the beginning and will always tread that line.

British cookbook author Elizabeth David led the most adventurous life but is widely credited with bringing to the fore the importance of home cooking.

As a ghost writer, many words I have written have been for someone else.

You don't have to follow every recipe to the letter.

Our shelves are groaning with the amount of cookbooks, it's scary.

Whether your job puts you in the public eye or not, being able to leave your work at work and come home to a different pace of life seems to me not only logical, but sustainable.

When you go through things like burnout you learn what to do and what not to do in the future.