Dirty Fingers Kitchen is our embodied dream of melding food, community and shared joy. Get to know a little more about who we are.
Eric Wee
Co-owner, Operations Director
I believe food has a unique way to connect people, sparking conversations and creating lasting memories.
It’s amazing how a simple meal can become a bridge between cultures, allowing us to celebrate our differences while discovering common ground. My retired dad taught me to cook most of the time, with occasional guidance from my mum. However, I wasn’t very interested in cooking when I was younger, so I didn’t follow in my dad’s culinary footsteps, even though he made such delicious food for the family. I was content to simply enjoy the meals he prepared.
One day, I made a big decision to move to a new city to pursue my first IT job after graduating. This meant I had to learn to cook for myself, trying to recall some of the things my dad had taught me, even though I wasn’t very interested at first. With limited savings and a low-paying job, I did my best to avoid eating out. In my effort to save money, I even constructed a makeshift bed from taped-together bags of toilet paper rolls—an idea I thought was clever, but clearly not sustainable! 😆 On those days when my cooking efforts fell flat, instant noodles became my go-to emergency meal.
Over the years, I became a foodie by exploring and tasting a wide variety of cuisines from different cultures. I came to appreciate the creative side of cooking, where imagination can run wild without sacrificing flavour.
I often embarked on food adventures with family and friends, trying new cuisines for inspiration that sparked my own recipe creations—combining ingredients from various cultures that I believed complemented each other. That’s when my culinary journey and passion for cooking truly began.
I had a rewarding career in IT, working across various industries and meeting incredible people, but I felt it was time for a change to pursue my passion for cooking. My drive to start my own food business was further ignited when I was selected as one of Airbnb’s 100 talented home cooks worldwide. This opportunity would have allowed me to refine and share my family recipe with experienced chefs at Slow Food’s University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG) in Italy, a dream I hoped to realise one day. Unfortunately, the event was cancelled due to COVID. However, this led to my newfound passion for opening a food trailer business with Jess, and I’m so grateful to have her alongside me on this exciting culinary journey, along with our kids.
Jessica Andhika
Co-owner, Creative Director
Talking the same language of flavour can have the sparks of a bond-forming and barrier-breaking effect that a community can feel at home with.
We are all unique in our own ways, but I believe that a common thread can always be made through sharing the experience of good food.
Growing up, my hobbies have always been drawing, designing and creating illustrations. It was only after stepping into adulthood, when getting into college meant living independently and learning how to work the stove without burning myself or the food, did I realise that food has become more multi-dimensional to me. The ingredients, the prepping process, the science in food experimenting with temperatures, measurements and many more factors that make up a dish, contribute to my discovery of a new hobby; cooking.
As a parent of young children, my journey to food has grown in ways I hadn’t quite expected. Raising children helped me see food and nutrition in a whole new light. The nutritional values and benefits of different types of food, the importance of letting them try different foods and have their own little experiments with colours, textures and flavours, in a way that led up to my own inner curiosity on what flavours go hand in hand, and…well, what doesn’t.
Over the years, I developed a growing interest in the ingredients that make their way into our taste buds and guts. Growing up and living in a multicultural society, I find joy in connecting with the community through food. We hope to share with you cherishable memories through our journey together with Dirty Fingers Kitchen!
Dirty Fingers Kitchen 