Cooking
Apex Maids helps families across Singapore hire a domestic helper for cooking alongside household work. Start with the meals your family eats, the number of people and any dietary requirements. Apex normally arranges a video interview and shares biodata showing previous work experience. Ask what the candidate has actually cooked, for whom and for how long, then compare that with your needs. Specific cuisines and current availability must be checked for each candidate.
By APEX Maids Agency Pte. Ltd. · MOM EA Licence 25C3180 · UEN 202547196H. Based in Jurong West and serving households across Singapore. Our website is apexmaids.sg and our phone is 8405 6661.
Tell us what your household eats in an ordinary week. Chinese home cooking, Malay, Indian, Peranakan, Western, mostly soups, mostly stir-fry, a lot of steaming. If anyone in the house has dietary requirements — vegetarian, halal, low-salt, diabetic, allergies — that belongs in the brief, not in a conversation after she arrives.
Keep the answers alongside each candidate’s profile using our cooking interview checklist. Separate dishes she has prepared from meals she would need to learn.
That is not a dealbreaker. Many helpers learn a new cuisine quickly if the household is willing to teach in the first month — a written weekly menu and a few cook-alongs go a long way. It is a dealbreaker only if you need her cooking your food correctly from week one, in which case say so and we will shortlist on that basis.
Cooking usually sits alongside housekeeping, and often child care or elderly care — where the diet may be medically restricted.
Write down a few meals you regularly eat, how many portions are needed and whether cooking must fit around school runs, cleaning or care duties. During the video interview, ask the candidate to explain how she prepares those dishes and which parts she would need to learn. Keep her answers with the biodata so you can distinguish recorded past duties, interview answers and tasks needing instruction. Agree the combined workload rather than treating cooking and housekeeping as separate full-time jobs.
“Can cook” means very little on its own. Ask what she cooked, for whom, and for how long.
Questions
Yes, and it is worth being precise about which Chinese cooking — Cantonese, Teochew, Hokkien and Hakka home cooking are not interchangeable. Tell us the dishes your family eats most and we will shortlist against that.
Yes. Tell us at the brief stage so we shortlist helpers who have worked in a halal household and understand the separation of utensils and preparation.
Some helpers have confinement cooking experience, though a dedicated confinement nanny is a different arrangement. Tell us your due date early — this is a placement worth starting well ahead of time.
Ask specific questions at the video interview: name three dishes she cooked weekly for her last employer, and how she would cook one dish your family eats. Vague answers are informative.
Talk to us
Cuisine, dietary requirements, how many you cook for. We will shortlist helpers with matching kitchen experience.
