Finding Home Through Food: The Ping Coombes Story

From a homesick Malaysian student craving the flavours of home to becoming a MasterChef champion, Ping Coombes shares an inspiring story of resilience, authenticity, family, and following your passion.

In this heartfelt conversation, we explore Malaysian food and culture, motherhood, confidence, entrepreneurship, work-life balance, and the power of cooking from the heart. Ping opens up about her journey through MasterChef UK, building a successful food business, writing cookbooks, reconnecting with her roots, and creating a life that aligns with her values.

This episode is packed with wisdom on personal growth, creativity, family life, and finding success by staying true to yourself. Whether you're a food lover, aspiring entrepreneur, parent, or simply navigating your own path, Ping's story is a powerful reminder that sometimes the most meaningful journeys begin with a simple craving for home.

Welcome - Ping Coombes - Home Of Ping Coombes MasterChef Champion 2014

Who is Kelly Saward?

Kelly has been presenting radio shows for a while, and has often been asked if these shows can be heard again many months after the show has aired, listeners wanting to listen again. She heard what was being asked and now brings to you …

'Conversations with Kelly'

Can you hear me?

She wants to hear you, and shares here what's been heard so far. We all have a story, we all have something of value to share, we just need a safe space, the right ears, and a deep trust in what is felt. I'm beginning to understand the rest speaks for itself.

I invite you to listen in, get in touch, and if you'd like … be curious to live the question!

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#PingCoombes #MasterChef #MasterChefUK #MalaysianFood #FoodAndFamily #CookingFromTheHeart #WomenInBusiness #FemaleEntrepreneur #PersonalGrowth #Resilience #AuthenticLiving #WorkLifeBalance #Motherhood #FoodCulture #AsianFood #CookbookAuthor #Entrepreneurship #InspirationalStories #FollowYourPassion #PodcastEpisode

Kelly Saward in Conversation with ...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Somebody that's joining me right now has set fire to more than the rain. She set fire to our hearts in the best possible way. I am delighted to be joined this morning by Ping Coombs. Ping, thank you for being here with me today. Good morning. How are you? I'm good. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much for joining me. I can't wait for this conversation. I have always admired your work, so it's a real pleasure for me to share it and hear a bit more about you. You are too kind. You're too kind. No, definitely. I mean, I've always uh loved food. I think a lot of us do. My mum was a chef actually, and um family meal times were really important, and I always remember, even with Master Chef watching that, it was something that again drew the family back together. It was the one program in my household where everybody would watch it. Um, and I remember watching you. So I'm interested to hear all about you and how your passion for cooking started, because I know it was way before we set eyes on you. So take me back.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

I think um um my cooking, well, I grew up in a uh country, Malaysia, which are uh full of good food and so easily accessible. So growing up, it didn't it didn't actually mean that much to me because it's always readily available. Not until like I I moved away in my 20s that I find actually I can't go and get a uh stir-fry noodles at two o'clock in the morning. Um, and no, I can't have a bowl of noodles for breakfast. That becomes, I think, almost like a desperation and and a culture shock as such. Because I think all countries are like Malaysia, you can go and get peat food anywhere and cheaply. Um, so coming here was such a culture shock, and I remember uh arriving the the day uh in in the UK um to visit to check out the university that I was gonna go um that winter, that autumn. So I arrived, I think, in July uh 2000. Um and I woke up really early in the morning because of jet lag. I've been tossing and turning in the bed for like hours, and I was so hungry. And so I crept down. That was my boyfriend's um mom's place, and I crept down um very slowly trying to find something to eat, and I opened the fridge, and there was teeny big punch. Um there was some there was um you know kind of fat-looking radish, and um that wasn't much, and I was craving noodles, and they have cereals and toast, but that's not what I want. Um, so I started stir-frying spaghetti at seven o'clock in the morning, and then they came down. I thought, what the hell are you doing? So desperate, I was desperate for noodles, and I I think that desperation carried me forward ever since I I came over to the UK, and I needed to find some affinity or something to do with noodles or rice and things that I grew up with. So the desperation drove me to cook. And I think I I didn't know how to burn an egg at the age of 21. Uh, why would I? You know, I can my my mom kind of did most of these things. Um, Asian mums kind of like, you know, get out of the kitchen, don't mess up with my kitchen rather than um having the time to teach you what to do and things like that. You kind of you need to observe, like you can you've gotta float or sink, what they call um, you know, in in Asian culture, you need to absorb and you need to kind of just know, just like that, you know, there isn't like kind of like teaching you step by step. So yeah, I didn't know how to how to cook, it was desperation for me to experiment. That's how I first learned to cook uh at uni and also to survive to just to crave those kind of food I used to grow up with.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

That's so interesting, isn't it? So when you were growing up, you obviously loved food, you loved being cooked for and catered for and loved flavour, but cooking wasn't something you did, you thought I'm gonna take this forward as my career at that time.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

No, definitely not. I don't think that was an option. I came, um, I really love hospitality. So I actually did a course on hotel and restaurant management in Oxford and in Oxford Brooks, and I loved my time there, and it was always the front of house that I'm worried, I'm interested in, not chefing. So it was a complete accident, and I call myself an accidental cook. Um, I love cooking and I love cooking at home, and I used to go to work um and kind of like start, you know, you start posting your pictures on Facebook, like what you want to eat and stuff. And my boss joke, I bet you get those pictures from elsewhere, you know. You probably just have beans on toes and you're just lying to everybody that you and they they used to joke that you should you should enter master chaff pay. And I was like, no, no, no, no, I don't want to do that. Um, I just want to experiment on what I want to cook at home. So and and at that time I just moved into my first house, so it was um, you know, kind of freedom to cook whatever I want. So I remember being very excited about that. Um and then it's not until like I had my first child that um that I got milk redundant um after coming back. I think Alexa was eight months old then, and uh that someone, one of my best friends sent me an application to MasterChef. Did that become like kind of the thing? Even then I was like, there's no way I'm gonna get it, you know. Um, but I'm just going to fill in the applications anyway and then see what happens because I don't want to regret it. I don't want to see Master Chef, watch Master Chef um that year and thought, you know what, I could have got in, I could have done that, you know, but make no attempt in doing it. You gotta be in it to win it, right? But winning wasn't really my thing. I just remember saying, there's no way I'm gonna get in. And then I got in, and then there's no way, you know, I'm gonna, there's only one thing I want to do is to get past the first round. Uh, and that was it. That was my goal. I don't wanna, I don't wanna get out the first round. That would be really embarrassing. Uh, that was my goal.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

That's amazing, isn't it? So you come over to the UK to actually do catering and hospitality at Oxford Brooks, where you spent what, three or four years doing that there?

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Yeah, three years.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

So, was your intention then in your first job that you went into a hospitality industry? Is that where your career actually started? What did your first job out of uni look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Actually, my first job out of uni was in a in a clothes store because I didn't know what to what to do. And um, at that time I was working part-time anyway, always had a part-time job. Uh, even throughout uni, I did like three or four jobs, um, you know, from hot from hotels to restaurant to, you know, kind of retail, uh, maybe in between. I always work every summer. So I um, you know, just to actually get some extra money for um for school. Um, so I've always worked and I've worked since ever I was 16 in restaurants and in cafes and stuff like that. So um it was it was one of those times where I thought, you know what, and somebody offered me a managerial role in a retail shop and they loved what I did. I did that for about a year and then got um kind of uh got into Cafe Nero to be like kind of like a trainee um graduate program. And then I think over a few years I did maybe a year or two of that, and then um went into working for luxurious hotel, and that's when I really love it. Um, because um this hotel's called Lucknham Park in Cologne, and it really teaches me the height of kind of um attention to detail, what um you know, kind of hospitality is. I really learn a lot from there. And I and I love it. Like if you need to plan a wedding, come to me. I'm quite good at it.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

So it really set you in good stead, then, Ping, your career, because you know, you obviously wanted to eat nice food, which is what started your own cooking out of leaving, you know, your home country and coming over here. But already you had a great base, I suppose, in knowing the the way that things work in hospitality, dealing with people, planning things. So when you arrived on MasterChef and you were asked to create the dishes that you arrived with, I guess planning for you that must have been quite fun.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

I think it was quite fun, but then I always had this thing where um with events and stuff, you you are you have a client and the client tells you what they want, and you you try your best to um you know uh get them what they want within a budget. Um and that's what I really enjoy making their day, making that event. It doesn't need to be weddings, it could be like a product lodge. I I enjoy that creativity and also you know kind of exceed their expectations. Obviously, when it comes to food and uh in master chef, exceeding expectation, it is the basic law. Um it is not just cook your heart out, which is fine, but you also need to exceed the expectation every round. I understood that from the very beginning, but my approach is a little bit different. Um, and it's always been the same ever since I started cooking. I I only cook the food I love to eat, and and I I often start um my um kind of uh uh speech in a supper club or an event said that um most people cook what you want to eat. I cook what I want to eat. So I often say that I don't care what you like to eat, I cook what I love to eat. And I think that by cooking what you love and the flavors that you love, you you cook well because you know that you're going to have to eat it. So you you cook something that you love to eat, and that's a little bit more special.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Yeah, I think there are a couple of things that have stood out for me, just thinking about you being made redundant from your job, which led you to applying for this position, which was clearly meant to be part of your path, wasn't it? Absolutely, and just hearing you saying that although in the events world you're kind of creating something for somebody, if you're doing what you love, people can feel that, which makes the flavors and the meals that you're creating and putting in front of people, they can feel that from your heart.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Absolutely, and I and I think every year I get to ask that what leads to your advice to the contestants. I say cook something that you really love, you know, then think about all the fluffy things you can actually put around it, but nail that basic flavors first and then think about how you're gonna decorate or how you're gonna elevate each and a single element going through that. That's a good base to start.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Yeah, and you can bring so much creativity to your cooking, can't you? When you were at school, like way back when, before you even knew what you wanted to do at uni, what were the favorite things you loved then?

SPEAKER_01 11:13

To cook or to eat.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

No, just in general, like what did you, you know, your favorite subjects, what things did you really love when you were early on? Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Uh the subject I I really love home. I remember um we we actually had a session where we cooked the colories at school. I think I was like 14 or 15. I I really loved that. Um I can tell you what I do not like. I read English literature, I I did quite well at English literature, um, but I do not like history. I'm terrible at history, at Malaysian history, anyway. It's um I'm terrible at that. Um but I love English history. I remember coming across the Ken Reading Eight and the Six Wives, and I was fascinated. But I think everyone is. Have you seen Six the musical? No, I haven't. Every time I wanted to watch it, it sold out. Or um, you know, um sometimes I asked my daughter, would you want to go watch it? And she's like, Oh no, I don't want to watch musicals. And then I keep missing it.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

You must watch it. That is definitely something that you absolutely, if you loved that, that was one of my favorite musicals. I love it.

unknown 12:28

Malo FM.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

So let's talk more about you. So we've had a little bit about your journey to get here and how your love of cooking has transformed. And then obviously you applied for Master Chef. You won. Yes. Do you remember very clearly the first three dishes that you put in front of the judges?

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Uh yes, I think I do, actually. I do. Um, I think the first dish I ever done is the same dish I did for my audition, which is a curry capitan. It I think really does kind of symbolizes, you know, kind of Malaysian um, you know, my culture and what I love to eat, uh, which is like a chicken capitan, uh, which is a nyonya dish, which is a Muslim and uh Chinese uh fusion dish, uh, which we call paraganaka in Malaysia. And it's one of those dishes that uh embodies everything, you know, it kind of has got spice base, it's a little bit uh sour from the tamarind, very fragrant from the cafe lime leaves. Uh some people put dry shrimps in it, which actually amplify its flavor. I don't. I put loads of ginger and galango, it's really aromatic, it's just very delicious to eat with rice. So I put that in my first dishes, and I cook a laksa, and I think um I also cook like a fish dish as a um kind of invention test. And I remember Marcus Waring um saying to me, um coal fish. And I was like, Yes, it's coal fish is creamy sauce. It's like no, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Yeah, but it got you to where you ended up. He's quite I always used to find Marcus Waring quite um a scary character to watch, but he really warmed on me over time because you could see his eyes light up when he really enjoyed something.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Yeah, he is. He is a really talented chef, and yes, he is scary. I remember, yeah, um, that he's probably the scariest chef in in my rounds when I was going through his dad. I I was actually physically shaken.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Yeah, I was scared watching, and I remember then over the time, and you could see the little glint in his eye, and something inside him lit up, and I thought, oh no, he's quite soft in there, really.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

If you cook well, he's really nice.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

If you don't, he's really not. Yeah, so tell me how it felt moving through the rounds of MasterChef. That must be quite high pressure, but like you said, you've cooked from your heart, you cook what you love. And did that theme carry you through MasterChef right at the beginning?

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Yes, and it's also very exciting for me because it's the first time that uh I I reconnect, I find myself reconnecting those roots. Like I said to you before early in the program, in Malaysia, most Malaysians don't cook what we cook. So if you want to have like a lapsa, you go to the nearest hawker store and you know which uncle, by the way, we call everyone uncle and auntie who are older than in Malaysia, by the way. You know which stores of the uncle and aunties that makes the best bowl of lapsa where, you know, you kind of make a beeline for it. And in Malaysian, the hawker store, they they focus on one dish in one dish, one or two dish only with variations. But say this store has lapsa, you kind of make a beeline on it, and you just have that dish from that store, which you know it's skills being home honed for I don't know, 25 years, 30 years. These are old, you know, kind of um skills. But you know, in in a lot of things um here we don't have that, and most people don't actually cook that. So I have to reconnect and really dig deep to actually experiment with this where I don't ever need to cook this. So it was really eye-opening for me to see how laborious these dishes are and have a newfound appreciation for Malaysian food, especially for those people who then um you know who who slate over these stalls, you know, day in, day out, and selling a bowl of noodles with like seven ringgit, which is like belly pound, you know, pound fifty or something like that. And you think, oh my god, I have a newfound appreciation for these guys and for the food that I'm cooking.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

That's amazing, though, isn't it? Because that's carrying through into the stuff that you're then sharing here, and you're really bringing through all the things that you love into you know now what many people here get to enjoy and taste because you've evolved so much since Master Chef. I mean, not only did you win it, which must have just felt like uh how how did that feel?

SPEAKER_01 17:15

I think I was relieved because I I I enter a point where the competition has been at that point going for about nearly four months and uh on and off, not every day. So at the beginning it was all having fun, having like a discovery of myself, what I'm capable of doing, and that's quite refreshing because I was a new mother, and I could, you know, I can say for most uh uh mothers that I know that about you know when you first nobody can tell you how exhausting having your child is unless until you actually have it. Um say, like, you know, have some sleep while you can. You can't ban that sleep, it doesn't it doesn't make you feel better if you sleep more now. You know, like the world is ending and your confidence kind of plummets and things like that. Um, so for me, I think um uh at that point my confidence was very low. And what Master Chef does is not only reignite my love for cooking, but it's also kind of um given me my confidence back. So I'm really, really grateful for that. Um, so when um throughout later in the competition, it dawned on me that I have a chance of winning, and that's when the pressure is really falling on. Before that, I was kind of going at it, going like, this is nice, you know, I'm having a great time, I'm meeting loads of different people, doing loads of different things, and and I because I've been made redundant, I didn't have to have a job to go to, I don't need to answer to anyone. Um, and it was great fun, but till the end, I was pretty exhausted because then it got more and more intense. Um, and and then from not wanting to win to like, you know what, I've got the real chance and I'm feeling want to win. And I thought that I wasn't competitive until the very end where I thought, you know what, it'd be great to win. Yeah, so when they pull my name out, I was so relieved by dad was so I've got nothing more to do.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Oh, you absolutely deserved it, and you've gone on to do so much more since then because you've guest judged, you went on Master Chef Champion of Champions after that and won that, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 19:35

And I did, I did, and I did question myself why did I say yes to that? Like when you enter Master Chef as an amateur, nobody expects anything from you. Yeah, you can cook, you need to cook um uh to enter the competition. But when you've become a champion, suddenly um someone expects something from you. You know, it's like a restaurant, they've been cooking well, of course, up until the point that they have a maturing star. Nothing is gonna change, but as soon as they get the machine star, suddenly your expectations above is above what they're already doing well. That's why they earn the machine star anyway. It's like in Master Sham, like you were a champion, so the expectation from then on, it's huge. So I I don't think I actually slept for like three months, and the amount of um practice I did was maybe three, four times more than I did on amateur.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Wow, that's that is a lot, isn't it? Just a lot of and you've got children as well. So did you have you've got two children, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:41

I did at that point when I did the uh champion of champions, and I particularly and I specifically did not want to ask who my opponents are, who are the other contestants, because I feel like that doesn't really matter to me. I mean, if I know that's even worse because then it'll put so much pressure on me. I just gonna do the best I can and then just go at it. It doesn't matter who my opponent is.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

I think it's that coming back to that principle you shared right at the beginning: just cooking what you love, enjoying it, and seeing where you go. And I suppose by then as well, you were already very well equipped to cope with exhaustion if you've got two children, you've done Master Chef, tiredness.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

That's easier at that point, to be honest. They they are quite independent and uh they are used to motherhood travel loads and um kind of not being very at home anyway, most of the time. So they it they cope really, really well. So it's actually quite easy. It's the internal pressure of feeling I've got to do well in this, I don't need to win, but it will be, you know, it will everybody is I will be looking at myself, comparing to my peers, how well I think that was that was that was hard.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

And did you ever imagine that that journey would take you to where you are now? Because you've written books, you've got, you know. All your own business blooming, which I want to come on to talk about as well, and you're sort of sharing and selling your own products. I mean, there is so much, isn't there, that you're now doing and sharing and creating from this heart-led space. I mean, it must be amazing for your two girls, isn't it? You've got.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

I think, I think they um they say things to me, Mum, why do you have to work? And I was like, Well, my job is to kind of have no um no um kind of set dates or whatever, but we always um both my husband and I are self-employed. Um, so we make sure that we have time ever since the kids are young, we spend, you know, at least one of us is there for bedtime. So it's always been, you know, I felt myself quite grateful in spent time with them. Um my eldest now is what 13, and there's not a lot of summers left that she is until she doesn't want to spend it with that, you know. And I I read somewhere where they say when your child turns 12, you've already spent 75% of your time with them, and that's quite scary to know that um, so I know how that feel of not able to spend that time or my mom spent that time with me because I live abroad now for like 25 years. So I can I get that, like when she is older now, she's in her room all the time, you know. So to be able to actually have your own business and run the way that I did, um, I'm very grateful that Pastor Chef opened a lot of doors and also I've worked hard to um you know secure a career that works for me time-wise. Um, but there are times where you know we were so busy that we won't be able to spend any time with our kids. But I think that's the same with every other job.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Yeah, definitely. So would you say that your business has evolved adaptability, you know, around your children, your family, and your home life? Because there's so many things you do. You've got your cookery school, you've been writing. I mean, and that's quite a big thing, isn't it? You know, to get things to because you've got your latest book, Rice.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Yes, my um, so I think uh Ri Rice book has just come out, so that took a year to write and another year to produce. Um, so writing books are always um very, very difficult. And I don't know how much you know about you know books. Um, there is a hundred over a hundred recipes in a book. Um, and to put all those recipes together, which means we have to test a hundred recipes, but not just once, it can be twice, three times, four times if it doesn't work, and then you have to write it all down. And I think at times I sit on the sofa until two o'clock in the morning, not able to actually conjure up a sentence um to describe what I'm um you know, kind of feeling or writing and trying to write read my own terrible writing on the recipes. Is that one teaspoon or one tablespoon? I can't but I enjoyed it because it's so varied. I I swear that when I won Master Chef, I wanted jobs that are fun. Of course, needs to pay, um, because you know I can't I can't pay the mortgage company in food. If I could, I would also I do a lot of very um so I teach, I um I run pay at home, which is a Malaysian chill milk company with my husband. We are uh making our own chili oil, so we have a range of three now you can buy online. Um, and they are selling out before we even have time to actually make more. We make it all here. Actually, I'm currently on site uh in our uh commercial kitchen, which uh um sits on a rapeseed farm. So the rapeseed farmers press the oils for us, and then we kind of turn that and infuse that into chili oils so we have a you can find out all the info on Ping It Chrome. Um I I I write books, um, I am doing a proposal for the another one, and also I travel occasionally to events and do other private stuff, and I give talks, um, which I I didn't think that I would enjoy, but I love it. You know, ever since winning, I've given given talk and at Davos, um, I give a TED talk, um, I do inspirational talk online to bankers. So I love how varied my job is, and I want to maintain this as much as possible.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

I know, and I think it's just amazing everything that you're creating. I think speaking to you today, thinking about you, your family life, um, the relationship with your children, and I know you've the whole homage to rice and bringing stories, you know, the love letters to your girls and things like that through writing, I think it's so, so special. And that's why listening to you and having these talks and things you might not have thought that you would do, of course, you're now doing them because it's really inspiring. You know, even the cook what you love to eat, you know, it's that whole not do what other people think you should do to fit in. It's come from here and you'll find the the deep connections and the people you're meant to find. I think that's really powerful.

unknown 27:24

Marlowe FM.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

If you've just tuned in, I am live on Marlow FM with Pink Coombs, we've been sharing all about her journey, her inspirational work really that evolved out of your love of wanting something good to eat, essentially, because you couldn't find it here, which I love, and cooking from your heart. But there is so much that you do, Ping. You're doing, you know, you shared just you touched on it before that track, cooking schools, you're, you know, you've got your own brand that you're now really sharing things that are important to you. You've written books, you're bringing up a family, you're a mother, that's a really important job in itself, you know, and you're really sharing that message out there about you know, from the heart-led work, doing something that's important. So, yeah, it's privilege for me to listen to you.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

And I I think I guess the the thing is that I I feel very privileged to be able to do how I want it to be. And I do understand that some people might not. So I feel always very grateful for for what I've done. Of course, not everything is perfect, you know. When you have more time uh to spend with your family, that doesn't mean that you have you know, it doesn't give you more time, maybe doing something else. So else, you know, with everything, everything's gotta give, something's gonna give, and it's always a balanced thing, I think.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

And that's really important, isn't it? I mean, there's so many different things that you're doing, so getting that balance right is key, really, isn't it? To be able to function.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

That's why my house is a tip.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

So is mine, that's okay. You're not alone. I've got two girls myself, and um, yeah, trying to do my own thing and be there for them the best I can. But like you've it really struck a chord with me, actually, where you said by the time they're 12, because my youngest daughter's 13, that we've had 75% of their summers. Like, how important is time? And actually, I think that's what cooking, I mean, cooking is such a mindful thing to do as well, isn't it? It really brings you back into your body, into the present, and it connects you with others, it's such a gift.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

And I think that um, you know, the time where I actually had to call my mom about like like how do you do that kind of dish? I can't get it to the taste that you are. It just brings me closer to my mom. I think before MasterChef, of course, we chat every week and we will, you know, kind of chat about mundane things, how the kids, but ever since I've worn MasterChef, I think it kind of like opens up her kind of mind. Actually, she can cook, she can understand my language. So she would occasionally send me recipes that she found online and say, I think this is a really good idea, but I think you should change it to this ingredient, that ingredient, and then I would discuss with her. But in England, we don't have this ingredient, so we which one is better? Like we have this, this, and this. And and it was it was really cool because my mom is kind of like my consultant in a way. Which is really nice to have another angle to talk about now that she understands my work a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

Yeah, that's really special, I think, isn't it? Because it's built that connection almost to a deeper place with your mom.

unknown 30:37

Molofm.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

There are so many things, Ping, that I would just love to ask you, but we're coming to our last couple of minutes before we play you out with nothing's gonna stop us now, which you chose, which I feel that from you. Nothing is gonna stop you now. But tell tell me a little bit just to quickly touch on. Um, why um tell me about hot water and house slippers? That's what I'd like to ask you before you tell everyone where they can find you.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

It's very China time in my life. Um, hot water has always been a thing. Um, I think long before it becomes trendy. Um, hot water is uh something that uh we have uh before you eat anything else, just to calm your uh body down. And I think um for me, I think it really before I always like ice cold water. Um, but hot water actually calms my stomach down, actually. Um, that I feel a little bit more warmth. Um Chinese believe that your uh body is yin and yang, so a cold element and a hot element is just to actually balance it out with the house slippers because your floor is cold. Um house slippers to actually kind of protect the barrier. You don't want the cold air to sip through um your your through your feet because Chinese believes also a lot of things through your feet, you know, the reflexology, you know, that's kind of like parts of your bodies at the put um at the base of your foot. You don't want that cold air to sip in uh to make you feel kind of uncomfortable. We have a lot of things about you know qi and uh balancing hot and cold element in your body. So those are the little things that you can do just to balance out your yin and yang in your body. Um for example, ginger. Ginger is very heaty, which we call it. So it's a it's a um a hot food. So if you're feeling kind of like coldy or um in the winter, you you eat things that are more spike with ginger, so that's like warm to your body up. Yeah, and watermelon is cooling uh food. So if you are uh you know feeling uh quite hot, is in a hot day, or you feel like you know, inside I don't know how you describe it, you feel very heaty, so you have got mouth sores, or you haven't um you know kind of feel really heated, everything's really red and swollen. Eat something that's cooling foods, like watermelon, because it's hydration high in hydration and it's it's cool. So things like that. So there's a lot of like yin and yang foods in Chinese culture, and because my ancestry is Chinese Malaysian, we practice a lot of that at home, and my mom will make a lot of these foods without even like cutting down your throat, it's just part of our diet.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Yeah, no, I think I've well I really love all that. I think balance and you know well-being and the hot cold, the opposites of everything is is highly important. We um have learned, well, I have learnt so much from you here. We've got about a minute left, but not even that before I play you out. But can you let um everyone know where we can find you? Just very quickly, what's next? And for me, thank you so much for being here with me today, Ping.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Oh, thank you for inviting me. It was really good to tell you my story, even though that I feel like my story is very boring.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

It's not. So thank you. So, where can we find out more about you for those listening?

SPEAKER_01 34:02

So, follow me on Instagram or um my uh website is pingpooms.com. Uh, we our brand is Ping at Home, so you can buy things online, and we'll be for the next few months, we'll be in from Independent as well. So I'll be there. So come and say hello.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Great, thank you, Ping. Honestly, it's been so wonderful. I'm playing you out now with Starship. What a way to go. Nothing is gonna stop you, and I wish you the very best with everything that's coming. Thank you. Thank you so much.