As Ong’s COMO Hotels and Resorts brand expanded to now total 18 properties worldwide, so did her network of chefs. In the last 10 years, those culinary influences have also included eight Singapore-based restaurant collaborations with leading chefs, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Massimo Bottura, Osaka-born tempura master Masaru Seki and the champion of Michelin-starred Peranakan and Straits cuisine, Malcolm Lee.

Ong’s approach to good food has now been articulated in the newly launched cookbook, COMO Simple. With an introduction by Ong, it features her favorite recipes, simplified for home cooks by COMO’s vice president of culinary Daniel Moran and culinary director Amanda Gale, who both trained under Neil Perry at Rockpool in Sydney, illustrated with delectable photography by Lisa Linder.

The delicious confluence of influences, flavors and family-friendly classics acknowledge places, traditions and culinary masterminds, featuring selections available on COMO Hotels and Resorts menus.

Crowd-pleasers range from South Indian curries perfected at COMO’s Maldives resorts to freshly made Tuscan pastas, nasi goreng from Bali, the much-loved COMO burger and a lobster biryani. Chef Lee’s famous crab and pork ball soup is light, fresh and brimming with delicate flavors. There are familiar renditions of Bangkok street food, but also lost dishes from Thailand’s royal palaces.

“My passion for cooking runs as deep as the happy memories I have of my grandmother in the family kitchen in Singapore,” says Ong.

“She taught me how fresh, handpicked ingredients mean everything in the search for flavor. She also revealed how technique builds with commitment, experience and inspiring relationships. She showed me how food brings you into a community of passionate people; an exchange of ideas, discoveries, tastes. And how the joy of cooking takes on another life when the dishes we make are shared with friends and family,” she recalls.

“It’s recipes that make you feel warm on the inside,” adds Moran. “Like when you’re in the company of the people you love, in a place you care about. COMO Simple is meant to conjure those memories, those feelings of ease, contentment and relaxing get-togethers.”

For the Indonesian launch of COMO Simple, COMO Group partnered with MODENA Culinaria, the culinary platform of MODENA Group, specially designed for gastronomy enthusiasts. Moran and Michelin-star chef Giovanni Luca Di Pirro from La Torre at COMO Castello Del Nero joined MODENA’s talented chefs to create a selection of standout dishes from the new cookbook.

COMO Simple is available to purchase at COMO Uma Canggu, COMO Uma Ubud or COMO Shambhala Estate. For more information about COMO Hotels and Resorts, visit www.comohotels.com.

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