When she was 17 years old, Jenna White fell down a rabbit hole. Just like for Alice and her adventures in Wonderland, the rabbit hole held the key to a whole new life.
Now an executive chef and patissier managing nearly 20 stores in Singapore, as a teenager from Taradale Jenna had other ideas about her future. “At 15, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to cook and be in the military. Back then, the culinary team was very prestigious, and it came with very good training.”
But her military career didn’t last long — just months in, her foot went into the rabbit hole during rifle training, and she tore up her knee. “I weighed about 45kg, and I had about 55kg on my back with my pack and my rifle. And then I had to walk 8km back to base. I had only just signed my oath committing to eight years, and I was sent away on medical leave. It was heartbreaking.”
The accident sent Jenna, now 37, back to study. She enrolled in culinary arts at EIT (Eastern Institute of Technology), followed by an advanced course in patisserie and bakery. Under her mentor chef Paolo Pancotti (who at the time ran Milk & Honey in Ahuriri), she jobbed around Hawke’s Bay, moving from Te Awa to Vidal’s and Milk & Honey. “And then I did what every girl does — I broke up with my long-term boyfriend and ran away to London.”
It was a good move, one that soon saw her spend three years at Peter Gordon’s fabulous The Providores & Tapa Room (RIP) in Marylebone, London. From there, after another stint at home, Jenna was shoulder tapped by a recruiter in Singapore. “I thought, ‘Should I be like every other New Zealander and go to Australia, or should I do something different? And I’m still here, third job in and 10 years later.”
These days Jenna is the executive chef at Plank Sourdough Pizzas, overseeing nearly 20 stores, and the resident chef at Brettschneider’s Baking and Cooking School, running the business on a daily basis and leading the bread courses. It’s a busy, high-stress role.
“Culinary is still a man’s world, I think. But there are a lot of females coming in, and those females are strong-willed, very determined, and I think a lot of us know what we want as well. The key is determination — this industry has gruelling hours, it’s unsociable, it’s high-pace. You’ve just got to be determined and carry on. If I didn’t have some kind of strength or determination behind me, I don’t think I’d be sitting here right now.”
Jenna’s life in Singapore is far from the typical life of an ex-pat. She lives with her Chinese Malaysian husband, Justin Seah, in the green heartlands of Singapore — Bukit Batok — rather than in the central condos that foreigners tend to gravitate towards. Their two children were born in Singapore and are of Chinese descent, but are New Zealand passport-holders (which creates a bureaucratic headache when it comes time to renewing their Singaporean visas each year).
“I didn’t want to live here and just hang with Kiwis,” says Jenna. “For me, having an almost-local husband, a lot of my friends are from this part of the world, whether it’s from Singapore or from Malaysia. I speak the lingo, I speak Singlish [a version of English that incorporates words and tones from Chinese and Malay] very well. So my roots here go pretty deep now.”
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Advertise with NZME.The journey to this level of immersion wasn’t easy. Jenna says moving to Asia without an understanding of the culture was a huge challenge. “The first year that I lived here I struggled, it was so hard. There was the language barrier, and no one wanted to listen to me. So I went to Chinese school to try and learn, and then I met my husband, and he taught me a bit about Asia. A lot of expats don’t want to do it, and fair enough. But it helped me, working in a stressful environment, being immersed in this way.”
The family’s next moves may depend on their complicated visa arrangements. Jenna is on a working visa; Justin, who has permanent residency, is currently in the process of going for Singaporean citizenship, which could then be transferred to their children. And if that doesn’t work out? New Zealand won’t be on the cards just yet.
“My husband finds New Zealand very boring,” she says. “It’s a very different pace. When he came to New Zealand, he was like, ‘Everybody dresses backwards, and there’s no fashion!’ Here in Asia, brands are very prominent, high-end brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton. So when he sees people in New Zealand just wearing shorts and a T-shirt and a pair of jandals, he’s like, ‘What is this?’ People here dress up beautifully every day just to go nowhere.”
After 15 years away, a move home may not be on the cards, but holidays always are. While she’s in town, fresh produce is the first thing Jenna seeks out. “I love fresh seafood, and although there’s a lot of seafood in Singapore, it’s on a very different level to New Zealand. In Hawke’s Bay, we’re on the coast, so you can go down to the boats and get your fish straight off it. If you go to a fish port here, it’s not very pleasant. There’s fish flapping around on the floor, so it’s pretty dirty.
“And the farmers’ markets — just the ability to be able to buy fresh produce off a tree that’s grown in somebody’s backyard is something that you don’t get in Singapore, where everything is imported and it’s such a concrete jungle. Just being able to have a tomato that actually tastes like a tomato or a strawberry that tastes like a strawberry — until you leave home, you don’t really realise how important that is.
“Or sitting at a winery having a bottle of wine, having a nice cheese platter or a ploughman’s in the sun with your family, just chilling. You can’t sit among the grapes and drink a beautiful bottle of wine in Singapore.”
Quick questions
Jenna’s 5 must-tries in Singapore
Eating out in Singapore? Don’t miss trying chilli crab, bak kut teh, sambal sting ray, prata with fish curry for breakfast, and Esquina, a local Spanish restaurant.
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Advertise with NZME.Favourite local ingredient
Ginger flower. The aroma is amazing and can be used in both sweet and savoury dishes.
