2024/03/10

Hello, this is Saki.

After working as a working mother in Hong Kong in product development for an F&B company, she moved to her hometown of Sendai at the end of last year and now lives with her parents and son in her parents' home.

In the 11th column,Why I'm Leaving Hong KongI have written about this here, so please take a look if you are interested.

Unfulfilled Dreams

When I decided to leave Hong Kong, I had a lot of unfinished business.

One of them is Japanese cooking lessons for foreign helpers.

Cooking foreign home-cooked meals

Our family helper, who often appears in this column, is from the Philippines and this is her first time working for a Japanese household.

Helpers who have worked in Japanese households for a long time may have some knowledge, but for those who don't, everything will be something they've never seen before.

For example, when it comes to natto, it's only natural that people don't know how to open a pack, how not to add mustard when making it for children, how to stir it well, and that it should usually be eaten on top of rice.

Many people may wonder, "Why is it so sticky? It's disgusting!"

"The 3rd Recipe Book for My Helper and I"

However, as I mentioned earlier, in my household, I mainly wanted my wife to cook meals for my son every day, so I gave cooking lessons when she had time, and then took photos of the food and sampled it when it was ready.

In this way, the two of us worked diligently on creating the recipe book.

I often had my daughter make omurice because it contains rice, vegetables, meat, and eggs all at once, and my daughter loves it. Eventually, she started drawing faces on it with ketchup and adding different ingredients, and now it's one of her favorite dishes.

She told me that the more she taught the better she got and that she started to love cooking.

But now I regret that I didn't teach more.

These girls struggling alone in a foreign country

Our family helper would often buy a bag full of peanuts to eat, and she would always generously share some with my son and I.

When I asked her, "You eat a lot of peanuts, don't you?" she answered with a smile, "Yes. My mother is good at growing peanuts, so I've been eating them since I was little."

Her personality and feelings for her hometown can be felt through many small, everyday occurrences.

We are so happy to have been able to employ such a wonderful girl and hope she can return to her family soon.

I sincerely hoped that I would be able to work in the best possible environment while I was in Hong Kong.

The helpers come to Hong Kong to earn money.

Everyone wants to send as much money as possible to their loved ones.

There are many people who think, "I can't go home without making money," and continue to work in environments that don't suit them.

So I thought that by improving my cooking skills and gaining confidence, I could contribute to my employers and help improve the living standards and wages of the people at my workplace, even if just a little.

The reality is that nothing has been done

Although I had these thoughts, I decided to return to Japan before I could take action, so I quickly planned a helper lesson in the hopes of doing something last minute.

Considering the time left, three lessons is the limit.

Our main goal for these three valuable sessions was to provide lessons that would benefit the helpers, so we decided to hold these sessions on a completely free volunteer basis so that anyone who truly wanted to learn could participate.

First, I consulted with HKO Arigatoo Limited, a helper agent who I have used before.

(HKO also wrote a column for LEI.Life in Hong Kong with Helpers – Culture and Event Information from an Editor Living in Hong Kong (HONG KONG LEI)

I received a lot of advice based on experience, and in order to narrow down the options to only those who were truly interested in learning, I only contacted helpers I knew or helpers who the agent had seen as willing to learn.

As a result, nearly 30 helpers participated, and not a single one canceled. Everyone enjoyed the course and learned seriously.

It was good to see such a smile.

Let's get started

Now, the conditions are met.

At that time, I was working full-time, of course, and had other preparations to make before returning home, but I absolutely did not want to give up.

I decided to make the most of what little time I had left in Hong Kong, and when I got back to Japan, I would sleep as much as I wanted.

Next time we will continue with the helper lesson section.

Thank you for reading this time as well.

We look forward to seeing you again next time!

*The photographs in this column are published with permission.

Author profile

Saki

I was a lecturer at a major cooking school in Tokyo for about five years.
After that, she became independent. When she became pregnant and gave birth, she moved to Shonan.
Active as a recipe developer and food coordinator.
Moved to Hong Kong in 2022.
Works as a menu developer at a certain Japanese F&B company.
She lived and worked with her son and a helper, but moved to Sendai at the end of 2023.
He works as a freelance recipe developer, cooking instructor, and modern kintsugi instructor.

instagram　https://www.instagram.com/_sakioo_