Chua Jim Neo

Chua Jim Neo (; 16 February 1905 – 8 August 1980) was a Singaporean chef and cookbook writer best known for Mrs. Lee's Cookbook, which preserves the recipes of Peranakan cuisine. Chua was also the mother of Lee Kuan Yew, the first Prime Minister of Singapore and the paternal grandmother of Lee Hsien Loong, the third Prime Minister of Singapore.

Biography Chua was born in Singapore in 1905 to Chua Kim Teng, a wealthy local businessman, and Liong A Soen (aka Neo Ah Soon), a Chinese Indonesian of Hakka descent who hailed from Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). While her father was born in Singapore, her paternal grandfather came from a Hokkien Peranakan family in Malacca, Malaysia with ancestry from Haicheng, Zhangzhou, Fujian. Her parents then arranged a marriage for her to a storekeeper named Lee Chin Koon and they married when she was sixteen, whilst he was eighteen years old in 1921. Chua saved her family jewelry and money, managing household finances and helping Kuan Yew attend law school in Britain. in order to preserve the heritage of Peranakan cuisine (also known as nyonya or nyonya/baba cuisine), which combines Straits Chinese cooking with Malay-style cooking. Chua, a nyonya (Peranakan Chinese woman), was considered a "highly respected authority" on the subject. The original publication included a preface by her cousin Wee Kim Wee, who was then serving as the high commissioner to Malaysia and would later become President of Singapore. The cookbook was updated and republished in 2003 by her granddaughter, Lee Shermay.

Chua died on 8 August 1980, aged 75 and was cremated at the Mount Vernon Columbarium. She was inducted posthumously in to the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame in 2015.