About Me

Dr Paolo Di Leo
Senior Lecturer (Philosophy)

Welcome,

Named after the neighbourhood where I live in Singapore, Tiong Bahru Kitchen is where I would like to share my passion for cooking, and document my family and friends’ recipes of the Mediterranean. The kitchen is where my nonna (Italian for grandmother) seeded this love, and it continues to be a part of our home that brings people (and pets, of course) together, be it preparing a family meal or friends coming over for a peek of the upcoming dinner that awaits them.

The recipes on this food blog are sorted by region or ingredient, with pantry notes below each recipe for additional details and alternative ingredients. For local readers, I have indicated where the particular ingredients were bought.

3 facts about me…

Recipes in this website are either passed down to me from my grandmothers and mother, or developed personally after viewing a dozen food videos and experimenting many times until the recipe is perfected. My poor wife has had to bear with beef roast, apple strudel and many other dishes for a whole month.
Once, I called my wife over enthusiastically to join me in watching a video… of a pasta machine kneading a dough for 15 minutes, and she promptly rolled her eyes and walked away.
I can speak Latin, Ancient & Modern Greek, French, Spanish, German, and of course Italian and English. So please feel free to ask questions or comment on the recipes in any of the above languages.

The Other Passion

I am an academic researcher of Philosophy with about two decades of teaching experience. With strong groundings in Classical Studies and high fluency in Latin and Ancient Greek, and dedicated interests in:

Ancient philosophy, above all Plato and Plotinus, and Patristics: currently working on a commentary on one of Plotinus’ treatises;

Influence of Platonism and Augustinism in the subsequent Western tradition, including Martin Heidegger;

Intersection of Platonism with non Western traditions; and

Architecture and painting, with a particular emphasis on the works of Marcello Piacentini and Louis Kahn on the one hand, Giorgio De Chirico and Renato Guttuso.

A more detailed list of my work is listed on my LinkedIn profile. Please reach out via LinkedIn or the Feedback & Queries form below if you’d like to collaborate or see more of my academic work.