Going through COVID-19 as a family
How to organize time in the homestay period
When Moe Myint May Thu wakes around nine in the morning, she is often full of energy and enthusiasm. She first discusses the plans for the day with her parents and then she challenges her mother to some pull-up exercises, before they set off together to the market, to pick up the ingredients needed for the daily Little Chef cooking show.
Since the onset of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Myanmar back in March, children have been spending most of their time at their homes. But eight-year-old Moe Myint May Thu, ‘The Little Chef’, has been busy making Mohinga, the traditional Myanmar breakfast, and other dishes, sewing, drawing and grabbing people’s hearts since she launched her own Facebook page at the end of May 2020.
“My dream is to open a restaurant,” the Little Chef declares proudly, adjusting her little chef’s hat before entering the kitchen to create some wholesome tasty dishes for her ‘homestay period cooking show’.
Moe Myint May Thu’s passion and skills for cooking, plus a talent for presentation have brought the Little Chef to stardom, with 8,000 likes in just over four nights. She now has over 270,000 followers, thanks to her parents posting videos of her cooking at home. Moe Myint May Thu has mastered over 30 dishes during the lockdown, which she calls ‘the homestay period’.
“Moe Myint May Thu is still a child, so of course I must stay next to her as she makes the food. I help her with all the preparations and guide her on the steps of cooking different meals,” explains the Little Chef’s mother Daw Honey Cho, who won the Mrs. Universe competition in China in 2019 and has her own social media fan base.
Moe Myint May Thu enjoys showing off her cooking skills, making masks, drawing, painting and playing with her little dog, Snow. She also loves that her parents and her two brothers enjoy her cooking.
After cooking her chosen dish of the day for her post, the Little Chef proceeds to show her audience how to make face masks in different styles, helped by her father, U Myo Nyunt Oo.
“When I was four, I began drawing and I love drawing owls!” exclaims the excited Little Chef who has exhibited some of her artworks.
At the end of most days, Moe Myint May Thu usually spends time with her family, often watching her own videos that her supportive parents have posted on her Facebook page.
This talented junior chef-artist plans to keep up her cooking practice, even when the schools reopen, as she now enjoys making good food for people at monasteries and others who may appreciate a little hearty something. She urges her friends and social media fans, “Don’t just spend your time playing games during the stay at home period but do something interesting; learn something new. Try drawing, painting, or cooking….and when you go out, please make sure you wear your mask too!” encourages the young leader.