"I wanted to be on my feet, surrounded by people, making something that I could see firsthand rather than in a few years."

After years of studying to be an architect at London’s Central St. Martins, Elizabeth Allen grew weary of the long, tedious hours behind a computer. Having grown up in a family where food and its preparation played a prominent role, her thoughts began to move toward the kitchen. And in 2010, she traded in the pencils for a sharp set of knives.

“Cooking was something that I had grown up with,” she says. “And it also seemed to be a natural extension of architecture, yet with quicker results. Don’t get me wrong; I still love architecture and the creative process involved in the design, but sitting behind the computer got to me. I wanted to be on my feet, surrounded by people, making something that I could see firsthand rather than in a few years.” Allen’s Singaporean backgrou...