Ube or Purple yam is a beautiful deep purple root vegetable. It has a mildly sweet, earthy and nutty taste. Ube is often used in a variety of Asian desserts, as well as a flavouring for ice cream, milkshakes, cakes and other types of pastries. It is particularly popular in the Philippines, where it is eaten boiled, baked, or as a sweetened pudding called ube halayá.

Marcella Chan is a London-based photographer, her work centers around themes of discovery and exploring dual identity and nostalgia through personal experiences.

Marcella's grandfather, Po Hing, arrived in England by ship in 1959, where he worked in a restaurant in London, before opening several restaurants in Weymouth. Bringing over his family in 1972, they set up a takeaway which Chan’s parents (Kwai Lan and Hang Yan) continued to run before opening their own in Somerset. Food was integral to Chan’s childhood and family history and has become a tool to explore her personal identity.

This work was included in the 2019 ContemPLATE exhibition, held in Westminster’s Chinatown explored identity through food.