After four years, local actress Huang Biren is returning be grace our television screens.

Last seen on Mediacorp Channel 8's "Fire Up", the 51-year-old is making a return on upcoming long-form series, "Recipe of Life".

It premieres on meWATCH and Channel 8 at 7:30pm on Nov. 2.

Didn't know if she could commit

Huang, however, almost rejected the job.

The actress told Mothership that she was apprehensive to take on the role at first due to the long production time.

With 130 episodes, filming started in July this year and is expected to end around March or April 2021.

"It really worried me whether I can really commit that long to this," the mother of three said.

Huang eventually accepted the role though, because she enjoyed the script and especially loved the role she was given.

Series of many firsts

In this series, Huang plays the role of a cold and heartless woman who manages a food conglomerate.

Her rival in the show is played by fellow veteran Chen Liping.

This is the first time that the actresses have worked together after 30 years in the industry.

As they are still filming the series, Huang shared that they've only been in a few scenes together but is "looking forward" to do more.

"So far, we've only done less than five scenes together. But of course there will be more scenes coming up [with her]."

"Recipe of Life" marks a lot of other firsts for Huang, as it is her maiden drama with plenty of other artistes in the large cast as well, including Chen Hanwei, Cavin Soh, Shaun Chen, Ayden Sng and Fang Rong.

Huang is also finally collaborating with actor Richard Low after a few decades.

During the drama's press conference, Low shared a fond memory of how Huang recommended him a cough medicine after facing a pesky cough for close to a month.

Low said that he recovered from the cough a few days after he took the recommended medication.

Huang, however, has clean forgotten the incident, to the dismay of Low.

Filming during Covid-19

Since filming began in phase two of the post-Circuit Breaker, Huang told us that there has been a "drastic difference" in filming.

Especially for actresses, we have to put on makeup and then the lipstick gets smudged so you have to put on again. We actually have to touch up a lot of times!

During rehearsals we have put on the mask, during the actual take we take off the mask and then during rehearsals, we put it on again.

But I'm not the only one, the others also have to do it so it's a matter of getting used to it."

Not bad of a cook

Since "Recipe of Life" centres around the culinary industry, we asked how she would rate herself in the kitchen.

She let out a laugh and emphasised that her cooking is "nothing compared to restaurant chefs".

However, she quickly took the opportunity to say that she isn't too bad of a cook either.

"I get some recipes from my parents and grandmother. Sometimes, I will improvise it a little and make it my own dish. When it comes to home-cooked food, no problem. My family will never go hungry."

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Top image from @huangbiren and Mediacorp.