CAUSE OF DEATH: The creator of the chilli crab dish, Cher Yam Tian, has died at the age of 90,

The creator of the chilli crab dish, Cher Yam Tian has died at the age of 90, Singapore’s Straits Times reports.

Her family says Cher invented the dish in the 1950s when she added chilli sauce to stir-fried crabs on top of tomato sauce and other condiments.

In 2009, a controversy broke out when Malaysia’s ex-minister Ng Yen Yen claimed chilli crab was one of several Malaysian dishes that were wrongly credited to other countries.

Singaporean food blogger Leslie Tay says he met Cher at the time, and she was upset by the claims.

“She said, ‘I was the one who came up with it’. She saw it as the thing that she contributed to Singapore culture,” Tay told BBC.

He also says that while other places may claim to serve chilli crab, Singapore’s iteration of the dish is unique.

ST reports that Cher first cooked the dish for her husband who asked her to try something different, instead of steaming the crabs.

In the 1950s, she started selling chilli crab from a small stall in East Coast Road, before opening an eatery in 1963.

Cher died on Wednesday (Feb 15) in Singapore. She had a lung infection which developed into pneumonia.

The ST report says her sons will continue her legacy at their Roland Restaurant in Marine Parade Central which serves the exact chilli crab dish invented by Cher in the 50s.