SINGAPORE - It is not uncommon for restaurant chefs to start their own business. But those who trade their chef whites for a hawker's apron have been few and far between.
Chefs known to have made the switch include former Les Amis sous chef Xavier Neo, who now runs the Hokkien Man Hokkien Mee stall in Toa Payoh.
In the last few months, however, more restaurant chefs have set up hawker stalls - prodded by the pandemic pummelling the food-and-beverage industry.
Among them is former Shang Palace dim sum chef Kerene Cheng, who has been selling Hong Kong-style cheong fun at an industrial park canteen in Ang Mo Kio since April. Customers reportedly queued for up to two hours for her food before the current dine-in ban.
Since then, at least four other former restaurant chefs have also started hawker stalls.
Chef Wei HK Cheong Fun
Where: 01-633, Block 209 New Upper Changi Road
Open: 7am to 9pm daily
Chee cheong fun, or steamed rice rolls, have been Thoo Chang Wei's favourite food since childhood. And it had always been his ambition to make a living selling it.
That was why he left school at the age of 18 to work at Min Kok restaurant in his home town of Seremban in Malaysia.
Starting as a kitchen helper, he mastered the dish so well that he was soon running the cheong fun station by himself.
He came to Singapore in 2010 to join Peach Garden as a dim sum chef and worked at the chain's outlets in OCBC Centre, Hotel Miramar and Thomson Plaza.
The 36-year-old permanent resident's dream to be his own boss came true when he opened a stall at a coffee shop in Bedok Town Centre earlier this month.
He sells Hong Kong-style cheong fun that is prepared on the spot, with fillings like char siew ($4), mushrooms ($4) and prawns ($5).
It was the pandemic that pushed him to start his own business.
"Last year, the restaurant was open only half the week, so I had time to think about what I wanted to do next," he recalls, adding that he started looking for a location at the beginning of this year.
Thoo, who is married with two children aged five and three, does the cooking himself. He has not yet taken a day off, even though he has two full-time and four part-time workers.
His hours are also longer - "by about 50 per cent" - than at his last job. But his income has also jumped by the same percentage - thanks to a steady "queue from 7am to 8pm", he chirps.
In fact, his business has improved after the dine-in ban as more people learnt about his stall.
He now sells about 800 portions of cheong fun for takeaway a day, compared with 700 two weeks ago. He does not offer delivery as he can barely cope.
Where: 01-71, Beo Crescent Market & Food Centre, 38A Beo Crescent
Open: 10am to 8pm daily
When the revenue of Taiwanese chain Din Tai Fung took a dive during the circuit breaker last year, Wang Jingjun, who was working as a chef there, decided to call it a day.
He went to work for a friend who owns a Northern Chinese eatery. In May this year, he started his own stall selling fried rice in Beo Crescent.
On the menu are dishes like pork chop fried rice and shrimp fried rice ($6.50), as well as an abalone fried rice ($10). Wang also offers spicy versions of the dishes.
Armed with a chef's diploma from China, the Shandong native came here in 2003 at the age of 26 to work at Soup Restaurant, where he remained for seven years.
But Wang, 44, who is now a Singapore citizen and married with three children aged 18, nine and seven, says it is not in his nature to be a salaried worker.
"I like the freedom of doing what I want and it gives me a sense of achievement," he says.
After Soup Restaurant, he started a stall selling claypot rice, but gave it up two years later because of health problems.
After he recovered, he worked in restaurants under the TungLok and Paradise groups. He was also with Shang Palace and The Line at Shangri-La hotel before joining Din Tai Fung for about a year.
He says his stall's offerings are not rip-offs of Din Tai Fung's, where fried rice is one of the popular dishes. Instead, his menu is culled from his own experiences.
"Fried rice is a very common dish," he points out. "The spicy flavours, for example, came from what I learnt at Shang Palace."
His business has not been affected by the no-dining-in rule, he adds.
"Fried rice works well for takeaway. Even when dining in was allowed, I had many takeaway orders."
While he has signed up with delivery platforms, he has not used them because commissions go up to 30 per cent.
"I would then have to pass the costs to my customers, which I don't want to," he says
https://www.straitstimes.com/life/f...hawker-stalls-in-spore-amid-covid-19-pandemic
Chefs known to have made the switch include former Les Amis sous chef Xavier Neo, who now runs the Hokkien Man Hokkien Mee stall in Toa Payoh.
In the last few months, however, more restaurant chefs have set up hawker stalls - prodded by the pandemic pummelling the food-and-beverage industry.
Among them is former Shang Palace dim sum chef Kerene Cheng, who has been selling Hong Kong-style cheong fun at an industrial park canteen in Ang Mo Kio since April. Customers reportedly queued for up to two hours for her food before the current dine-in ban.
Since then, at least four other former restaurant chefs have also started hawker stalls.
Chef Wei HK Cheong Fun
Where: 01-633, Block 209 New Upper Changi Road
Open: 7am to 9pm daily
Chee cheong fun, or steamed rice rolls, have been Thoo Chang Wei's favourite food since childhood. And it had always been his ambition to make a living selling it.
That was why he left school at the age of 18 to work at Min Kok restaurant in his home town of Seremban in Malaysia.
Starting as a kitchen helper, he mastered the dish so well that he was soon running the cheong fun station by himself.
He came to Singapore in 2010 to join Peach Garden as a dim sum chef and worked at the chain's outlets in OCBC Centre, Hotel Miramar and Thomson Plaza.
The 36-year-old permanent resident's dream to be his own boss came true when he opened a stall at a coffee shop in Bedok Town Centre earlier this month.
He sells Hong Kong-style cheong fun that is prepared on the spot, with fillings like char siew ($4), mushrooms ($4) and prawns ($5).
It was the pandemic that pushed him to start his own business.
"Last year, the restaurant was open only half the week, so I had time to think about what I wanted to do next," he recalls, adding that he started looking for a location at the beginning of this year.
Thoo, who is married with two children aged five and three, does the cooking himself. He has not yet taken a day off, even though he has two full-time and four part-time workers.
His hours are also longer - "by about 50 per cent" - than at his last job. But his income has also jumped by the same percentage - thanks to a steady "queue from 7am to 8pm", he chirps.
In fact, his business has improved after the dine-in ban as more people learnt about his stall.
He now sells about 800 portions of cheong fun for takeaway a day, compared with 700 two weeks ago. He does not offer delivery as he can barely cope.
Where: 01-71, Beo Crescent Market & Food Centre, 38A Beo Crescent
Open: 10am to 8pm daily
When the revenue of Taiwanese chain Din Tai Fung took a dive during the circuit breaker last year, Wang Jingjun, who was working as a chef there, decided to call it a day.
He went to work for a friend who owns a Northern Chinese eatery. In May this year, he started his own stall selling fried rice in Beo Crescent.
On the menu are dishes like pork chop fried rice and shrimp fried rice ($6.50), as well as an abalone fried rice ($10). Wang also offers spicy versions of the dishes.
Armed with a chef's diploma from China, the Shandong native came here in 2003 at the age of 26 to work at Soup Restaurant, where he remained for seven years.
But Wang, 44, who is now a Singapore citizen and married with three children aged 18, nine and seven, says it is not in his nature to be a salaried worker.
"I like the freedom of doing what I want and it gives me a sense of achievement," he says.
After Soup Restaurant, he started a stall selling claypot rice, but gave it up two years later because of health problems.
After he recovered, he worked in restaurants under the TungLok and Paradise groups. He was also with Shang Palace and The Line at Shangri-La hotel before joining Din Tai Fung for about a year.
He says his stall's offerings are not rip-offs of Din Tai Fung's, where fried rice is one of the popular dishes. Instead, his menu is culled from his own experiences.
"Fried rice is a very common dish," he points out. "The spicy flavours, for example, came from what I learnt at Shang Palace."
His business has not been affected by the no-dining-in rule, he adds.
"Fried rice works well for takeaway. Even when dining in was allowed, I had many takeaway orders."
While he has signed up with delivery platforms, he has not used them because commissions go up to 30 per cent.
"I would then have to pass the costs to my customers, which I don't want to," he says
https://www.straitstimes.com/life/f...hawker-stalls-in-spore-amid-covid-19-pandemic
