economie

Singaporeans are used to paying less than $5 for a meal. This 30-year-old chef charges double, and diners keep coming.

New Bahru, built in a former high school, is Singapore’s latest lifestyle and creative mall.

Almost 10 years ago, as a final-year student at the Culinary Institute of America in Singapore, Ang remembers having to find a restaurant for her internship. When Dave Pynt, the chef-owner of Australian-inspired barbecue restaurant Burnt Ends, visited her school for a guest lecture on wood-fire cooking, she was intrigued.

“I felt that if there’s one skill that I want to learn, it’s definitely cooking with wood fire,” Ang told BI.

She didn’t apply anywhere else. “I knew I wanted it,” she said. “So I went and got it.”

When she graduated later that year, she continued to work under Pynt. Burnt Ends is based in Singapore and has one Michelin star. In March, it was ranked No. 15 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list and No. 68 on the global list.

She worked her way up from being an intern to managing the wood-fired oven.

But after two years of working in a fine-dining kitchen, Ang was ready to move on.

Shifting the focus to local cuisine

Zhup Zhup, an open-air restaurant, is located in Macpherson, Singapore.

So, in 2021, she expanded to a full-service open-air restaurant, first named One Prawn & Co and later renamed Zhup Zhup.

Leaving the hawker center allowed Ang to price dishes at a slightly higher price point.

In addition to selling local fare like hokkien mee and pao fan, they serve prawn noodles for SG$14 a bowl and SG$20 for their Supreme Prawn Noodle, which is served with pork ribs, tobiko prawn balls, clams, and pork slices.

Typically, prawn noodles have a clear, pork-based soup. Ang’s noodle broth is prepared with almost 40 pounds of prawn heads and over 60 pounds of pork bones, then boiled for more than 20 hours. The dish is served in a clay pot.

“The broth is so umami,” Darren Ang, a customer in his late 30s, told BI. What makes their prawn noodles stand out is the variety of ingredients, he said.

In 2022, the casual eatery earned its first Michelin Bib Gourmand, a rating that recognizes establishments that serve quality food at lower price points.

Returning to the restaurant scene

Early last year, Lo & Behold Group, a hospitality group in Singapore, offered her team the opportunity to open a restaurant in the new mall.

Each tenant at New Bahru is an independent local brand. A representative from Lo & Behold Group declined to comment to BI on how Ang was selected.

On returning to a restaurant kitchen after working in a casual setting for almost six years, Ang said the biggest difference was finally using chef terms like “emulsification” and “caramelization.”

“I can finally talk like that!” she said with a laugh.

The broth takes over 20 hours to prepare and is infused with 40 pounds of prawn heads.

Singapore’s food and beverage industry is not easy to thrive in.

Teo Kay Key, a research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, National University of Singapore, told BI that hawker food has traditionally been viewed as a cheap source of good and hearty meals priced for the masses.

However, this can affect stall owners, who must balance rising operational costs with customer expectations to earn a living.

“Consumers might not even want to patronize if they do not think it is reasonably priced based on their own evaluations,” she said.

As a former young hawker who defied these expectations, Ang hopes for young entrepreneurs — especially hawkers, to follow her lead.

And she’s in good company: Cherry Tan, 29, left her dream job as a flight attendant at Singapore Airlines to set up a hawker business selling Taiwanese-style teppanyaki with her husband.

As a hawker, she estimates that she took a 50% pay cut and had to work longer hours. Still, she feels that it was worth it. “The hawker lifestyle is challenging, but I think if more youngsters are willing to go through this process, it’s rewarding,” she told BI.

Similarly, Shanice Lim left the fine dining scene at 25 to run a hawker stall. “The hawker culture is dying. I wanted to put my brand out there so everyone could have good nasi lemak,” Lim told BI.

Although she charges at least SG$5 for her dish, which can cost as little as SG$3 at other stalls, she has won over skeptical customers, Lim said.

Ang agreed that young hawkers should not give up on their pursuit of quality and charge the appropriate prices.

“And feed yourself. You’re not doing charity,” she added. “There will always be people who appreciate the quality you want in your food.”

Her next goal is to “reach for the stars.” In her case, the coveted Michelin stars.

“It will definitely be an honor to receive an award from Michelin,” she said. “But we will continue putting out the best that we can.”

Read the original article on Business Insider

https://www.businessinsider.com/chef-left-michelin-restaurant-open-hawker-prawn-noodles-singapore-2024-10