Brick-Mortar-Cloud Podcast
Season 2 Episode 4:
From MOE Teacher to Nasi Padang Boss: The Business of Modernizing a Heritage Brand

00:00

Welcome to the Break Motar Cloud podcast where we share scaling stories of food and beverage entrepreneurs.  This podcast is produced by Starfanny and Nila Studios. Today,  I’m super privileged to have Eugene to join me on our podcast from Serangoon BBQ and Curry. Eugene, welcome to the show. Hey, thank you. Thanks for inviting me.  Yeah, Eugene,  really amazing work doing m scaling nasi padang in the heartlands with the outlet in Junction 8.  Maybe you can share a little bit more about your story and how the brand come about.

00:30

Okay, I actually… How did my brain come about? Yeah. so my parents have been selling nasi padang since 1983 and they have always enlisted our help as kids to provide free labor and we have been churning out curries, barbecue food for as long as we can remember and…

00:55

But as we grew older and then we got involved in our jobs, we sort of like stopped going there to help. but each time I go down for lunch, I will always ask myself, actually this business is quite profitable because there’s always long queues and at the end of the day, it has brought us up so big. So I always ask my dad, hey, why don’t I come and help? But my father says teaching is such a cushy job, so don’t come and join me. So that thought was placed at the back of my mind and…

01:23

It happened in 2020 when my father decided to retire because COVID came and the shop was too busy. He couldn’t cope and he couldn’t find help. So they sold the business away, had a bad experience handing it over to someone. And within 10 months, my father wanted to come back out of retirement because he had a lot of customers texting him, hey, the food cannot make it. Can you come back or we miss your food? So my father got the shop at Sing Ming and then asked me, you want to come or not? Yeah, then I said, okay, let’s.

01:53

let’s do this  because in my whole 15 years of teaching, I’ve never thought I would run a F &B business.  So when the opportunity came on… ah

02:02

felt that I really need to do it because to let my father just retire and let the food just disappear  it’s actually  kind of painful.  are life  centers around all the food that they provide so  I got into the business  partly to help them leave a legacy  and also to let more people eat the food that I grew up  with so that more people can enjoy delicious food. We talked about the brand shortly but you mentioned 15 years teaching.  Which school were you teaching before this? um

02:32

I started out going back to my alma mater, Clementi Townsend, teaching English.  Then I went to HQ for a short stint and my last phase was in Daman High School. Wow,  I’m also from Daman High School, Tan Tuan Jong Rurut, Chen Xing Yong Zhong.  Wait, Kong Tze, we call him Johnny Kong.  Hopefully your students also come and support you in your outlets and to help with it as a customer. Yes, actually a lot of them. When I first started in  Sing Ming, uh even as early as my first batch of my kids, came to eat.

03:02

and then  also kids from Diamond High and all.  So  they come and then because even when I was teaching, I shared with them my story of me helping my parents as a kid. uh And then they  also know that I sell nasi padang and then when they found out that I opened a shop, they said, wow, you really did it. uh and wow, you know.

03:23

always tell us to chase our dreams. So now you as a teacher has done what you told us that you wanted to do. So  I’m now taking back all the interest that I paid in, all the blood and the sweat from them, so they come and eat quite often actually. Super, super. So one thing that we observe is that from your dad’s generation, Uncle Tan and Auntie Cheong, when they did nasi padang, it was very traditional, right? Coffee shop style,  hands-on, making every dish, uh know, tasting it on the front. um

03:51

And that was, I think, the Heritage brand that they brought food to the table.

03:56

and did an amazing job of course.  But when you took over and uh I saw  how it had evolved in Junction 8, it became a lot more modern and the branding and positioning has been very, exciting, right? Like if you look at the cup over here for the camera quickly, uh from far it looks like a very modern play on nasi pedang and all. So what is the vision of the brand? When you came in to help the business, what was your vision and what do you want to bring to the world? uh We started by wanting to disrupt the

04:26

food industry  by  serving  consistently delicious food ah quickly and then consistently good ones  so that  we  so that we  in the process of doing so we are also preserving flavors that we  that Singaporeans should should get to know  yeah we  because as I’m growing up

04:48

My parents have not really allowed us to eat processed food. And now when I see children  in the malls or wherever, they are just hunkering over processed food. And so therefore, we wanted to do a brand where…

05:02

It is still fast and bold, intense flavors, but real food, real carbs, real fiber,  real protein.  So with this uh mission of bringing the heritage brand together with real uh unprocessed products, um the way that you shape the business has also been  pretty  scalable. um Are you guys looking to expand very aggressively in outlets level? And what’s that vision in terms of the footprint that you’re trying to achieve? So  we definitely have plans to open a few more outlets so that we can reach

05:32

a wider audience  but before we do that I need to overcome  a challenge that my family business has always been facing.  Like you said everything is done by my parents. ah

05:43

I need to overcome the key man risk. And so what I did in the first place was to document all the recipes  by stopping him  while he’s cooking,  taking out a piece of cellophane or like a wrapping paper and say, are you going to put this in, right? So can you just put that in? weigh.  So we went through the whole process of documenting  all his recipes  and videoing  all the things that  he cooked, which is why it gives me very good content to do all the reels. Right. Right. And then, uh

06:13

After I’ve documented everything,  then I try to cook it according to how I’ve already taken all the measurements.  So that was  a very long process of trialing and R &Ding with his recipes. Super, super. And I think that is also,  it seems like you have that education background, right, about how to learn and how to teach stuff. And then now you have all these processes and videos and webinars, whatever you call it, that you can scale. And when you have future outlets and stuff like that, it’s going to be a lot more

06:43

scalable.  But one thing also that I saw is that the  bowls that you serve is like uh almost like a rice bowl like concept rather than the traditional maybe the brown paper or banana leaf or something like that right? So it seems like uh the brand has a lot of vision to  scale  in terms of both distribution and the brand experience.  A bit more like a quick service restaurant or McDonald’s  for Nasi Padang than a coffee shop for Nasi Padang.  Can you share a little bit more about that vision, that ambition and you know why did you

07:13

go for this kind of a direction instead of uh the other way which is maybe more um hands-on and  experiential and that kind of stuff. So I first touched, I talked about the recipe, how it can be replicated regardless of who is cooking.  The next part is the manpower.  When we were operating in a coffee shop and we still wrap using the Bungo’s method, it takes me about two months to train a staff to do it properly  and while the person is doing it,

07:43

hot, scalding, so there were a lot of issues and so therefore everybody packs it differently. So we wanted to overcome that because if that is one of the key barriers of entry, then I will never be able to find stuff. So we thought of the bowls because for bowls you can weigh everything.

07:59

Quality control. Yes, in quality control, you can weigh how much your veggies, your rice and things like that. Then you give one less thing for the customers to complain.  And when you have the bowls, it  also is  nicer, it looks  more aesthetic as opposed to a packet of nasi padang. Then you open up, then everything just falls.  Of course, there’s some beauty in eating it that way.  But if you are looking at…

08:24

scaling  and reaching out to more people,  getting them to eat uh over a corporate meal or like a training session or things like that. You can’t have everyone eating over a brown piece of paper.  Yeah, so we wanted to do it that way and we also realized there was a gap in the market because most of the bowls are western cold salads. Yes. Yeah, and you either get chicken with rosemary or you get a salmon  cooked in, don’t know why.

08:48

and then often  broccoli that’s frozen steamed up, uh corn and all that so we wanted to give the market something to try  and  with our spices, our chilli and our curries we also added some of the oh

09:03

flavors that young Singaporeans like.  Teriyaki sauce, salted egg sauce. So when we tell them you can eat chicken with teriyaki sauce,  or you can have fried chicken with salted egg sauce, then you can pair it with our own floral coleslaw. You have various variations of how our food can come together to  cause this oral orgasm in your mouth. Super, explosion of flavors. So uh one thing also I observe is that you guys are built to scale. So is there a plan on how many outlets you want to open in Singapore and the rest of the world? Okay, so we are currently looking

09:33

at um opening  one branch  and opening at… okay because my business partner  is a co-owner of a Skin Lab Medical Spa and SLS clinic so he has 10 clinics across the malls in Singapore so locally our aim is to open one  Serangoon Malukin and Curry  alongside  his clinic. Wow. So that m

09:59

there is some kind of relationship, some kind of cross-referral.  And then also we are replicating the growth strategy of his other business,  which is to be in a mall and to be at major transport nodes. So that’s locally.  Globally, we just talk for fun because we all love to travel  and we love to take several airlines. So we talk about how we would open.

10:24

flies to. Hopefully we see one in Hong Kong, see one in Dubai, we see one in Australia, Australia many cities SQ fly towards and bringing this you know Asian flag high of Nasi Padang for the world. Amazing, amazing. So when we talk about your business model, people always see Nasi Padang even in the traditional form whether it’s at the coffee shop or food court being a little bit more pricey and expensive. Can you share a little bit more about your business model and how is it different from the competition? How do you keep prices fair and what’s that game? Is it

10:54

volume or how do you think about that P &L side of things? So for the P &L side,  my father when he found out that we are going to do it this model, keeps saying  don’t sell it too expensive  or else people won’t eat.

11:13

But my response to him is actually not how cheap or how expensive the product is,  but it’s how much value do people get  off  they spend.  So if they spend  $10, $13  to buy a bowl with one proper protein,  one carbs, and  two flavorful side dishes,  actually  the value that they get is definitely more than the $10 or $12 that they’re pay.  And if you’re able to give them that kind of value,  then  I think… uh

11:42

the battle is half won.  So when we are looking at the food cost and how do we remain profitable,  frankly at the coffee shop,  my dad just does a simple math, he buy at one dollar, he sells at two. uh It can survive because it’s a family business. They have enough to make ends meet and things like that.  So over at our side, we are trying to keep it at 40 % for the cost oh and then because we…

12:10

else it’s not worth doing  that.  One more thing that I saw that you execute very differently from other brands is that you…

12:18

do a lot of influencer marketing and social media marketing even at one outlet level. I see that you have a very robust video content creation of recipes and stories and branding and all. Can you share a little bit more about how you intentionally position yourself different from your peers, And spend so much effort on marketing. Can you share a little bit that journey so far and how the ROI is? To tell you the truth, when I first started the SBC .1983 handle, my intention was to be like some of those brands where they follow

12:48

no one and then they have a lot of following and then they’re like some kind of a god there that  Instagram so I actually wanted to be like that  just have  nine photos of what I sell and just leave it there you know people come that will then come eat the food but my business partner Dr. Vibharwana has a totally different idea so he’s the brains behind  the social media marketing and all that  he  he will have a lot of ideas  looking at  what’s happening in TikTok how do people oh

13:17

film content and things like that. So the first thing that he told me to do to generate content is to film my parents saying good sizzling morning. So every morning when we first started, I will go to the shop  and  depending on my mother’s mood on that day,  I have to be especially nice or especially naughty to catch her unaware or catch her or get her to do a rehearse thing. So every morning she will…

13:41

good sizzling morning so that the customers  are the viewers, your mom is so cute and things like that so from there I also want to share with the world uh how  my family come together and because working at the nasi padang place is the only core memory that the family has  we don’t go out to parks for walk we don’t have dinners outside and things like that  so when we first started to do oh

14:07

social media, first it was featuring my family members,  my parents, them at work, them in love, them quarreling,  it’s just a reflection of actually everybody’s family.  Yeah, so when they see it, they say, hey, I can relate with it because we know… oh

14:20

whatever business you do, the relationship, the emotional connection is very important. So we first uh talked about the  family relationship and then we went into creating a lot of ASMR videos because that was  hype that time.  So I would go in,  bring my mother aside from the grill and then just film the ASMR, either flat lay or things like that. So we do ASMR a lot.  Subsequently, because we had an SBC gift bag, we were delivering food to the elderly.  And then…

14:50

the cost of two three years uh either out of our own pocket or our friends they will donate and then we just do it on. Then I started to feature the elderly,  how my interaction with them and how they treated me like a godson, a godgrandson and things like that.  So people really like to see this kind of very warm uh heartfelt kind

15:11

So that’s how we sort of evolve our content creation when we were at Singming. And obviously Gabriel is the one who gives ideas, then I will go and shoot. And when I shoot, I will bring it back to him, then he will say, you cannot work out, you have to do it this way and all that. So he’s the brain, I’m the implementer. But when we went to Junction 8, it was entirely his intention. How we do the renovation video or things like that. A lot of it we learned.

15:40

by ourselves. So  we use cap cards, we pay for all those things, and then that’s how we started to do.  Yeah, and we keep thinking of what are other takes on, you know, we keep saying food, talking about food. So we bring the Labooboos in.  Three Labooboos in all, one mega, one and two medium.  Medium is very big already.  So we bring the Labooboos in and then uh use it as a medium to introduce our shop or introduce our food to the people because we don’t want to be too direct.

16:10

of creating content. I think this is good learning for all food and beverage entrepreneurs right when you create a brand sometimes about a story, it’s about family, it’s about how people can relate with you and then when you talk about

16:21

new outlet renovation, you talk about the people around you, the community, like the elderly, talk about even Labooboo, can be anything, right? I think  kudos, think your team has been, yourself and Gabriel, right, has been very, very creative in capitalizing  on these trends and everything. And I think the rawness and the realness of it is what transcends everything that maybe  a very commercial commercial will not be able to bring and kudos to that.  So, um you know, when you operate the FNB, there’s always a success and failures and people always say,

16:51

10 F &B that opened in the first year, how many would die and stuff.  Could you share what is your most challenging moment when opening the Junction 8 outlet because that is a leapfrog of your previous model. What is the most difficult thing that you had to overcome? Okay, so we thought we had everything thought out.  The cooking, the combi oven is working, the stuff is all ready  and our TV menu is up. uh

17:18

customers come, the first thing they ask is, where’s your food?  Because they cannot see anything right? Because they don’t see any food and they only see Labubus and they see self-ordering kiosks.  and  the TV menu that we put up,  when we designed it we thought it was intuitive  but I think we always have to think of like  how is it being received on the other end.  Yeah so we spent a lot of time  going through with them how to order and then after they know how to order

17:46

they go to the kiosk,  I don’t want to press, can you press for me?  Yeah,  so that was  one of the biggest challenges. So overnight, over the past one, two weeks when we first started, we spent a lot of time discussing  what’s the most intuitive flow, and then our back end designers will redo the menu.

18:06

And then we have to  equip ourselves to always sell the story and educate customers on how you order.  So  that was  the most difficult thing  actually when we first started out. Right. How about the success? Like what’s something that you all did that were very successful apart from of course the social media marketing as well as the branding push that you guys did that were very very successful. Is there any other thing that you want to highlight to other listeners that they could maybe  get inspired to learn one leaf from that book?  Actually the…

18:36

For us in F &B… oh

18:38

First you need people to come and try your food. That will create the initial hype. And then in your first one month, you will suddenly have a boom because you think that you are very popular. But the key thing is what happens in the second and the third month, whether you have repeat customers. So far we have been quite fortunate because one of the, I wouldn’t say we are successful yet, but one of the things that helped us until now is that we have chosen to open our first outlet in Bishan because we have always been in Bishan, Serangoon.

19:09

area for the past 20-30 years. So we have two kinds of customers, one is our regulars, whom they come and eat and then they repeat, they keep coming back. And I also have fear because they will say that this one is cooked by the sun. Different. Different, it’s not nice and things like that. So I introduced the oven at Singming one year before and it’s in full view of the customers and customers know that, it’s no longer my mum flipping the chicken on the grill, now it’s cooked in the oven.

19:35

and we use that time to educate them to say that it’s actually healthier because  there’s no oil and most of the time you all complain right the chicken is always very dry but the skin is very crispy so now I give you something in between  the chicken is moist but not so crispy right so we use that time to educate them so that when they go to the junction 8 place they eat it they are familiar with the taste  and then they will come back  yeah for the new customers is really about exciting them about  our brand exciting them about my story and then I always tell them ah

20:05

This is a family recipe from my parents. They’ve been selling this for 40 years.  Then they will be very interested in  the story.  Yeah,  so  they will eat and then  how you know they are successful, you keep seeing them coming back. And my youngest supporter  is  a four, five year old girl, Naila.  She was attracted by Labubu.  Told her grand…

20:31

sister  that I want to eat with Labubu. So she came, sat next to the Labubu and ate and then uh the grandma was like I’m very surprised because  she’s usually very picky with her food and since then she has been coming four five times a week. Wow, regular.  Super regular. to eat the Labubu.

20:47

just to eat with the labubu and she has gone from curry chicken to salmon  not the beef rendang yet  and then she’s always drinking the slurpee and things like that That’s awesome man, that’s very you see regulars coming back, new ones come and then they keep coming back I think  it just…  then I can go and tell my father that actually your food  is very popular and people really love it I think this is good learning point for everybody trying to do food and beverage It’s all about retention, the first month is always a hype  and if you’re able to get the returning customers

21:17

you know, two times a week, three times a week, two times a month even,  whatever frequency because you can’t  eat fancy five-star restaurant every day, right? But at least they are returning. That is a sign of your product market fit where customers find value and enjoyment in your concept and they want to come back again.  And the second thing that I thought was really good sharing is about how this Labooboo craze, you capitalized on it in some sense and you have such an  amazing fan that is a four-year-old, right? To support you and bring the family along. So great learnings and I hope people learn from it.  So moving on to the next part of our show,

21:47

we always talk about industry standards and tech stack. So when you operate at your current scale, of course at one outlet, you may not be that metrical, but you guys are going for 10 and much larger. Have you guys set up the rails to be very like KPI driven? Like do you have like an outlet manager that you track certain ratios and how are you on KPIs? Okay, so to tell you frankly, I had no idea of doing all these. Even when I was running Singming, I just do normal accounting.

22:17

I managed to recruit a staff who is now positioned as a manager. So he has some experience running multi-outlets and things like that. He was the one who told me, you need to have certain spreadsheets to calculate and all that. So I just passed him all the things. And he just documents everything. And he comes back to me to say that your food cost, if it’s 30 % and lower or never.

22:40

then you have certain incentive for the staff and also he is tracking uh everything  down to how many bowls we are using,  how many  sets of cutlery we are giving out. So we are tracking and we are tying it back  to  the staff reward incentive scheme and then we are also tracking  to see whether we can give more value to the customer  because if we realize that the food cost is lower than what we expected then we can afford to give more and when we give more everybody benefits.

23:10

customers find more value, they feel more satisfied and we keep them coming back. So it’s not really about making a lot of money about the profits because at end of the day, it’s like what my father says, whether there’s value in it. And it is good also learning for everybody right, sometimes you need to just have the right manager to work with you to scale that processes and I think even as a business owner, we all need to be open to feedback and to improve right, sometimes we are not the best in the world and when they give us some of these spreadsheets or things to

23:40

to track and it makes sense we take the feedback and that will help us with our business. So I hear just now you mentioned food costs, try to keep it within 40%, your manager trying to push to 30 % and trying to give good experience and value to the customers. How about other areas like labor costs? Are you guys managing that well? Do you guys have a KPI on something like that? Before I met my manager, I

24:03

doing some kind of a table top exercise for the costing with Gabriel and we sort of talked about how rental if it’s kept to 20 to 25 percent and then labor cost is 20 to 25 percent and then if we project we do 100k in terms of revenue so that’s how you

24:21

rest of the 50 % is based on your COGS. If your COGS is high, then you take less and things like that. So we sort of park, we just do it at 25%, 25 % for rental and stuff. So one of the things that Fast Food Changers to Exchange ideas like to use is concept called Sales Per Labour Hour. So they like to look at the food for and sales, and then to try to build a ratio on labour. If you are busy period like the lunch crowds and all, then we need more people and then lao period like the three or four period maybe, knowing so many people.

24:51

ways they do it is that they try to look at the post data  and then they divide by the scheduled staff hours to just see if the ratio is okay.  Now of course there’s gonna be some limitations like uh if let’s say the person is there for the full shift you can’t split shift and stuff right?  But sometimes people supplement it with part-timers, casual workers and whatnot and I think at your concept at Junction 8, so accessible,  I’m sure you guys are adopting some of these  part-time workers? Housewives and all to help Currently I have uh two…

25:20

students,  two students studying in Napa helping as a part-timer and then another one who is doing  a home dining service, a home business so she can come and help us with

25:33

Yes,  so we sort of deploy them during the busy lunch and the dinner periods. Whereas for the full timers,  like you said, you can’t stagger them. Too much. At least they get a reasonable break in between. They feel like they’ve been taken care of.  So we talked about food costs, talked about labour costs, now it’s about rental. So you guys chose the first scale up to be J8, which J8 is notoriously known for expensive rental. I think the next one, I don’t know if you can showcase, a  potential hospital

26:03

How do you then think about rental strategy? Do you pick the place that has the best food for,  pay a bit more rent or do you, how do you balance that? What’s your strategy on rental?  We  actually wanted to go for location  because we are not a…

26:20

very well known brand.  So we definitely need the food for. uh Vis-a-vis, I spend less on rental and then in the end,  I pay using my time and energy to think of how do I create the demand to go to the shop. And I think… ah

26:34

especially when we starting a business, we don’t want to spend all this time and energy doing that. So that’s why our strategy is to go for a place with good location, pay a little bit higher for the rent, so at least it sort of help us solve one of the problems. And once you have a lot of passes by, walking through, that’s where we started to give out free chicken. We give out free chicken with the sauces and all that, and then we are quite confident once you taste our food, you’ll be very inclined to try. Yeah, so our strategy is really going for the…

27:04

places with high footfall. uh Then talk about expansion plan. Now we are on one, going to two and hopefully more will multiply this year.  What’s the strategy between you and your partner? Are you guys looking at making sure that you guys have certain reach earlier even though some outlets may not be fully profitable or you want to make sure  every outlet must be profitable first then you open the next outlet? What’s that  financial strategy that you guys are thinking about? For us,  we just signed the letter of offer to go to Raffles Hospital.

27:34

loop and also  by a stroke of coincidence we were introduced to that place and all that. uh

27:40

I think we go there because we wanted to have a presence near the CBD area  because we were getting a lot more corporate orders  that we deliver to Shantung Way, to Penang Road and things like that and  for the food to travel better and  to reach in a more desirable state, we thought  to be nearer it would then sort of help us serve more of these corporate orders.  So that was one of the decisions on why we wanted to take Raffles Hospital because it’s near where we want to serve and  it will enable us to reach

28:10

out to new market segments like tourists because they will definitely walk past the area to go to Arab Street. uh with very  what they call intended kind of a marketing,  we will able to draw people to come to our place as a place of interest and then you are tasting food that is uniquely Singaporean.  So when we took up Raffles Hospital, that was the intention. Of course also to serve the work.

28:37

the staff  and the patients and the  family members because most of them they require halal food  which we are also in the process of getting the certification  so  we thought  the Revolve hospital thought we were a good fit so therefore we took up that space. Super super and I think that the idea of thinking of when you expand your reach is also for branding in that location and to help with the delivery models and corporate orders that’s very very intentional and  but uh one part of the question that I still haven’t got the full answer that I want to take a bit more is

29:06

Would you open a third and fourth outlet or fifth outlet before these two become successful? What’s that plan? What’s skill? So before we open Junction 8, we told ourselves we have to open one or else no one will take us seriously.  So when we open the first one, we make sure that everything is done out nicely so that  people who want us to be in their malls or people who are interested in us, we’ll bring them here. This is showcase and things like that. But after one, two months after we opened Junction 8, had a lot of people, a lot of the malls coming in. I want you to go there.

29:34

That’s a demand, that’s a pull. Yeah, so there’s some, then we said okay we better open more because if you have two, people will take us more seriously. Seriously, yes, exactly. Then, yeah so that’s why we were actively looking and it doesn’t have to be profitable because I think at the end of the day, if we are confident with the food and service quality they are giving, people will come back. It’s a matter of time then. Yeah, it’s a matter of time and I mean in…

30:00

You just have to maintain a healthy cash flow  and you just open and I think  the other way to see is the more you open  the more you can actually drive your cost down lower because you buy in bulk and all that so you will get some savings from there.  Yeah, of course as you open you have to be very selective where you open.

30:19

That’s super amazing. Moving on to things like digital transformation, because we’re talking about cloud and scalability.  Is there anything that you guys have invested that turned out to be very, very useful and successful that you want to share with our audience? one  of the two things, first is investing in the.

30:36

rationale, iKombi oven. I worked with them for two years  to fully transform the cooking of nasi padang dishes  using the oven. uh And  that one involved a lot of taste test, blind test, bringing my father there and things like that. So with that, can consistently  prepare and cook the food according to what we want  without having to rely on a key man. Right, rather than Tao Chiu, every day need to go and go in right now. You have an oven, everybody follow the SOP, it becomes more scalable.

31:06

and don’t have to depend on the mood of the person that day and things like that. So that is one key thing. The second thing that we invested in is in  a  post that has a CRM.  I mean, moving forward, it’s all about data and about big data, how you analyze consumer behaviors and things like that. And how do we make them keep coming back  is to analyze  what they buy, when they buy, and then…

31:31

certain  deals that  suit them because it’s all about personalization so that they will always be remembered. So uh two months already we have our database is close to 1,500. Very good. And can re-engage them and compare Chinese New Year promotions and whatsoever. So that’s the second thing that we thought it is worth spending  the money to

31:56

because any business you will definitely need a database to  because they are already your customers so you have to keep them coming back. super, super.  So uh now we’re going to move on to the final part of our show which is the quickfire question. So we’re going to ask you a series of questions and then you try to answer in as short as you can. Okay. Alright so the first question over here is that who is someone in the industry that you respected a lot and you learn a lot from? uh Chef Andre Chiang. My  first fine  dining experience.

32:26

with him.  His storytelling through the food  is uh really amazing.  Recently went to his last dance in Raw.  He served his memories again and I can tell you it’s the only food that  I mean so far it’s the only food that I cry when I eat. I’m so jealous.  I’m reading his book,  the aesthetics of work is written in Chinese.  Taking me a long time to read through but uh in there there are…

32:52

of wisdom and I really  appreciate and admire his dedication to the craft.  What’s one piece of advice you would hope that someone had given you before you started your first outlet?

33:06

Just do it, don’t overthink. Don’t overthink. I’ve been overthinking, if I sell it at this price, would they want to eat it? Just Yeah,  then I’ll be worried. Just do it and let the food do the talking. If you have  a son or daughter that wants to join you as a third generation,  what would you tell him or her?  I will say the same thing to him, what my father told me. uh

33:32

It’s about serving the people, giving them access to delicious food  and don’t rip them off.  Super super.  If I were to dine with you in your outlet, let’s say next week and then of course we are friends and you’re gonna like show me your best dishes and the best experience, what would you order for me so that we have the best time in your outlet? Okay, ah I will first introduce you to our very traditional combination,  a grilled chicken with a burged ale and curry vegetable on rice and then a dollop of the summer

34:01

So that is something that we’ve been selling for 40 over years  And then maybe the next round I will tell you a why don’t you try a modern take  on KFC?  Fried chicken my serangoon fried chicken with a burgundy and coleslaw  coleslaw which I use a ginger flour to marinate so it cuts through all the gelat and then a dollop of sweet sambal How should someone listening to this podcast that wants to follow your brand or your journey follow you? um Our Instagram handle is sbc.1983

34:31

You see tons of interesting  content there. Really amazing content.

34:38

Yeah, that’s the only place.  so far, we are also on TikTok.  We’re trying to gather some following or some traction in TikTok. uh also, think, sbc.1983. have to ask Gabriel. He’s the guy who manages everything.  We’ll it at the bottom of the video later. um You know, if let’s say there’s an aspiring F &B entrepreneur that wants to learn from experience, know, given the fact that you’ve done traditional business to becoming such a  QSR kind of concept or McDonald-ified Nasi Batak experience, are you willing to

35:08

one coffee session with someone in our know following? Yeah I’m more than willing because my  past life I was a teacher and my portfolio was about… uh

35:20

nurturing and  mentoring students. So I’m also working with Spectra Secondary School  to offer internship for their Sec 3 students and Sec 4 kids  because it’s part of their requirements and things like that.  So I’m more than happy to do this. Super, super. If there’s like one final thing you’d like to share with our listeners,  what would it be before the end of our podcast? Thank you so much for all your support and if you have not eaten our food before, come try  because we are pretty confident that it will…

35:50

amaze you and keep you coming back. That’s super, super. Together we have Eugene from Serangoon BBQ and Curry.  And really today, amazing time to learn from your experiences and I wish you the best in scaling up. We need a local heritage brand like yours to punch above the weight and to be in every mall and I’m very, excited and rooting for you. All the best, Eugene. Thank you so much. Thank you. Super. Thank you.