‘It’s a risk but I’m glad I took this path’: Ex-restaurant chef opens hawker stall, finds it more ‘fulfilling’, Lifestyle News
Lifestyle
Take one look at Louis Saw’s resume and you’d be pretty impressed.
The 30-year-old chef has spent a third of his life working at various restaurants, coffee shops and hawker stalls, including big names like Prive, Josh’s Grill and Quan Ji.
He’s even had the experience of running several F&B businesses with friends.
But after over a decade of cooking in various environments, Louis decided that he preferred the hawker life.
So, he set up a stall of his own at Hong Lim Food Centre, which officially opened on June 2 this year.
Nanyang Fried Chicken Rice sells exactly what its name says — fried chicken and rice.
Curious about Louis’ journey, we paid him a visit one weekday afternoon to hear his story — and try some of his fried chicken, of course.
Lifestyle Inspiration from his grandmother, skills on the job
Louis grew up with good food because of his beloved maternal grandmother.
“She is one heck of a cook,” he told us proudly.
After completing his National Service (NS), he decided to pursue his passion for cooking.
This was despite only having basic culinary skills he had picked up from his grandma.
His very first full-time job as a chef was at contemporary restaurant Prive’s Wheelock branch, where he got to work with group executive chef Robin Ho.
“I learned a lot from him,” Louis told us gratefully.
After a two-year stint at Prive, his friend, whose mother owned a coffee shop in Eunos, invited him to open a stall with him within the same coffee shop.
It was called The Plug Food Co. and it specialised in Western grub.
Unfortunately, running a Western food stall was no easy feat and Louis and his friend struggled to keep it afloat, especially since there was a lack of manpower.
“Western food preparation is very heavy and during that period, it was quite hard finding the right people to hire,” explained Louis.
“We eventually found that this business model was not very sustainable in the long run so we decided to let it go.”
So, they shuttered The Plug Food Co. after a year of operations.
That didn’t deter the duo and they opened another business in a coffee shop selling prawn noodles.
However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the pair had to close that down too.
Taking a break from the coffee shop scene, Louis worked at Mama Mia Trattoria E Caffe and Josh’s Grill, which are under the same parent company, Minor Food Singapore.
He worked at both restaurants for a year and a half, after which he jumped to Quan Ji, a popular zi char stall at Amoy Street Food Centre.
Though he enjoyed the work and guidance there, a part of him itched to set up a business of his own.
Lifestyle 6 months of R&D and $20,000 later
Fried chicken is one of Louis’ favourite foods.
He especially loves those that are typically found in hawker or coffee shop settings which are served with a side of fragrant oiled rice — known to some as the soul of traditional Hainanese chicken rice.
Growing up, he and his mum would enjoy the dish together at the now-defunct Carona Chicken, which was one of the most famous fried chicken rice stalls in Singapore.
“Every culture has their own fried chicken,” Louis pointed out, calling the one in Singapore a “local staple”.
He also believes that it deserves the same recognition as other popular local dishes.
“I feel that this dish belongs to Singapore and it should stand alongside our traditional steamed chicken rice, fishball noodles and char kway teow. I think it is part of our hawker identity,” said Louis.
For these reasons, it just made sense for him to specialise in it.
But first, he had to create the perfect fried chicken.
Despite already cooking for hours on end at his full-time job, Louis would spend his remaining free time after work doing R&D in his parents’ kitchen.
“I got scolded by my parents, they said I made a mess,” he told us with a chuckle.
It took him over six tedious months to nail the recipe of his chicken.
“For the batter, there are so many types of flours and starches to combine, so it was really like a chemistry lesson,” he recounted.
One would imagine that having to taste test so many batches of fried chicken would get cloying after a while.
But Louis surprisingly didn’t get sick of it.
“As a fried chicken enthusiast, it was still okay. I still had cravings for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) even though I saw fried chicken everyday,” he admitted to us.
Another thing he struggled to get right was the fragrant oiled rice, which he had no experience in cooking. He also didn’t have a recipe to follow.
“The rice was actually more problematic than the chicken,” he lamented.
So after some YouTube tutorials as well as trial and error, he came up with his own rendition of the rice.
In fact, it took him over 20 tries to get what he felt was the perfect bowl of fragrant oiled rice.
As for the stall, it took Louis several months to find an ideal hawker centre to set up shop at.
And while Hong Lim Food Centre is in a decent, central part of Singapore, it was actually not Louis’ first choice.
He shared that he had wanted to open somewhere in the heart of the Central Business District (CBD), like Amoy Street Food Centre. Unfortunately, there were no available units.
Louis pooled together his savings and pumped around $20,000 into the business, including investing in new equipment, the signboard and paying the rental deposit.
Lifestyle A difficult but ‘fulfilling’ career
It’s no surprise that being a hawker isn’t a walk in the park.
For Louis, it can get especially hectic because most of the time, it’s a one-man show, save for days when his mother has time to come down and lend a hand.
“As a hawker, you are basically everything. You’re the service staff, the cashier, the kitchen staff,” he said.
“Unlike a restaurant chef, hawkers also need to engage with people. Restaurant chefs are in the kitchen, they just need to cook.”
Despite the work being harder, Louis told us that he prefers being a hawker.
“Being a hawker is more fulfilling. You get to meet people, you get to talk to people from all walks of life. And my fellow hawker neighbours have all been nice too,” he shared, adding that the older hawkers have been taking care of him because he is young.
“Our hawker culture is really a very vibrant, amazing part of our culture. And I think our street food is top and can be compared to so many countries in the world.”
This is despite him feeling that it’s an unpredictable career path.
“Honestly, being a hawker is a risk. It’s a risk to not take home a comfortable monthly salary and do this. But I’m glad I took this path and I am very happy to be part of Singapore’s hawker culture,” he told us sincerely.
In the future, Louis does hope to open a second stall elsewhere but this would depend on whether he can find a suitable person to hire.
“I think we hawkers really face a labour crunch because no one wants to do the job. We can’t offer high salaries or benefits either,” pointed out Louis.
“If there’s another F&B role with a similar salary but in a another location that is air-conditioned, that role already wins.”
Lifestyle No-nonsense fried chicken
Louis described his chicken to us as “very local”with influences from other hawker-style fried chicken like har cheong gai (prawn paste chicken).
He also does not use as much spices as compared to what is normally found in Western-style fried chicken.
Instead, his simple recipe consists of ingredients like white pepper powder and sesame oil.
I’ll be honest and say that when I visited Louis’ stall to try his food, I had planned to only eat half of it and take away the rest as I had already eaten lunch.
I ended up finishing every single bit of chicken because I couldn’t help myself — it was too delicious.
His menu is pretty straightforward. You can get either chicken wings or cutlet with fragrant oiled rice.
I got the Wings Meal ($5.50) which comes with two chicken drumlets and wings with rice, pickled cucumber, and a side of chicken broth simmered with pieces of winter melon.
Customers can also top up $1.20 for cabbage or coleslaw and I got the coleslaw.
Just as Louis had described, the seasoning of the chicken was indeed on the lighter side.
But that didn’t mean that it was bland. It was still well marinated and tasty.
The hard work Louis put in the rice also paid off because it was cooked well and not too greasy. Considering that he came up with the recipe from scratch, it was pretty impressive.
What surprised me, though, was the chicken broth. Usually, traditional chicken rice comes with a bland bowl of soup that doesn’t add much value to the dish.
But Louis’ rendition, which is the by-product from making the fragrant oiled rice, is pretty concentrated. I also love how he added the cubed winter melons to give the soup some bite.
Louis told me that his coleslaw is also inspired by the one from KFC, one of his favourites.
And I must say, he did a good job in replicating it. In fact, I may prefer his version because it’s creamier.
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