Ernest Ang first took interest in learning how to cook his grandmother’s dishes three years ago. He developed a passion for cooking when he was 16 years old, and at 20, decided that he wanted to learn his grandma’s recipes for fun, since he grew up eating them. Like him, his grandma used to run a small Peranakan eatery before he was born, which operated for roughly 10 years before shuttering due to family issues.
So after months of prodding his popo to impart her expertise, his persistence paid off.
“I kept ‘poking’ her, and every time she cooked for us, I helped her prep. I observed [her cooking], and over time she gave in more and more,” he said.
Why is granny so secretive about her recipes? “There’s no right and wrong recipe when it comes to Peranakan food. Every Peranakan household recipe varies and they cherish it like a precious gem,” she explained cryptically.
Ang added: “Because of her declining memory and health, it took her some time to recognise my passion for cooking [and finally share her recipes]”. If he ever hires a cook to help out at his eatery, he admits he probably won’t be able to give them the full recipes.
However, he proudly said that everything on the menu has attained his grandma’s hard-earned stamp of approval: “She has to approve [and taste all the dishes] first, before I add it to the menu”.
As we’d expect from Ang’s traditional grandma, the elder’s initial reaction to his business was not the most enthusiastic.
“She was like, ‘why don’t you want to get a job outside?’, ’cause in my grandma’s experience, the F&B industry is not very stable. Initially, she was not very supportive of it. But she supports everything I do, so if I insist, she’s okay with it,” he said.
Now, the elder has come around, and even paid half of Ang’s S$80,000 (US$61,980) investment to open the eatery, while he forked out the remaining S$40,000 using savings from part-time jobs he took on while studying in poly.
But why did Ernest Ang, who has a diploma in Electronics from Nanyang Polytechnic, decide to open his own restaurant?
“When I ORD’ed, I wanted to go and work ’cause I don’t like studying. But the job market was bad, and my CV wasn’t strong, so I got quite a lot of job rejections,” he shared. Ang told us he applied for F&B jobs as an operations manager, as he doesn’t enjoy engineering.
Though six weeks is a short time to stop his job hunt, he said he got the idea to start his business after discussing it with his friends, who encouraged him to do it. His parents, who work in entirely different industries (his dad runs a business selling sensors, while his mum works in HR), were also supportive from the get-go.
“My parents are quite supportive, they don’t object to what I want to do as long as I can give them a good reason for why I want to do it,” he said.
He added: “I looked into why most F&B businesses fail, and asked my friends [who have parents in the] scene also. The cash flow is good initially, but when there’s no stable product, it can only last so long until the business starts losing money. But when I look at it, my product quality is definitely okay, since it’s my grandma’s recipe. And unlike many people in the scene, I don’t come in just for the cash grab.
“Of course, money is important but it’s more about honouring my grandma’s recipes.”