Running a hawker stall for 18 years is no mean feat, but Francis Lai, 66, took it a notch further when he transformed his popular herbal soup stall at Chinatown Complex Food Centre into a fusion Western eatery that specialises in omelettes, appropriately named Omelette Chef. He now runs the stall dressed amusingly in chef’s whites and a puffy black toque (his wife Doreen who also works here is attired normally). But it isn’t just a gimmick — the chatty man used to wear a similar uniform when he last worked as head chef at the now-defunct Hotel Malaysia about 20 years ago.
His new menu is refreshingly straightforward — just pick a topping for your omelette, and choose your carb of either spaghetti or Japanese rice (both are topped with sauteed mushrooms). All options are priced at $5 — “we want to make it easy for our customers to pick.”
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1/121/12From old-school soup stall to funky omelette shop -
2/122/12No regrets leaving their comfort zone -
3/123/12Hotel chef background -
4/124/12Perfect timing -
5/125/12Humpty Dumpty-inspired logo -
6/126/12Oui, chef -
7/127/12Let’s talk omelettes -
8/128/12Smoked Duck, $5 (8 Days Pick!) -
9/129/12Dried Chicken Satay, $5 -
10/1210/12Creamy Mushroom Soup, $2.50 (or $2 with any combo) -
11/1211/12Bottom line -
12/1212/12The details