Madeline, a Singaporean, graduated from the London School of Economics, and used to be employed at a big corporate law firm in Singapore. But a combination of personal and professional upheavals over a year ago forced her to reconsider her calling in life. “We were doing commercial litigation, so it was just multi-million dollar companies suing people over some contract, it wasn’t exactly general justice,” Madeline says. Around the same time, she saw the troubling news of displaced Rohingya people in Myanmar on TV and things clicked into place for her. “This was happening right in our backyard, and if anyone needed a lawyer it was these people.” So in early 2019, Madeline quit her job and moved to Bangkok to work with a legal clinic called Centre for Asylum Protection, offering legal services to refugees passing through Thailand. 

There was a significant pay cut: “[I earned] about the wage of a Hai Di Lao waiter,” says Madeline, and the work — processing endless asylum appeals — was tough. Midway through her stint, Madeline wanted to find a more tangible way to help these refugees. “We’d work really hard on their appeal, and when they finally got their refugee status, they’d go ‘oh great, what do we get now?’ and the answer was nothing, all you get is a card that says you’re recognised, but you don’t get an education or medical benefits, or anything like that.” Madeline realised that what these refugees really needed was a steady income to help them get on their feet.

Madeline says existing programmes that help refugees make income, usually through the sale of hand-made traditional products like bags and embroidery, tend not to have a high enough demand. “I thought, what’s regular, what’s repeatable, consumable, something that people will buy again and again? Coffee in the CBD”. And so late last year, she started dreaming up a business back home in Singapore where she could find a way to channel income to refugees through a small coffee business. She returned to Singapore earlier this year and got a lease for the stall in August, sinking about $30,000 of her own cash into the project.

The income-generating feature here is the little stickers that come on the packaging. The stickers are printed in Thailand and sent to the homes of the resettled refugees to be coloured in and decorated. They get paid about SGD $0.50 per sticker and, with a monthly quota of roughly  200 stickers, Madeline says the income helps them to pay their rent. At the moment, the scale of the business is so small that she’s only supporting three people, but her hope is to start helping more families as the business grows. In the long term, Madeline says she still sees herself straddling both commercial law and social enterprise. “I think the humanitarian and commercial perspective have to go together. Having a foot in both worlds helps me ensure I don't float too far away from either reality.”

It’s a costly model for Madeline, which is why she’s still working part-time as a lawyer to help cover the overheads. “I’ve got a very understanding boss,” she shares. “It’s been a year of juggling two, three jobs, and I’m so tired,” she says between pulling shots of coffee, though her smiling, bubbly demeanour gives none of that away. Part of what keeps her going is her Christian faith, says Madeline, citing passages of the bible that refer to seeking justice in the world. “And I’m a lawyer, so if anyone is supposed to know what justice is, we’re technically the ones,” she says. 

Her retiree dad, James Chan, 58, a former electrical engineer, comes in to help sometimes, though she does most of the hawker duties herself. So too her banker boyfriend, though infrequently because of his job. “However, business isn’t too good,” she admits. The pandemic has not been kind to this usually-bustling food centre which sees its CBD customers mostly working from home now. Madeline points sadly to a pho stall next to hers that recently shuttered, and the unit next to it that’s been left vacant for weeks. It’s all a huge risk and she’s not even sure if this will take off. “[There’s] nothing definite. I guess I'll keep going until it fails or I die from exhaustion, whichever comes first.”

Madeline says her parents were initially dismayed by her new life decisions and tried to talk her out of it, hoping she would eventually change her mind. "Once they saw that I wasn't going to stop, it shifted to something like, ‘aiyah, guess we'd rather help her than watch her die’. And they've been nothing but crazy supportive ever since,” Madeline says. “I think my dad might even love the stall more than I do now.”

We’re already very impressed with Madeline’s dedication, but are bowled over when we learn that she had zero food skills until she threw herself into this business. To learn how to make coffee, she worked seven hour shifts — for free — at a cafe in Bangkok, juggling this with her lawyering job for almost three months. Armed with new skills, she’s launched a small and simple menu: espresso-based coffee drinks and funky lattes, as well as hearty slices of brioche toast.

The brioche is what catches our attention. They’re crusty-on-the-outside tender-on-the-inside laminated breads, made by folding copious amounts of butter into the dough, kind of a cross between a cake, bread and croissant. It’s a fussy style of bread to make for someone who, prior to this, had never even baked bread before. Madeline said she saw laminated brioche trending on Instagram and so zoomed in on this one recipe to be the star item at her shop. On her return from Bangkok, she spent the circuit breaker developing her recipe from a combination of cookbooks and the Internet. She now makes ten or so loaves every day from 5am at a baking studio she rents out. The brioche is available in three flavours (basically the same enriched dough given various flavour treatments): Plain, Chocolatey Babka, and Cinnamon, available by the slice for $2, slightly warmed. They’re rotated daily and only one flavour is available each day. 

For a bread making noob, Madeline’s brioche is delicious. On the day it’s freshly baked, the craggy, caramelised surface is crunchy and toasty, and the moist, feathery crumb is sinfully buttery. She developed the recipe over the circuit breaker and says she picked this fussy dough over simpler options to tap into the more upmarket tastes of the CBD crowd. We bring some home and have them the next day: they dry out a little bit but come back to life with a quick toast, and are still very flavourful.

This Cinnamon loaf is swirled through with cinnamon sugar. It’s not overly sweet, and has just enough of the spice to lend some warmth without overpowering the rich bread. If you order it by the slice, it comes on its own without any spreads (the plain brioche comes with a smear of salted caramel).

Babka is a traditional Jewish enriched bread (like brioche) that is braided and often filled with chocolate. Madeline’s version is showered with a buttery, salted chocolate crumble, and there’s a sophisticated bitterness to the swirls of gooey dark choc within the loaf. It all comes together in mouthfuls of crunchy, croissant-like crust, sweet-salty chocolate, and soft buttery crumb. A winner. By the slice, it comes with a slathering of custard and extra salted chocolate crumble.

We really enjoy the four types of espresso-based drinks here too (from $2.80 for an espresso shot to $3.80 for a flat white), available hot and over ice. The espresso is nutty and a touch bitter, made with a custom blend of Ethiopian and Ugandan beans, roasted locally. Those gruelling days in the Bangkok cafe pay off: Madeline makes good coffee, with silky-smooth frothed milk and pretty latte art to boot.

But it’s the flavoured lattes that steal our heart. The Honey Butter Latte is like a cup of sunshine, inspired by Madeline’s favourite Korean honey butter almond snack. A homemade emulsion of melted butter, honey, and sea salt is added to the bottom of the cup and topped up with steamed milk and a shot of espresso for a wonderfully silky, butterscotch like latte. For $0.50 extra, we like it over ice, a more grown up version of the syrupy, sickly-sweet chain-coffee versions.

Made with first-flush Tencha green tea powder from Nishio in Japan. The latte has a good amount of earthy matcha flavour, perfectly offset with a touch of sugar and the natural sweetness of milk. Madeline also makes us a “dirty matcha latte,” adding a shot of espresso to our iced drink which makes it a lot more rich and complex. Both are great.

Think of this as the millennial’s idea of kopi and toast: flavoured lattes with homemade brioche. Slices of sophisticated, flavourful bread paired with excellent, comforting espresso-based drinks. Everything is delicious and priced competitively versus those from cafes. Each paper cup comes with a colourful sticker and a little note from a refugee the business is directly benefiting, which is both sobering and meaningful. We really hope this business takes off. 

#02-107, Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Road, S069111. Open daily except Sun. Mon-Fri 8am-3pm, Sat 11am-2PM. www.madroaster.biz

Photos: Aik Chen

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