Ex-MasterChef Contestant Behind ‘S’pore’s Best Pandan Cake’ At Tiap Tiap Treats Opens Physical Shop

How it all began 

Yeow, who first turned her love for cooking into an informal home-based business back in 2000, has hosted a private dining experience in her home for the last three years, over which she shares her love of Peranakan culture and allows guests to discover her expansive collection of vintage tea sets.

For the new shop, which has a decor theme “rooted in Singapore heritage”, she’s brought out her never-before-seen “upstairs collection” of chinaware. Coffee and tea are served to dine-in customers in these vintage cups and saucers. Instead of being precious about them, “I would rather this beautiful art is being used, admired and talked about,” she said.

“Are you crazy?”

Yeow is keenly aware of the current trepidation surrounding the volatile F&B industry. Opening a physical shop was not originally on her cards.

However, “two and a half years ago, Nicole said, ‘I want to leave my corporate job. I want to join you in your [F&B] venture’,” Yeow recounted. “I said, ‘Are you crazy? I’m only doing this as a hobby’.”

Lian, whose background is in systems engineering and product design, had been part of a small start-up. When the company began doing well, she started looking for the next challenge. Since her mum had built something of value, she wanted to see how she could take it to the next level.

Pitched biz idea to the family

On a family holiday in Japan where “we went on a vintage pottery hunt and looked for plates, cups and trinkets in every city we went to” and “had such a great time”, she had an epiphany about her parents. “I thought I had infinite time with them. Then I realised they are actually getting old. My mum built this business up to this level. I was thinking it could be a meaningful way to spend a lot of time with them and build something we can all be super proud of.”

And so, she put together a deck and sat the family down for a presentation. “I said, ‘Mum will be the CEO, Dad will be CFO, Nigel (her brother) will be in charge of R&D’. I remember the response from Dad was, ‘Nic, you know I want to retire soon. You are making me do a lot more work’!”

Mum’s response? “I told her, ‘I’ll give you two and a half years. If you cannot make it, you go back [to the corporate world]!’" Yeow said.

For Lian, it isn’t just about doing business. “We host all the time and people say, ‘Your food is so great’. It’s never just about the food,” she told us. “It’s about the people, the details, how you set the table. If you have the opportunity to come to Butterfly Table, you’ll know how much thought and care my mum puts into it. Our family has a knack for it. There’s something here that can touch everyone like it has touched me. And that’s what made me quit my job and do this risky business at this time with my family.”

Levelled up pandan chiffon cake 

Tiap Tiap Treats’ bestseller is their pandan chiffon cake, which is made with Japanese flour and hand-pressed pandan juice, Lian shared.

“I always tell people to smell it before they eat it. Their eyes pop,” said Yeow, who also came up with a gula melaka syrup for drizzling over the cake.

For the glucose intolerant, “I created a ‘guilt-free’ pandan chiffon cake” which uses monkfruit as a sweetener, she added. To get the texture just right, she worked on the recipe for half a year. “We sent it out to people with different blood sugar glucose monitors, and there was no spike in their sugar levels. Folks who have bought both versions to do a comparison have said they cannot tell the difference.”

Another bestseller is Yeow’s version of an ondeh-ondeh cake, which is “almost on par” with the pandan chiffon cake in popularity, she said.

She’s also proud of her muah chee, which is meant to be eaten cold and retains its soft texture in and out of the fridge.

Home-style savoury snacks and take-home meals 

A popular snack is the fish keropok made with mackerel, which goes well with sambal belacan.

There are also frozen take-home food items made from fresh ingredients, like paper-wrapped chicken, cottage pie, curry spiced chicken mid-wings and seafood you tiao. “I wanted these to be easy to prepare for busy execs or busy mums. You can just pull them out from the freezer. They are made with fresh meat. And, they come with cooking instructions.”

Everything in the shop is what their family enjoys. “If it doesn’t pass [muster] among the family, then we don’t launch it,” Lian said. “You’ll hear us say, ‘Can we put aside one chocolate rice cream cake – I want to take it home to eat tonight’. We enjoy the food we make because all the ingredients are top of the line.”

The chocolate rice cream cake, by the way, is inspired by the chocolate sprinkles-covered roll cakes found in neighbourhood bakeries. “I do it in a luxe way, with Van Houten chocolate rice and Valrhona dark chocolate bites,” Yeow said.

In their kaya, for example, which is sold in jars, “we use only egg yolks. It gives a much richer, umami depth to the kaya,” Lian said. 

Because of that, “the price point is also different (from other kayas). We hand stir it. Everything is done the traditional way, with a much more elevated flavour profile. These recipes came from my mum and they helped her stand out from the rest. People realised that this is actually quality stuff, and they don’t mind paying for it.”

Lian’s contribution to the menu is a banoffee pie, a dessert she grew addicted to when living abroad.

How mum & daughter learn from each other as biz partners

Going into business together – and spending so much time together – has helped Yeow and Lian find new ways to appreciate each other, and even discover new facets of their relationship.

Mum is “the one with the vision. She’s a classic example of what a CEO should be,” Lian said. “My background is in engineering, so I’m trying to build everything into systems: How can we make sure we build a structure we can scale? I feel everybody of my archetype needs somebody of my mum’s archetype.”

She added: “There’s a lot I can learn from her about how to run a business, connect with the right folks, brand the company, and what to focus on.”

One thing Yeow has learned about her daughter through the journey is that she is “very resilient,” she said. 

“Nicole handles criticisms a lot better than I do.” When difficult customers show up, “It really affects me. I have to step away. She says, ‘Let me handle it.’ And it seems to calm everything down. She’ll tell me, ‘It doesn’t matter. Our conscience is clear. Let’s move on.’ That helps me to calm down. I never knew or saw that in her [before].”

Lian mused: “I’ve only known my mum as someone who loves to eat, cook and host. [Now] I realise there are many things she does that give us good leverage as a business. I look to her for a lot of strategic reasoning. I was looking for a leader who was a visionary — I don’t think I saw that in her before in a mother-daughter dynamic, but I see it now that she’s my biz partner". 

Tiap Tiap Treats is at 374 East Coast Rd, S428981. Open Mon, Thur & Fri 8.30am to 3.30pm; Sat & Sun 8.30am to 6pm. Closed on Tue and Wed. More info via Instagram.

Photos: CNA/Kelvin Chia

Source: CNA/my

The original version of this story first appeared in CNA Lifestyle.

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