The Singaporean chef-turned-hawker creating a food empire built on lor bak
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The Singaporean chef-turned-hawker creating a food empire built on lor bak
William Liou is the man backside Mr Lorbak and House Of Happiness. Not simply does he have a winning braised pork recipe, he's too able to view the F&B business from all perspectives.
William Liou left a high-flying task in eatery direction to get a hawker. (Photo: Mark Lee)
nineteen Jul 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 10 Jul 2022 02:33AM)
William Liou is the man who's ameliorate known as "Mr Lorbak" (no outset name, in case yous were wondering). Mr Lorbak is a jolly, bespectacled hawker who sells tender braised pork served over rice. William Liou, on the other hand, is a trained chef, restaurant manager, astute man of affairs and industrious dishwasher, all rolled into i.
Information technology was only 2 years ago that Liou left the eating place life behind – he was the group general manager of Sprmrkt at the time, and had previously been a chef – to follow his dream of having his own little place. Merely in that brusque time, he says, his hawker business, which he started with S$5,000, at present operates at a half dozen-figure value, making as much, if not more, than a eating place.
After the first Mr Lorbak stall opened in 2022 to rave reviews, there's at present a brand new Mr Lorbak outlet at Neil Route, as well equally an eatery in Bedok called House Of Happiness that serves up claypot rice dishes in addition to lor bak and traditional Chinese comfort food. And on pinnacle of that, Liou has five more concepts upward his sleeve that he's already developing.
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The underground to his success is simple. "Fearfulness," he quipped. "I doubt myself every single day. But I utilise it in a adept manner."
LEAVING THE Loftier LIFE
In Liou'southward storied career, he's been involved in opening and running restaurants such equally Kite and Vino Connectedness. And what those experiences have taught him is that overconfidence and self-approbation are the biggest hindrances to success.
"I've seen a lot of restaurant owners who are so egoistic, so proud, so confident in what they accept. They think, 'I'll hire the all-time chef, eating place manager, general manager and bartender. We have the whole package. There'south no reason to fail.' These are always the offset restaurants to fail," he said.
In fact, the 33-year-old has had experience in all aspects of F&B. He started out as a humble dishwasher who dreamt of owning a restaurant when he saw the owners drinking and enjoying themselves. Then, "One twenty-four hour period, I watched my chef walk out of the eating place. And the business organisation closed for the 24-hour interval. So, I decided that if I wanted to open my ain eating place, I needed to know how to cook."
Afterwards training at Shatec, he worked his way up to sous chef at Copthorne Rex'southward Hotel earlier taking on management roles and assuming front-of-business firm roles, such as running the now-closed The Report with Jason Atherton.
Opening his own stall was a chance, he admits. Then, why did he leave a job that flew him around the earth to consume at restaurants similar Eleven Madison Park for inquiry purposes, in favour of becoming a hawker?
"I'm a fourth-generation hawker boy," said Liou, whose female parent used to run a rojak stall. In his previous chore, "On my days off, I just wanted to have my char kway teow, carrot cake and chicken rice. And I get very bellyaching – more than I should, it's literally none of my business organization – when I meet people from other countries cooking our food. I say this with the deepest respect for other countries. If you have a man from People's republic of china cooking in a ban mian stall, I tin promise you that will be a very good ban mian. Only if a man from China is cooking chicken rice, so the whole dish will be different – not because of skill or technique, only just because the palate is very dissimilar. I feel like Singaporeans are not setting out to do our own hawker food and we're losing our identity," he said.
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For Liou, lor bak is an of import function of his identity. "When I visited my grandmother's house as a child, she always cooked lor bak for me. And every time my friends came over to my house, my mum would cook information technology," he said. The recipe he's developed is his mother'south, passed down from his maternal grandmother. It uses 18 spices and herbs, and requires 22 hours of braising. It's and so authentic that customers in their 40s and 50s often tell him the dish reminds them of their grandmothers. One customer, who bought a takeaway, afterwards reported that her female parent was moved to tears by the quondam-school taste.
THE HARD KNOCK LIFE
With this rockstar dish, Liou idea that setting up and running a one-man functioning would be a walk in the park – just lessons needed to be learnt along the way.
"I wanted to evidence that with sufficient planning, it could be done easily," he said. "Oh, I couldn't have been more wrong. I was so, and then wrong. Yeah, it'due south easy to cook – you only dump everything into a pot. It's very easy to launder upward. But when y'all have to sell, cook and wash at the same fourth dimension, and you're lonely, and you're working fifteen to 16 hours a twenty-four hour period, that is when all the force per unit area starts kicking in."
For nine months, he ran himself into the basis. "My stall opened at 11am. By 12.30pm, I was sold out. That wasn't good for business organization. So I had no selection just to work overnight. There was 1 day I worked for 22 hours and I didn't fifty-fifty realise it," he said.
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The truth was that "I was being stubborn. I had this philosophy that it's a one-man job – just plan your work and it can be done."
In the tenth month, he caved in and hired an employee. And in that same month, he was able to open a second outlet. "I simply needed ane person in order to aggrandize," he said.
There have been other setbacks along the way, such as an outlet in Kovan that had to close, simply those are valuable learning lessons, besides.
And these days, Liou accepts assistance – most of all from his mum, whom he describes as his "consultant". When he comes up with a new dish, he takes information technology to her for her stance, and they tweak the recipe together. "In a way, being in this business immune me to spend a lot more fourth dimension with my mum. One time a calendar week, nosotros spend nearly two or three hours in the kitchen merely cooking together," he said.
This is in spite of his mum initially disapproving of his decision to become a hawker – she knew, from experience, that it was a difficult life.
"To me, cooking is a very intimate matter. When I melt, there is a lot of honey. I ever imagine what my mum would desire me to cook. Would she corroborate of me putting MSG in the soup? No. Okay. Another five hours it is," he said. "There is a large difference in simple things similar adding MSG and not – you could have the aforementioned kind of nutrient and pay the same rental rate, simply if y'all employ MSG, you lot could become home five hours before."
THE IDEAL LIFE
Liou works hard to reconcile the contradiction he sees between existence a cook and running a business concern.
"When I cook for you, I allow you lot to see things from my betoken of view. I welcome you lot into my world. Especially with something like lor bak, I'm sharing my babyhood and memories with yous. Doing concern, in a nutshell, is to make coin. I is a very warm thing; one is a very cold thing. Then, as a food business owner, you have to notice out what the rest is," he said. For example, one must know that "although yous get better gross profit with a cheaper ingredient, information technology will not be able to showcase the history of the food."
Every bit a next-generation hawkerpreneur, what does he think is virtually necessary for growing the hawker scene today?
"A lot of hawkers take been voicing out about rental and manpower – the two things that have been holding u.s.a. back. But very fiddling has been pointed out about how the full general public are not willing to spend money on hawker nutrient," he said.
"Sometimes they say (online), 'Y'all're selling one lor bak rice for Southward$3.50. I've tasted it. It'southward so-so.' Or, 'Very expensive. Taiwan cheaper.' I make well-nigh 80 to 90 cents per bowl of rice, and I work 15 hours a day. When you lot say things like these, it's very hurtful." He mimed beingness stabbed in the heart.
There is a lot of online bullying of hawkers, he said, and when he sees slurs directed at other hawkers, he makes it a bespeak to write back, suggesting that they take their feedback directly to the hawker in person. "I stand upwardly for my beau hawkers… fifty-fifty if I've never tried that guy'south food," he said. "Many people don't have respect for hawkers."
If people were more supportive, he thinks, information technology would be easier for the "many talented young chefs I know who are waiting for the chance to come out and play" to do their own thing – and that would be practiced for the dining scene, besides. "Ix restaurants out of 10 are not making good for you profit. They're all very stressed out. So, running a hawker stall makes a lot more than sense," he said.
Mr Lorbak is at 350 Ubi Ave one and 120 Neil Road. House Of Happiness is at 294 Bedok Route.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/dining/kitchen-stories-mr-lorbak-250871
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