I accidentally ran the full 42 km marathon more than 30 years ago when I was 12 years old.
This was how it happened. We were a bunch of restless kids looking for 'free' things to do I had just finished my PSLE and my brother TM and I were spending the carefree post exam days hanging out with the boys in the neighbourhood, most of whom were older than I. A motley bunch we were, a group of Chinese, Malay, Indian kids aged between 12 - 18 years old, my brother TM was 15 and I, at 12 years old, was amongst the youngest of the group. Looking back, I realised how 'uncommon' it would be to find such a 'grouping' today, the parents of today wouldn't have approved. 'Good' kids of today would not be found hanging out aimlessly with other kids in the neighbourhood, they are too pre-occupied with the parents approved and 'funded' enrichment programmes, school CCAs and overseas holiday trips with their parents. All of us didn't have any 'electronic gadgets' to occupy us, there was no such thing as computers, video games or mobile phones then and many in the group didn't even have TVs at home. So we did what kids then do, we spent our days looking for outlets to expend our boundless energies, We joined and represented the neighbourhood Community Centre (Kallang CC) in inter-CC competitions. We also formed our own informal teams and competed amongst ourselves in soccer, basketball and other non-Olympic sports we created, such as the 'Throwing Slippers Contest' where we would draw a line on the ground and stand in a line about 20 metres away to then try throw our slippers to land as close to the line as possible, with the losers having to piggyback the winners as a penalty The only thing we had in abundance was time and restless energies. We didn't have much money, so we had to look for things to do that were 'free' and went to places within walking distances or nearby places where the bus fares did not cost too much. So one fine day in December 1980, one of the guys suggested we go join this 'mass run' on a Sunday that would start off from the old National Stadium which was about half an hour walk from our neighbourhood, it was called a 'marathon'. The full run was about 42km long but we could stop at any point along the way without completing the full 42km if we could not take it. I thought why not, I had joined the neighbourhood gang on a number of 10km walkathons, jogathons before and thought this would be no different. 'The Third Singapore Marathon' in 1980 So on the 7th of December 1980, which was a Sunday, together with my 15 yr old brother TM, a small bunch of us gathered at about 4 am and walked to the National Stadium for the start of the 'mass run'. I didn't plan to nor thought I could run the full 42 km, the plan was for me to stick close to my brother during the run and try to run as far as I could and see where we would end up, probably at the 10 km mark or at best the 20 km mark. I brought along v little money and I didn't bring my student bus pass. There was no such thing as EZlink cards then, and we had to buy a monthly student bus concession stamp to stick onto our student bus pass for free student travel but it being the school holidays, we didn't buy the monthly bus stamp. So it was critical for me to stick close to my elder brother so that we could make our way home together from whichever point of the run that we end up stopping. So at about 5 am or thereabout, together with thousands of other runners, we were flagged off at the National Stadium. So off we went and as according to plan, I stuck close to my brother, jogged along behind him, always keeping him within my sight. Brother, brother, where are you? Then it happened. It was somewhere between the 5th to the 10th km mark. I suddenly realised that I was separated from my brother, I could not no longer see him amongst mass of runners in front of me. I was not worried, I must have been too slow for him and he must be just a bit ahead of me and all I had to do was run a bit faster to catch up and I should be able to find him in no time. So I upped my pace and continued running. And soon I reached the 10km mark. Although before the start of the run, we had agreed to just try to run as far as we could manage, I had thought that 10km would likely be where we would stop as that was longest distance I had ever run up till then. But then my brother was still nowhere in sight. And I had a decision to make, if I did not stop then to exchange my runner identification for a 1/4 Marathon certificate, I would have to continue running till the 20km mark before I can have the chance to get a certificate. And once past this point, if I did not manage to complete the 20km, I would not get any certificates at all. I decided to continue running. I was sure my brother was running or waiting just a little ahead of me. Brother, brother, where are you? I realised that I no longer had a choice. I was fast tiring. And before long, I wasn't able to run continuously any more and had to stop to walk to rest a bit every now and then. But my brother was still nowhere in sight. So I continued running. Midway through the 10th to 20th km mark. It dawned on me. I am now in unfamiliar territories in many ways. I had never run beyond 10 km before, I had no clue where I was, my brother was nowhere in sight and I didn't know how to get home even if I were to give up and stop running at that point. I no longer I had a choice. I either catch up with my brother who must be just a little ahead of me in the run or I had to complete the whole marathon to end up back at the National Stadium so that I can walk home from there. For the first time, I began to panick a little. I must find my brother soon or I could be 'stranded'. So despite my tiredness, I pressed on and resumed running. I had no choice. Lamp post by lamp post. Soon I was approaching the 20 km mark. However it was no longer a matter of deciding whether I should stop to exchange for a 1/2 Marathon certificate any more. I needed to find my brother fast or risk being stranded in some unfamiliar place without any clue or enough money to get home. I still vividly remember this particular stretch in the route. I think it was somewhere in Ang Mo Kio, it was straight, long, sloping upwards and lined with trees and street lamp posts. I was in pain and had wanted to give up but I knew I had to keep going. Every time that I entertained thoughts of giving up, I would look for some lamp post ahead and tell myself that my brother could be waiting there at that particular lamp post and I just needed to continue running that little bit more to reach that lamp post to find him. But then of course, he was not there and I would then look for another lamp post a little further ahead and told myself the same thing and made myself aim for that new lamp post target. So I began to choose lamp posts about a hundred metres ahead, kept encouraging myself that my brother must be waiting under that lamp post, aimed for the lamp post only to find, as expected, that my brother was not there. So I kept repeating the same drill. Focusing and targeting a lamp post a hundred metres ahead at a time, I just kept running. It was getting more and more painful but focusing, one at a time, on a target that's visible ahead helped me forget the pain. Orchard Road By the 20th to 30th km mark, I no longer entertained any more hope of finding my brother and accepted that I had to complete the marathon in order to get home. Soon I realised that there were fewer and fewer runners around me. I was falling way behind in the pack. I didn't know the time, it must be late in the morning as it was certainly getting brighter and warmer quite quickly. Before long, I found myself running somewhere along Orchard Road. I was so far behind in the pack that many of the drinks and first aid stations along the route had already started packing up when I reached them. I was getting cramps and had to take longer and longer breaks in between my run. The old National Stadium flood lights towers -So near yet so far The last 5 km was along Nicoll Highway leading to the finish point of the 42km marathon, the old National Stadium, which has since been torn down. Soon the National Stadium's iconic flood light tower became visible in the distance. I was elated, the finish point was finally near and within sight! But the final stretch was the hardest. The cramps in my legs were getting more frequent and more excruciatingly painful. I was in so much pain and the National Stadium's flood light towers, unlike the lamp posts I had used as target boards earlier, they discouraged instead of encouraging me. Many many painful minutes of running would go by and the flood light towers would still not look any bigger and the National Stadium itself would still not come into view and the finishing point would still look nowhere nearer. It was really discouraging. So I decided to stop looking at the National Stadium flood light towers in the distance and instead went back to my earlier 'strategy' of looking for lamp posts about a hundred metres ahead to use as short term target boards to aim at. So lamp post to lamp post I pushed on, again. I finally made it. I was not sure how many hours it took, but I finally made it to the National Stadium, ran that final lap around the running track and crossed the finishing line. I made it. Finally. I must be one of last few hundreds that day to cross the finishing line before the cut-off time that the organisers had allowed for awarding the official certificate for those completing the marathon. I remember I was not even elated when I collected the certificate for completing the full marathon issued by the organisers, the Jogging Association of Singapore (see picture below). I was just too tired and in too much pain, I just wanted to go home.
I carried that day's 'lamp post by lamp post' with me ever since
Ever since that day, in the more than 30 years since that accidental marathon, I've carried a 'lamp post by lamp post' attitude with me. Every single time that I was faced with a seemingly impossible task or challenge, I would recall that fateful day running along that arduous uphill stretch somewhere in Ang Mo Kio when I first experienced how to keep myself going by targeting one lamp post at a time. I would also remember how I got discouraged by the 'so near yet so far' National Stadium flood lights tower. So whenever I am faced with adversity or a painful journey or season, I would keep the 'stadium lights' (the end point) in my mind and but at the same time focus my sight on the next immediate furthest yet visible 'lamp post' (next manageable milestone or target) and just press on lamp post by lamp post. It had since helped me overcome countless seemingly impossible challenges that I would otherwise not be able to. Brother, where were you? Oh, back to the story of the accidental marathon. So after collecting my full marathon certificate at the finishing point at the National Stadium, I embarked on the 30 minutes' walk home. When I finally reached home, I saw my brother at home. I asked, 'Brother, where were you?!!???' My brother replied, 'I lost you somewhere before the 10km mark, I thought you had given up and gone home, so I stopped and came home to look for you after the 10 km mark." Me, '............................................................' *Advice to young readers To young readers, I would not advise you to attempt what I did above. It can be damaging to your health and even dangerous to attempt the marathon at a young age, especially without proper training, adequate preparation and physical conditioning. By the way, I was bed bound and wasn't able to walk for 3 days after the marathon.
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My first week as a cook
I will never ever forget the first week of my life as a cook. The Snack Culture Company, which later evolved to become the current The Bento People , opened for business on the 24th of November 2014. And for its first weeks of operations, I was the only cook manning the kitchen. Without any prior experience in this, I had neither the knowledge of the processes nor the relationships with suppliers that makes a commercial kitchen ticks. I had to rely on sheer common sense and determination. My day would start at about 3am - getting ingredients and other supplies for the day from the 24hr NTUC at Nex or the wet market at Toa Payoh lorong 6 near my home. With the operations still so new and without any clear visibility on the amount needed of each ingredient for each day of business, I was not able to get my supplies delivered by any trade suppliers yet (of course then, I also didn't know who the major trade suppliers were since I was so new to this) And by about 4am I would be in the kitchen doing 'mise en place' ( a nice sounding french phrase for preparation of ingredients necessary for cooking during meal service ), i.e. washing, cutting and part cooking of ingredients. And by 12 noon, the hungry office lunch crowd would come and it would be a frentic 2 hours of multi-tasking, handling multiple frying pans and many other kitchen equipment all at the same time. This would be followed by stewarding (another nice sounding word for something a lot more mundane - washing of dishes and cleaning of kitchen) and other necessary work to keep the place running and ready for the next day. And it would be about 10pm before we would be able to roll down the shutters to call it a day. My wife, my 17 year old son (sacrificing his end of JC1 year end holidays to help us) and I would head to some coffeeshop for some food (usually our first meal of the night or even the day) before heading home. We would usually reach home no earlier than 11pm and get to bed no earlier than 12 midnight. Then at 2am I would crawl out of bed again to head to the supermarkets or wet markets to get the ingredients needed for the day so as to reach the outlet by 3am to do the necessary mise en place. That was my daily routine for the first weeks of our operations. I of course knew this was not sustainable and I needed to get help and also to get things in the kitchen better organised but until then, I really had no other choice and just had to soldier on. Buay Chye, God and I Soon, concerned friends were telling me to hire a cook fast before I collapse out of exhaustion. It was easier said than done, F&B manpower was notoriously scarce and in any case, I really didn't have any time nor the energy left after managing the day's work, to put up job ads, call up or interview candidates. One morning at about 4 am, I was doing the usual mise en place in the kitchen, this time soaking and cutting 'buay chye' , the chinese preserved mustard green used in the popular chinese preserved vegetable pork belly dish (梅菜扣肉). I had on the menu then a 'Hakka Hitsumabushi' that I created that consisted of 'buay chye' (梅菜), a minced pork and a Japanese style dashi tofu soup. Both my son and I loved this dish that I created, homey, hearty and yet interesting because it was meant to be eaten the same special way that people would enjoy the grilled eel dish in Nagoya with rice and soup - hence the name 'Hakka Hitsumabushi'. But what I didn't know when I started serving this dish on the menu was how painstaking it was to prepare the buay chye. Preparing a portion big enough for the family was a 'bit' different from preparing a portion size big enough for the hungry lunch crowd. It was very very tedious and time consuming - soaking, washing and cutting the buay chye. So there I was that day in the kitchen, 4am and alone, cutting buay chye, struggling with a knife not sharp enough for the task and getting painful blisters on my hand. I was exhausted, I was demoralised and I was desperate, I then started speaking to and 'grumbling' to God as I cut the buay chye. I told God I was not sure how much longer I could take this before I collapse, I told God I didn't want to spend the next few months cutting buay chye at 4am in the morning, I told God I really needed help and I didn't have the time or energy to put up job ads to look for cooks and in any case I didn't have any confidence that anyone would apply given how small and unknown we were then and nor would I have any time or energy to shortlist and interview candidates even if they did apply. So there I was, cutting buay chye, doing mise en place, grumpling and talking to God, asking for help. The day I fell off my chair The next few days went by like before. Woke at 2-3am to go to the supermarkets/wet markets, mise en place, including washing and cutting buay chye, in the kitchen from 4-5am and reaching home at about midnight before repeating the same cycle again. Then a few days later, it happened. It was about 5-6 pm that day, my wife Janice and I were seated at a table somewhere near the entrance of the outlet, resting, exhausted from the day's work, as usual. Then out of nowhere, this lady appeared at the entrance and she seemed to be looking for someone. Hair a bit dishevelled, I reckon her to be in her 50s, she certainly wasn't looking like she had planned for or dressed up for a day out with friends. 'Hi, errr, you looking for someone?' I asked. '这里有没有一个 Mr Chia ? (Is there a Mr Chia here?)' she replied. Perplexed, I responded, '这里没有Mr Chia, 我是 Mr Chan, 里面有一个 Mr Chiu' (Translation: 'There is no Mr Chia, I am Mr Chan and there is a Mr Chiu inside') 'Eh? .......' it was her turn to be perplexed. Then at this point, one of our staff happened to walk past and suddenly she pointed at him and said '就是他,我来找他' ('That's him, he is whom I am looking for') They then sat down and started to chat, I thought they were old friends but as it turned out, I realised they were mere acquaintances who hardly knew each other, had never really spoken to each other before and who didn't even get each other's names correctly. I left them alone and went about doing my own stuff. They spoke for like what seemed like more than an hour. Then I received a whatsapp message from my staff who was speaking to her saying, 'Boss, I think you should join us, she wants to ask you something' When I joined them at the table, my staff told me, 'Boss, she is a cook and she is interested in working here.' Although excited that a cook had just walked in and asked for a job at a time when I was so desperately in need of help in the kitchen, I was nonetheless wary, given the 'unusual' circumstances and manner that this was happening. So I began to ask her many questions. Then I asked her, '你说你会煮,那你的拿手菜是什么' (Then I asked her. 'You say you can cook, tell me what is the your signature dish') '梅菜扣肉' she replied. ('Buay Chye.' she replied) I fell off my chair. She was hired on the spot and started work with us the very next day. NOTES: Some things I found out only later - She had actually been working as a cook for more than 20 years, and in the past many months been working on a permanent part-time basis with a big F&B group. And on that day that she appeared at our door, she was actually on the way to her work place to settle some admin work but for some reasons unknown to her, she sat down at the MRT station for quite a while instead of heading to her work place. Whilst at the MRT station, she suddenly recalled this acquaintance (She thought his name was Mr Chia, which it was not) and remembered him saying he was working with us and she, for some reason unknown even to her, decided to make a detour to come visit this acquaintance whom she remembered out of the blue, at our outlet instead of heading to her work place. She was not looking for a job at all but somehow ended up asking for a job even though she already had a permanent part-time position with a big F&B group with which she was very happy with.
Hakka Hitsumabushi
(Photo taken at home, when we created it for the first time) It was created by my son Ryan and I. Ryan loves Nagoya's Hitsumabushi ( grilled eel on rice with soup that can be eaten 3 ways) I love buay chye. So we put both our favourite dishes together and made this Hakka Hitsumabushi - buay chye, minced pork basil onigiri and tofu soup as seen in picture above. It was available on the lunch menu of The Snack Culture Company for a few months, before The Snack Culture Company became The Bento People. To read my blog post on how my current restaurant, The Bento People was born, visit >>> Why and How The Bento People was birthed.
They call me ‘Doc', now they call me ‘The Accidental Chef’
My name is Tat Hon. People call me 'Doc', not so much as a professional title, but Doc has become my name to many of my friends, colleagues and even bosses for the past 20 years. After practising as a medical doctor for a number of years, I then went on a journey that took me to roles and places that not many doctors would have chosen to embark on. And recently, many also began to call me ‘The Accidental Chef’ or ‘The Doctor turned Chef’. All this happened by 'accident', an accidental coming together of encounters with people and unplanned turn of events. It all started with a meeting. To start with, I am no chef. I have no culinary training or F&B experience. At most I am a crazy home cook who loves to cook for family and friends, creating dishes as a form of outlet for my creativity and I find a lot of joy in seeing the delight on the faces of my family and friends whenever they bravely subject themselves to be guinea pigs for my culinary experiments. A series of events thrust me into this current role as a chef. It all happened about a year and a half ago in early 2014 when I met some people who started me onto this journey. First, I met some people who left a deep impression on me and for months after that they were constantly on my mind. I shall be scanty with the details here to protect the privacy of the people involved. In particular there was this group of people in their late 40s and early 50s who had spent a significant period away from Singapore working on worthy causes overseas. And I saw that on their return to Singapore, they could not find meaningful or rewarding employment. I could not help but feel that they deserve better and I felt I should, if I could, do something for them to give them the meaningful and rewarding employment that they deserved but I just didn't know how. The birth of an idea Second, I met up with an old friend, who works in the F&B industry, whom I felt I should honour for some help he had given me in the past but for which I felt I had not adequately expressed my thanks. I asked him out for breakfast for the sole purpose of thanking him. But the breakfast took an unexpected turn when he started sharing with me about how he had been giving help to F&B start-ups. I asked him what he would advise me to do, if I were to start an F&B business. His advice was to choose F&B businesses with good profit margins such as baked items, Drinks or Ice Cream. I asked him about the necessary capital outlay for a simple F&B business and when he gave me a figure, it was surprisingly much lower than I thought. It was supposed to be something simple Soon an idea began to gestate, one of starting a simple F&B to provide meaningful and rewarding employment to people the likes of the people I had met recently and whom I really wanted to do something for. Within weeks, I had done enough homework, or so I thought, to think that it would be viable and manageable to start a simple bakery to provide meaningful employment to people like them. I was not starting any social enterprise and I was not about to tell the world that we are a social enterprise, for we are not, I just wanted to help a specific group of people and wanted to find a platform to provide meaningful jobs for these people. (I am just sharing the background of how the idea first started as something that I wanted to do to help some people on my own accord, so I must categorically say we did not start off as and still are not a social enterprise.) The idea was to start a simple bakery, nothing too complex that people that I was thinking of helping and hiring would not be able to do well with some training, diligence and practice. It was supposed to be something small and simple. The Snack Culture Company was thus born I even got a baking school to specifically create for us a customised express course to train myself, my wife and some people whom I thought would form the initial start-up team for this venture the basics of making dough and buns. The initial idea was to have a bakery offering only buns but with interesting fillings inspired by cuisines from around the world such as Nonya's ayam buah keluak, Korean bulgogi beef and Louisiana's cajun prawns. It was a simple grab and go concept and the name 'The Snack Culture Company' seemed apt for a simple bakery offering snack sized buns with fillings inspired by different cultures from around the world.
So within a couple of months, what first started out as a desire in my heart to help some people was now taking shape and was mere months from being a reality.
( Post Note: The Snack Culture Company was the original concept and brand that was birthed, but after sometime, that would subsequently transform to become The Bento People, a F&B concept that focuses on encouraging & enabling people to Choose Healthy & Eat Happy. The Story of why and how this happened is shared in my other post - The Birth of The Bento People ) I never thought a small HDB shop space would cost so much The next step was to look for a modest small space to start the bakery, something which I had imagined to be routine given our modest ambitions. A simple HDB shop house half shop of some 300 sqft was what we were looking for. This is where I had my first roadblock that made me change course. First thing I realised as I did my homework, was that the simpler the concept and offering (I was planning a simple bakery offering only one type of buns but with many different types of interesting fillings), the greater the need for a location with high human traffic. This is because in such a concept, we would need to sell many hundreds of buns a day to break even. So I went in search of such a place, a small HDB half shop (300 sqft) in a location with good human traffic. So off we (my wife Janice and I) went to all the corners of Singapore, Toa Payoh, Clementi, Ang Mo Kio, Bedok and many nooks and corners of Singapore. We found that places that has adequate footfall for our business concept, we could not afford the rental, for which rental would range from $10K to $25K for a small 300sqft HDB half shop. And units with rental that are within our planned budget are in locations with very low human traffic that would not be able to support a simple grab and go concept that we had in mind. We found a place at last After a couple of months of fruitless search, we were discouraged and were about to give up. Then came a chance visit to this place. There was this bakery that was looking for someone to take over their lease because they have outgrown their unit there. When we saw it, we thought we have found the place. It was big enough and rental was reasonable and what more, it was a bakery with a big operational kitchen and we thought we could move in and start operations with manageable investment in renovation. I was wrong. Maybe it was because we were burned out from our months of fruitless search for a suitable unit that we were quite quick to decide on this. We agreed to take over the lease and were thrilled that we have finally found a place to bring to fruition this plan that I had been brewing for months. Although this shop do not have high human traffic, it is located in the middle of a small semi-industrial, commercial area with office workers and executives looking for lunch during working weekdays. So we thought we could still be viable by changing our initial concept of a simple bakery to a bakery cafe with a simple lunch offering to augment the bakery business. We were wrong, but I shall not delve on that here, perhaps I shall write about this in another posting. We had to become more than just a simple bakery What followed after that was almost 3 months of dealing with renovations, kitchen planning and equipment purchases and dealing with regulatory issues. Of course it goes without saying that everything ended up costing a lot more than we budgeted for and there were so many hidden cost and expenditure that we soon burst our initial planned investment budget many times over, it was really scary but we since we have already started on this journey, invested so much time and money, there was really no turning back, We just had to keep praying, keep faith and keep calm. And because I had no prior F&B experience, all these were foreign to me and I had to learn everything from scratch, I just had to rely on common sense to make these decisions that cost tens of thousands of dollars. By God's grace, I managed to do all these without making too many major irreversible errors. With the change in concept from a simple bakery to a bakery cafe, it necessitated our hiring of a cook to do the cooking for the simple lunch offerings on top of the starting team which we sent for bakery training. We soon found one and were so happy that she agreed to come on board. The day I became a cook After many months of preparation, we were finally ready to open for business in late November. And then it happened. 2 days before our planned opening, it happened. Our cook quit. After working so hard for so many months and with so much money and time invested in it, we really could not afford delaying the opening any longer and there was also no way to predict how long it would take for us to look for another cook. So I took a deep breath and stepped into the kitchen and went ahead with the opening as planned. With me as the stand-in cook in the kitchen, we opened for lunch for the first time on the 25th of November 2014. And on that first day, I found myself handling 5 frying pans at the same time trying to serve the 50 or so hungry and impatient customers who came for lunch that first day. It was not certainly not something for the faint hearted. That was the start of my journey as a cook. I never planned to nor had any intentions to remain as one for long, saw myself as a stop-gap measure. I told myself that it will all be OK and I would be able to step away from the kitchen totally once we find ourselves the necessary kitchen team. I thought I would only need to stand-in as a chef for at most 2 months. I was wrong. Again. I never left the kitchen till two years later, all the while working as the lead full-time chef in the restaurant. I subsequently stopped working as a full-time chef and because of how being a chef transformed me, I began a journey of Preaching, Teaching and Prescribing Lifestyle ( including diet and exercise ) as Medicine to help people retain or regain their wellness especially those who are concerned about or have diabetes, cardiovascular diseases or other chronic diseases where lifestyle play a significant role. Other relevant parts of this on-going story of the doctor turned accidental chef to incidental chef to lifestyle medicine advocate. >> Practising, Preaching and Promoting Lifestyle as Medicine - My Passion and Purpose >> Doctor turned Accidental Chef turned incidental Chef >> The birth of The Bento People >> How & Why I became a Food & Health Coach >> Why & How advocating healthy eating became my purpose, mission and passion
I did not want to be known
This happened in January 2015. By this time I had been a cook and running The Snack Culture Company for almost 2 months already.During those 2 months, I had kept a low profile and didn't want my friends and ex-colleagues to know I am now a cook. Not that it was anything I was ashamed of, but rather, I just didn't want to have to explain, to people who know me, why I was doing what I was doing, why I was choosing to be a cook. Also I didn't want customers to know I am a medical doctor, albeit one not in active practice. I wanted to grow the business as a corporate brand known for its good offerings and one not linked to any persons or personalities. Most of all, being an introvert by nature, I valued my privacy * I had done the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator test many times during the more than 20 years of working life and each time, the results showed that I was an extreme introvert. We had no media or marketing plan From the time we started, we never had any media or marketing plan. We didn't hire any PR agency, we didn't invite any media, food writers or bloggers. We had no official opening or launch. We just opened our doors and started operating. There were many reasons for this. One, we were so overwhelmed by the many operational work and issues that we really had no time nor energy to do anything else. Second, the reality was that I was not confident that we were ready enough to shout to the marketplace yet. We were new and had no F&B experience to speak of, and our food, whilst good and interesting, was still constantly being refined and improved and I was still not sufficiently satisfied with our offerings to be 'shouting' about them yet. So almost 2 months after we opened our doors, we had done zero marketing. The day I gave Leslie Tay a call But by mid January, I knew I could no longer afford to continue doing almost zero marketing anymore. I have had to rely on a lot of 'Jio-ing' of friends to be the customers of our first 'Around The World in 9 Small Plates' degustation dinner the week before on the 16th January, I knew I have only that many friends whom I could 'jio' to come for future dinner and could not hope to depend on that for many more weeks. Our location, at that time at least, did not have much human traffic at night during dinner time. And although we were hoping to open for dinner only once a week (then we didn't think we would have enough demand for our degustation dinner to open for more than once a week), unless we get the word about our dinner out, the new dinner menu, however good, would risk being a 'stillbirth' and die a natural death. So I decided to ask Leslie Tay, the now famous award-winning doctor-food blogger, for some advice. I knew Leslie from school and work. He, like me. was from RJC and we are both medical doctors. But we were not close, didn't know each other that well and had not spoken to each other in years. I called him and told him I was working as a cook and I would like his advice on how to engage the food media people. He was surprised to hear I had become a cook and he said he would try to find time to come down to take a look and we could talk further then. The day Leslie Tay came to visit Then on 23rd January, Leslie said he would drop by for lunch. I said great and I would try to prepare some of dishes from our 'Around The World in 9 Small Plates' degustation menu for him to try, so that he could give me feedback and advice. 23rd of January was a Friday and it would also be the second time we were opening for dinner with our 'Around The World in 9 Small Plates' degustation menu, having launched it just the Friday before. Leslie came with some friends and I went to the kitchen to prepare some food for them to try, I wanted his opinion and his advice about my food and how I could be marketing it better. I was not expecting nor did I ask him to post anything about us. Leslie must have been in a hurry that day. He ate fast and spoke even faster. This was roughly how some parts of our conversation went after he tried my food. L: Your food is unusual, interesting and quite nice, but not to the 'Tok Kong' level yet; Me: Orh L: But the more interesting thing is you, you a doctor turned chef and that your food is nice but also healthy. Me: Err..... I don't agree with you, I don't want people to know that the cook here is a doctor and be interested in this place because of that or that the food is healthy. I just want them to know about and be interested in the food and that it is good, that's all. So what I really want from you is really some advice and tips on how I can better reach out to the people in the food media industry about us. L: Come, come, ask your wife Janice to stand beside you, I want a photo of the 2 of you. Me: really ah, I really don't want to be known as the cook here, do you really have to or want a photo of us? L: Don't worry, it will look nice, come, come, stand closer and smile for me, yah, that's nice, good. Click. And that was that, Leslie and his friends left shortly after taking that photo. I was worried. I had invited him to come visit so that I could get some advice on engaging the food media from him but he ended up taking photos of me and my wife and maybe our food. I had no clue what he was going to do with them. I thought I had indicated strongly enough to him that if he were to post anything about us, I would not like it to be about me or my being a doctor chef but that it should focus on the food and the food only without any mention about me. But then, did I really say a firm no? By my agreeing, however reluctantly, to let him take a photo of my wife and I, did I indirectly say yes? But then, he didn't really say he was going to post anything about us, I really hoped that he wouldn't post anything about me, if not the whole world would know I am now a cook in The Snack Culture Company, something that I have been trying to avoid all these months. I thought of giving him a call to explain all these again. It was a busy afternoon and we were going to serve the 'Around The World in 9 Small Plates' degustation dinner that night for only the second time and there was much to do, so I thought I would call him after the dinner. Then it happened. And there was no more turning back. Soon it was evening and customers arrived for the degustation dinner and I began to busy myself in the kitchen, occasionally running out to serve and talk to the customers. Then it happened. It was about 8.30pm, in the midst of the dinner, I had wanted to post a photo of degustation dinner on our facebook page and when I went to our facebook page, I found that there seem to be quite a number of new 'Likes' of our facebook page since the last time I checked our facebook page a couple of hours ago. Eh? what was happening? Then I remembered about Leslie, oh no, maybe he posted something about us before I had the chance to call him to reiterate my not wanting to be featured, something which I had planned to do after the busy dinner service that night. I then quickly went to check Leslie's ieatishootipost facebook page to see if he really did post something about us. And this was what I saw.
Within minutes of that post, there was a deluge of comments, including some who commented that I had wasted taxpayers' money for not continuing to practise medicine and instead choosing to be a cook, whilst others said they supported my choosing to chase my passion. I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.
And with that single post by Leslie, my not wanting to let the whole world know that I am now a cook went out of the window. Come to think of it, I would never have started this blog if that facebook post by Leslie didn't happen. Because since it was no longer possible for me to continue a low key, low profile existence quietly cooking away in the kitchen, I decided to embrace this doctor chef role and no longer hide or run from it, but instead turn it and use it for good. I decided to share my various experiences in this current journey as a doctor chef as well as the many other eventful journeys in my career so that others may learn from my successes and especially more from the many mistakes I have made in my journeys, then they will not be journeys wasted. And in the months after that visit by Leslie, many other things also transpired which also led me to become the advocate of healthy eating that I am today. I promise I will share the stories of the events that led me to beome a healthy eating advocate in another blog post at a later date Often we cannot really fully decide for ourselves the direction that our journeys would take, often it would be decided for us by events beyond our control or by other people. And all we could and should do is to embrace and even enjoy everything step that life's journeys bring us to ,whether that was where we had wanted to be at or not. In this instance for me, it was Leslie, it was his one single post that day that turned me into Tat Hon - 'doctor turned chef' , something which I had tried so hard to avoid, but which I have now come to embrace and hopefully also enjoy, I will try. Thanks Leslie. |
My Passion
- Waking people up to The Power of Lifestyle to Heal & Destroy, helping them to maintain wellness & regain lost health through informed lifestyle & food choices >> My Medical Practice where Lifestyle & Dietary modifications is the first go to medicine >> My Advocacy - The TV & print media where I have the priviledge to advocate the power of Lifestyle as Medicine Why & What I Blog about
Blog's Top Posts
Lifestyle as Medicine - my journey, my passion, my pain How & Why I became a Lifestyle Medicine Doctor, Trainer and Advocate Doctor turned Accidental Chef turned Incidental Chef Reflections of 'The Food Doctor' How I lost weight 'accidentally' Doctor turned Accidental Chef - How it all began The birth of The Bento People I made this Tom Yum Daikon-'noodles' because I was 'angry' with how the love for noodles was affecting one of my patients. No wasted Journeys - Why I Blog Buay Chye, God & I. The day God sent me a cook. Behind every adventurous man is a long-suffering wife Legacy How I accidentally left a legacy as a 9 year old boy The day blogger Leslie Tay (ieatishootipost) came to visit The accidental marathoner - how I accidentally ran the marathon when I was 12 They call me a Maverick. I say I am an Explorer. Why & How 'Advocating Healthy Eating' became my purpose, mission & passion. Sharing about the power of food on Diabetes Lifestyle magazine |