TRUE HAWKER-PRENEURS

"We want the everyday man to be able to come to our stall with just $4, choose from a huge variety of food, fill his tummy and walk away with a warm sense of satisfaction."

This was the main objective of Truly Test Kitchen according to founder Corporal (CPL) (NS) Joel Chia. This humble kopitiam (hokkien for coffeeshop) has recently taken the local social media world by storm.

Its signature dishes? Curry rice, curry noodles with pork belly, and yam kueh (Hokkien for traditional cake).

While people usually associate the cooks of such traditional delicacies with elderly uncles or aunties, the trio are barely in their 30s. Brothers CPL (NS) Joel and 3rd Sergeant (3SG) (NS) Joshua Chia are 31 and 25 respectively, and their business partner Deniece Tan is 26.

A foreign exchange trader previously, CPL (NS) Chia was posted overseas for four years. It was then that he really began to appreciate Singaporean food.

"I realised that Singapore food is really amazing and one of a kind. For about $4, you can get an absolutely delicious meal with great variety -- from Indian to Malay to Chinese food."

Growing business

In 2013, when CPL (NS) Chia heard that Ms Tan's father was looking for someone to take over his curry rice stall in Telok Blangah, he jumped at the opportunity. He bought over Truly Curry Rice for $50,000 and spent five weeks learning the ropes from Mr Tan. He was shortly joined by his brother and Ms Tan.

At that time, 3SG (NS) Chia had just completed his National Service (NS) and the conventional route of getting a degree and finding a job did not appeal to him. "I thought, 'Why not? Just take a chance.' I'm still young and I've got nothing much to lose."

With that, the trio dived into the business and ran the stall for two years. Sales grew and they decided to look for a larger space, eventually settling on their current location -- a 100-seater canteen in an industrial building off Macpherson.

After spending $250,000 on renovations and coming up with a new name -- Truly Test Kitchen -- they officially began operations a year ago.

Tried and tested

With four stalls selling curry rice; porridge and kueh; noodles; and Western cuisine, it is no surprise that they are kept on their feet all day.

The trio are so obsessed with producing affordable quality food, they do almost everything themselves -- from the seasoning of meats to cooking. The recipes are a combination of their childhood memories, trial and error, and a lot of determination.

Despite the long hours, 3SG (NS) Chia enjoys his work and hopes to carry on the local hawker culture.

CPL (NS) Chia said: "I may fail 10 times, but I get better with every try. For instance, we are very proud of our kueh because we took six months and 200 trays of experiments to master it!"

He added that they do their own ingredient collection, food preparation and cooking in order to cut manpower costs and keep their prices competitive.

Love and discipline

For them, a typical day begins at 3am, with most of the cooking done by 7.30am for the breakfast crowd. Once the lunch crowd disperses, the trio does the cleaning-up until 6pm before heading home.

"It's tough," 3SG (NS) Chia admitted. "But we have a passion for cooking and we enjoy doing it. If not, we wouldn't be doing it for three years!"

A hawker life is not for everyone and CPL (NS) Chia credits his time in the Singapore Armed Forces for reinforcing the value of discipline in him. The weapons specialist from 1st Commando Battalion explained: "If you are disciplined in everything that you do, you'll move forward every single day."

For 3SG (NS) Chia, time management was a key takeaway during his NS stint.

"After I went through NS, I realised that I could do a lot of things in a few minutes. I learnt how to maximise time effectively, which is transferred to how we operate as a business now," said the operations specialist from Headquarters 4th Singapore Armoured Brigade.

Keeping the hawker flame alive

The trio only began seeing some profit recently, but there is no stopping them from dreaming big.

Come August, Truly Test Kitchen will no longer be open for breakfast, but instead cater to the lunch and dinner crowd. CPL (NS) Chia shared that they are pushing out 10 new dishes for dinner that will be cooked upon order.

They will also be offering delivery services through food delivery company foodpanda in August. Other plans include introducing more stalls and opening up a new place with a larger space.

But beyond that, the trio wants to keep selling value-for-money local fare and preserve the hawker food culture.

"Our vision is very open-ended. We just want to make this business reach its full potential and keep the hawker food culture burning bright into the future," said CPL (NS) Chia.

Truly Test Kitchen is located at 153 Kampong Ampat, Jun Jie Industrial Building #07-05, S(368326).