Soup Restaurant’s Wong Wei Teck: ‘Everything we do is from the heart’
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Soup Eating place'southward Wong Wei Teck: 'Everything nosotros do is from the heart'
Thirty years on, the owners of Soup Restaurant – iv friends who knew each other from applied science schoolhouse – now in their 60s, reflect on the values that have taken them this far.
Wong Wei Teck, 65, is the company's managing manager and executive managing director. (Photo: Alvin Teo)
12 January 2022 03:58AM (Updated: 12 Jan 2022 03:58AM)
For many Singaporeans, the name Soup Eating place conjures the warmth of comfort food – nourishing broths, simple stir-fried vegetables, and that irresistible dish of perfectly poached chicken served with an addictive ginger sauce.
While its proper name is buoy for friends and family unit to share a wholesome meal together, the eatery was established by a family of a dissimilar kind – a brotherhood, if yous will, of iv men bound past one "crazy idea".
Now in their 60s, Mok Yi Peng, Wong Wei Teck, Wong Chee Keong and Mike Ho met while studying at the National University of Singapore'south Institute of Engineering in the 1970s. They went on to piece of work for Mass Rapid Transit Corporation, now the Land Ship Authority, as early civil engineers of the nation'southward MRT organization.
"I day, Mok told me he had rented a place and asked me, 'desire to play or non? Do something outside of engineering," recalled Wong Wei Teck, 65, the company'due south managing manager and executive manager. "I asked him 'what business?', only, actually, I already knew his answer. Of course (it was) food!"
A talented, passionate melt since his university days, the partners remember the young Mok often rise early to prepare breakfast for his hostel mates.
STIRRING THE POT
The first Soup Restaurant opened in 1991 at 25 Smith Street in Chinatown. "Nosotros didn't beginning this for the coin. We wanted to serve healthy, home-cooked food and doing it in Chinatown felt natural. For many people, 牛车水 (the Chinese proper name for Chinatown) is a place associated with a mother'south cooking and condolement nutrient," explained Wong.
Many of the eating place's dishes, including its signature Samsui ginger chicken, came from Mok's family's collection of recipes. His aunty was a Samsui adult female, one of many who came from the Sanshui district of Guangdong in the 1930s to discover work as general labourers in Singapore's early construction industry.
Known for their sense of austerity, the Samsui women's typical meal consisted of rice with pickled or fresh vegetables and edible bean curd. During the New Twelvemonth, they would pool their coin to purchase a craven to bask over a festive repast.
"Chicken symbolises 富贵 (award and riches) and ginger clears wind and keeps our bodies warm. The women needed this to proceed good for you because they worked in construction," said Wong.
Soup Restaurant'southward Samsui ginger craven recipe went through numerous rounds of trial and error earlier the owners were satisfied with the results. It debuted on the menu in 1995 and remains synonymous with the brand.
"What nosotros do is the tribute to the Samsui women. We are not selling authentic Samsui food, but Chinatown heritage dishes," Wong pointed out.
A FOUNDATION BUILT ON VALUES
Three decades on and Soup Restaurant Group Ltd has been listed on the Singapore Substitution's Mainboard since 2009. It boasts 10 Soup Eating house outlets in Singapore, ane in Malaysia and two in Indonesia. It has also opened two Cafe O outlets and Teahouse by Soup Restaurant outlets at dwelling house.
By 2000, both Mok and Wong had quit their applied science jobs to focus on their eatery business.
"Honestly, I'yard not sure how we reached 30 years," said Wong with candour. "I think more than just signature dishes, it is the spirit and values that drive our business concern. Nosotros place our core values higher up all else. As engineers, we believe that everything is nigh the foundation. And then we've congenital that foundation and we've gone from one step to some other – from a shophouse to high-volume malls, from 2d board to principal board listing. This is much like the technology process."
Wong is palpably proud of his company's core values, which include integrity, diligence, fortitude, resilience, learning and creativity.
"Nosotros must practice everything honestly and with a good heart. For example, the food must e'er be clean because to put something in someone's mouth is a sacred thing," he elaborated. "Diligence helps us overcome difficulties and we must keep learning because learning is growing – if yous don't acquire, you languish… These are [merely some of] our family values. Because that'south what we are: A family. We are always grateful when, out of all the restaurants around, people come to us."
In its fourth dimension, Soup Restaurant Group has survived SARS, H1N1, avian flu and numerous other crises. Wong said it is the visitor'south values that saved them time and once again, about recently seeing it through the COVID-19 pandemic. "Anybody in our company, from top to bottom, understands and knows our core values very well."
Today, Soup Restaurant is aptly, a Singapore make, "made with passion," Wong chimed proudly. Like it did numerous other businesses, COVID-19 pushed Soup Eating house into new realms, and it has since gone into manufacturing and exporting its bottled sauces overseas.
As Wong tells information technology, 2022 holds plenty lots of promise. He sees the pandemic turning into an endemic and working with the authorities to fulfil a brighter future. Plans are in the works for more than Soup Restaurants in Singapore and market expansion for manufacturing overseas.
Wong's founding brother Mok retired in 2022 and remains on the board of directors. Wong Chee Keong continues serving as Executive Director, while Ho sits on the board of Soup Restaurant Group directors and remains in engineering.
"Everything we do is from the heart, and I recall people tin can run across that," Wong concluded. "Nosotros are positive [about the future]. I'd say don't exist scared, simply be strong." Audio communication indeed, in life and in business concern.
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