In his spotless kitchen, Daniel Khaw is frying up a batch of his family’s famed Penang lobak (five-spice meat rolls). His wife Angeline Khaw meanwhile painstakingly places each cooked lobak into plastic containers to be sent out for delivery to loyal customers who have become devoted fans of Daniel’s Penang staples like curry kapitan (a rich chicken curry) and Nyonya chap chye (a mixed vegetable dish).
The husband-and-wife team have a steady, unbroken rhythm, a clear division of labour and a genuine sense of purpose and joy in doing their tasks well. Which is why it is fairly surprising to discover that their home food business is barely a year old and was birthed as a result of a difficult situation.
“My background is in the construction industry. Pre-pandemic, I worked for large corporations but when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, there wasn’t much work so it was really tough times for me. So I thought, ‘Why not try this?’” says Daniel, a skilled home cook who has picked up an arsenal of authentic Penang Nyonya recipes from his mother.
In September 2020, Daniel launched his fledgling home food business, Daniel’s Kitchen, operating out of his family home in Ara Damansara.
And he is certainly not alone in this intrepid endeavour. Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a massive influx of Malaysians turning to home food businesses as a means to an end.
In fact, you could throw a stone in any direction and it’s likely to land on someone who either has a home food business or knows someone who started a home food business during the pandemic.
Why opt for this path?
For many Malaysians, the pandemic has been a time of reckoning. Countless people have lost their jobs or had their main source of income dry up completely. Which is why in many instances, a large number of these fledgling home-based food businesses were borne out of a desperate need to fill hungry bellies and pay bills.
“Food is the only thing that can sell at the moment. People don’t want to spend money on branded stuff or other things at the moment. That’s why a lot of people are concentrating on food businesses, because food is something people need to eat every day,” says Chuah Jay Mee.
Chuah runs a home-based business called Herba & Rempah, which specialises in Peranakan family recipes like her deliciously rich, aromatic rendang tok, angku kuih, Penang Nyonya acar awak (vegetable pickle), salted fish bone vegetable curry and innovative rainbow roti jala that comes in various attractive hues, pigmented naturally with fruits and vegetables.
Like many others, Chuah found herself in a tight spot during the pandemic when opportunities (and consequently, income) stalled at her public relations and events company.
“We couldn’t do events anymore and things were pretty bad. And in June last year, I realised I had seen a lot of people selling food online, so I thought, ‘Why not try to sell something?’ So I actually started with beef rendang tok, which is my signature dish. And when I first started, I was very amazed by the response.
“It was my first time selling food, but business grew from word of mouth and started to spread to more customers. And while food was not something I initially planned to do (it’s so different from public relations!), all of my customers were like, ‘Don’t stop doing this, please!’.
“And from just one or two dishes, we now have over 30 items on the menu and I am very thankful for all the opportunities I’ve been given,” says Chuah.
Like Chuah, Dev Nicklaus Justin also found himself facing hard times when both he and his wife lost their jobs at the start of the pandemic. With an eight-year-old-son and Dev’s elderly parents to look after, Dev knew he needed to do something – fast.
As Dev’s wife is Sarawakian, the two decided to run a food stall in Damansara, specialising in authentic Sarawakian food like ayam pansuh (chicken cooked in bamboo) and kacangma (a popular confinement dish) but the lockdowns meant there was nearly zero foot traffic in the area.
Which is why Dev decided to run a home food business called N3 Indigenous Flavours out of his home in Subang Jaya instead, citing the low start-up cost as a major motivating factor to move in this direction.
“Food is the safest bet if you have no other experience or avenue to earn anything. These days, people looking for jobs are either going into food or becoming delivery riders.
“For us, we have a passion for cooking so this was the most comfortable solution for us as it is the easiest way to sustain ourselves with a minimal start-up cost,” he says.
For former strategic media planner Christine Ong, the pandemic proved to be the push she needed to give up the job she no longer felt passionate about.
“I realised I no longer loved my job in advertising. And during the movement control order (MCO), I rediscovered my love of cooking. And it occurred to me that my cooking was not bad, because friends and family kept encouraging my efforts.
“And because I grew up in a large family (I have seven siblings!), I am used to cooking a lot so it triggered me to think of a business where I could share my food with others,” she says.
So Ong gave up her job and in July 2021, pursued her home food business called Cosy Pot of Joy, which focuses on the heirloom recipes she has amassed over the years.
The challenges
Running a home food business isn’t easy, by any stretch of the imagination. While many of the people who jumped on the home business bandwagon during the pandemic used it as a lifeboat to keep them afloat, the truth is a home food business comes with its own set of trials and tribulations.
Chief among these challenges is the amount of physical labour involved – from preparation to cooking, packing, distributing and cleaning up afterwards.
“Oh, it is a lot of hard labour! I have to wake up very early in the mornings to buy ingredients and prepare everything. I have a helper who helps me, but it is very physically intensive work,” says Chuah.
For others, cooking in bulk can be tricky. Daniel’s wife Angeline now helps him with the family business and says one of the main hurdles for them is estimating ingredients for the large orders that come their way.
“We are so used to cooking just for our family members and we both don’t have large families. So suddenly when we have to cook for so many people – it’s just been a huge learning curve in terms of how much to buy and getting our estimates correct,” she says.
For Daniel, his current biggest challenge is the lack of storage capacity in his home, as he now has to turn down orders simply because he doesn’t have the space to store all the ingredients!
“We are near max in terms of cooking space capacity and storage, so we are thinking of where else we can expand, because there is only so much we can do at home. So we’re a bit shy now, because sometimes friends refer our business to others, but in the end, we cannot even cook for them because we are maxed out,” says Daniel.
Ong meanwhile says her perennial problem at this point is the fact that she cooks alone but relies on her two sons and her husband to help her with larger orders – which is why she has to check if they are available first before even committing to these orders.
“As a lone ranger with limited help, I rely on my family a lot. And I can’t force them to help, so every time I get a big order, I consult my family members first to see if it is something we can do,” she says.
Ong also says that as a newbie business, she relies on customer reviews to bulk up her resume, but even getting these reviews can be an uphill battle.
“It’s not easy, you can only follow up to a certain amount before you become a pest to your customers,” she says, laughing.
Dev meanwhile says most home-based food operators have constant issues with third party delivery services and have to manage customer expectations as a consequence of the patchy transportation quality.
“Delivery services can be very inconsistent – sometimes there are spillages and sometimes the food arrives extremely late because riders are stuck in roadblocks or traffic jams or take multiple orders. And this can make customers extremely unhappy, because they order a lunch meal and the food only arrives at 2pm!” says Dev.
The pros
While it isn’t all smooth sailing, most home-based food operators agree that the absolute best thing about running their businesses is the quality time they now get to spend with their families.
“My mother lives just across the road from me, but I barely saw her before I started this business. And I get to spend so much more time with my 10-year-old daughter and now I realise that her tastebuds are very developed – she even helps me get my recipes right!” says Daniel.
Chuah also says she feels blessed to be able to invest more time with her three-year-old son while Dev says he used to travel a lot in his previous job, but now gets to spend all his days with his eight-year-old son and his wife.
For Ong, the transformation from a hectic corporate job to a home-based business has been dramatic.
“In my previous life in the corporate world, I worked long hours and missed out on a lot of special occasions, but now I can take time out to attend them,” she says.
Running a home-based business also often means taking orders or pre-orders for a fixed quantity of meals, which translates to cost-efficiency as there is little wastage generated.
“When we first started selling food at our stall, we had a lot of wastage because we had no idea how many people would walk in to order food on any given day and we needed to have a variety of food to display. But with the home business, we take pre-orders so there is definitely less wastage, as we just cook to order,” says Dev.
The future
Most home food businesses launched during the pandemic started out as stopgap measures to stem the fallout from job losses.
But this begs an interesting question: once the economy improves, will most of these businesses simply fade into oblivion as operators attempt to resuscitate their old careers or head back into the job market?
It would seem that opinions are split on this. Dev for instance, says sales have taken a nosedive since restaurants started opening for dine-in, which has made him question the longevity of his neophyte food business.
“Business was quite good until recently. So at the moment, I am just waiting for things to settle down and see how it goes from there. If things pick up, I will keep the business going, but if it doesn’t, I have to move on and find something else to keep my family afloat,” says Dev.
Ong meanwhile says she hasn’t seen a good month yet in the four months since she launched her business. As a consequence, she has decided to give herself two years to build the business to a profitable stage. If it fails then, she says she will be forced to throw in the towel.
“There are days when I have zero orders and days when I have been fortunate to cater office launch events, but those don’t come every day. I need continuous business coming in, so if I rely purely on this food business, I don’t think I can survive.
“I think most people doing this will need a second job or a strong support system at home, like a spouse who makes enough to cover the shortfall in their earnings.
“I would personally love to hang on, so I am giving it two years and looking at branching out into private dining as a side income. Because for me, the worst-case scenario is going back to my previous industry,” she says.
Others meanwhile have found their happy place with their new home businesses and are determined to keep going.
“Personally, this is permanent for me, because I enjoy it way more than the construction industry, which was a high-pressure job. And I know there is demand for what we do, because we have to turn down customers. So moving forward, our focus is on expansion,” says Daniel.
Chuah meanwhile is the model example of someone who started a home food business during the pandemic and has thrived. While she still runs her public relations and events company, she says the food business has become her primary source of income and she is determined to keep it going.
“Now it is like my permanent job, so I am actually focusing on expanding even bigger. So right now, I am in the midst of creating an e-commerce website, and moving forward, I want to hire more people. And then later on, I might open a restaurant. We’ll take it step-by-step,” she says.
Get meals from small businesses and seize further savings by using foodpanda Voucher foodpanda Voucher
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
