Chicken rice worth clucking about
Hawker serves up the world’s cheapest Michelin meal.
SMALL of frame, wiry and leathery, Chan Hon Meng at 51 looks like a man who has worked hard all his life. When his Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle stall in Singapore’s Chinatown received a star from the esteemed Frenchbased Michelin Guide on July 21, his humble world changed forever.
The stall instantly won two world titles: the world’s first street food to be accorded a Michelin star, and the world’s cheapest Michelin meal – a plate of Chan’s rice and chicken costs just S$2 (RM6.20).
Singapore celebrates and we in Malaysia cottoned on. Chan after all, born in Ipoh, Perak, has deep Malaysian roots. He came to Singapore in the 80s and became a citizen in 2014. And the chickens used to make his famous dish come from farms in Malaysia.
After the win, Chan became an overnight sensation. The daily queue at his eight-yearold stall got longer, with a two- to three-hour standing in line the new norm.
It was reported that Chan said his business has grown three fold to 160 chickens a day and about 90% of his customers now are tourists.
Seeing that people have had to wait a long time to eat his food and the global following he now has, Chan dreams of opening more outlets and bringing it to people around the world: “KFC sells chicken and has been successful in ensuring that the taste of its food remains the same throughout the world. I hope to do the same and become the No. 2 chicken eatery chain around the world after it,” he told the Straits Times.
He didn’t waste time exploring opportunities to expand his business. At first, he put a tall price on partnership: a S$2mil (RM6.2mil) “guaranteed cooperation fee” which made the headlines again.
Chan said he arrived at the value based on the S$4mil deal the Aztech Group paid for Kay Lee Roast Meat in 2014 – minus the S$2mil for the shop that also came along with the deal.
Basing it on a multiple of its revenue – calculated to be S$725,000 (RM2.2mil) per annum – financial news Dollars&Sense reported that the valuation of S$2mil is “reasonable” and that the business could “be worth about S$4.5mil (RM14mil) in the future”. It said a strategic investor could find the partnership an attractive one.
On Nov 18, hardly six months after winning the star in Singapore’s inaugural Michelin Guide, quick-serve restaurant Hawker Chan was born on a 50-50 partnership with Hersing Culinary, which owns the franchising rights to another one Michelin star restaurant, Hong Kong’s Tim Ho Wan in the Asia-Pacific region.
Hersing invested S$1mil (RM3.1mil) to set up the 2,000 sq ft, air-conditioned outlet on 78 Smith Street that can seat 80 diners and serves the same famous soy sauce chicken rice and noodle dishes, at slightly higher prices. The original stall in the Peoples Park Complex is just a three-minute walk away. The company plans to open more outlets in Singapore and to take the Singapore brand abroad.
Chan has also been snapped up by Tiger, the Singapore-based global beer outfit for its Streats pop-up restaurant events round the world. Since Nov 24, Chan has appeared in Sydney, Auckland, New York and Kuala Lumpur where he was paired with chefs of two and three Michelin starred restaurants in a mash-up of street food and fine dining fare.
In KL he was paired with Jeff Ramsey of Babe in Damansara, who once helmed a one Michelin star restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo.
Tiger fans in KL were thrilled to have the famous chicken dish served to them – without having to queue for it. The action station where Chan was chopping away was enveloped in a puff of soy sauce fragrance. Other notes were of star anise, Chinese five-spice and caramel.
Chan will come full circle when his first Malaysian restaurant opens in Ipoh. His choice is both strategic, nostalgic and patriotic: Ipoh is his “hometown” and because “Ipoh is already known as a city with good chicken dishes, I want to add to the chicken options there.
“There is no Hong Kong soya sauce chicken in Ipoh and I believe I have a unique recipe and taste that people will like.” And he promised that the wait won’t be long.