18 Chefs at Tiong Bahru Plaza Part 1

It was a lazy Sat afternoon, Bob drop me off at Tiong Bahru Plaza for my appointment with Chef Benny Teo. It turn out to be an interesting afternoon as I stood by Benny to hear him recount his struggles in his personal life and the life changing experiences that drive him to achieve what he has achieve today.

For most part in his early youth he spent 10 years in Drug Rehab centers, and was in & out 30 times in Halfway Houses and hospitals. However the Lord had mercy on him and Benny had a spiritually awakening in  1992 -  he became a Christian in the prison.

In 1993 Benny was released from Selarang Drug Rehab Centre. He had a mentor who believes in him - Robert Yeo from Helping Hand who allowed Benny to stay at Helping Hand even though he was already off drugs. Benny worked as courier agent in 1993. In 2000 he started a Courier Company & employs 80% drug addicts to work for him. In 2005 he started a Chinese Restaurant and adopt the same employment preference to help drug addicts but it turn out to be a bad choice as the drug addicts at the restaurant influence one another. In the end he had to close the Chinese Restaurant for good.

2006 saw Benny set off to UK to work with Jamie Oliver who set up Fifteen to help get UK boys off the streets and teach them culinary skills.

Benny returned to Singapore after an internship with Jamie Oliver and set up 18 Chefs in Simei in 2007. In 2008 during the Lehman Brothers meltdown and when the world economy suffered global economic recession, 18 Chefs did extremely well.

By end 2007 - early 2008,  18 Chefs achieved their Halal Certification and was featured on Mediacorp Channels such as  Vasantham & SURIA.

In 2009 18 Chefs expanded into Fusionopolis, Tiong Bahru Plaza & Yishun 10. However the rapid expansion caused some non-performing outlets to suffer losses and he eventually had to give up Yishun 10 outlet.

The target market  for 18 Chefs is the young students market. The ambience of the outlets is vibrant, loud.

18 Chefs has Signature Dishes that made clients come back clamouring for more to tantaslise their taste - buds  :

1. Crabbing Wednesdays' Cheese  Baked Chilli Crab
2. Root Beer Battered Fish & Chips
3. Striploin Japanese Curry  Rice
4. Cheese Baked Rice

When asked about why he named the restaurant  as 18 Chefs ?

Benny shared wth me the number 18 has an underworld connotation. The reason of using number 18 is a reminder of where his humble beginnings has brought him this far. The message that he wanted to share with all youths & young people :"You do not need to find your identity with a gang as a gangster, you can be cool just as well by being a Chef"

One special thing to note is that 18 Chefs empowers the patrons, they are give the choice of choosing their ingredients in a 4 step ordering process.

There are basically 3 Bases (Cheese Baked Rice, Pasta, Cheese Baked Pasta), 8 Sauces, 13 Ingredients, 12 Tops-Up to give more than 30000 permutations. The patrons are indeed spoilt for choice.

All of their Salads & Brownies are made in - house.

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18 Chefs do tie up with schools such as Mind-Champs,  to conduct Cooking Classes to impart culinary skills to young people in their bid to contribute to society.

For his efforts at 18Chefs, Benny was asked to apply for Social Enterprise Grant S$200,000  from MCYS but Benny declined, citing there were KPIs to fulfil, which may impose restrictions on how he runs his food empire.