Kueh Ho Jiak goes all the way back to the 1930s, when Sandy Tan’s grandmother sold kueh at a food cart in Jalan Hong Keng in the Tengah area. As a youngster, she helped with the cleaning and serving. Along the way, she also picked up a few recipes.
In the years following the death of her husband, Sandy worked in the hospitality sector in Australia, Macau and other regions to provide for her then baby daughter. In 2010, she started making ang ku kueh again when she returned to Singapore, reuniting with her daughter Elizabeth Chan, and granddaughter Penelope, now 36 and 15, respectively.
In 2011, she established Kueh Ho Jiak as a home-based business and began experimenting with fun and vibrant designs, such as teddy bears and koi fish, to break away from the traditional tortoise shape of ang ku kueh.
In addition to the aesthetics and the classic kueh, Sandy wanted to introduce new flavours using ingredients like sweet potato and Biscoff biscuits. Her creations are also free of artificial colourings and preservatives.
Now 60, she was 48 when she pivoted her career. “Almost everyone said, ‘You’re already so old, with no experience in F&B’. However, I was confident my product would sell. Since then, Kueh Ho Jiak has become more than just a business. By appealing to a younger generation, I hope to preserve this culinary heritage and craft.”
“My mother’s tenacity inspired me. As she always said, the food we put into people’s mouths is important. Then I realised how meaningful her work was!”
Elizabeth Chan, on why she joined Kueh Ho Jiak
When orders flooded in, Elizabeth shut down her curtains retail business and joined Kueh Ho Jiak. “I’d return home in the evening to find mum still in the kitchen, bent over the ang ku kueh, kneading, stuffing, and shaping them. I asked so many times if all this hard work was worth it because she didn’t earn much from each piece,” she says.
“But her tenacity was infectious. I went online to learn why she insisted on removing artificial colours and preservatives from her recipe, and discovered they could cause illnesses. The food we put into people’s mouths is important, as my mother always said. Then I realised how meaningful her work was!”
Currently, Elizabeth is responsible for all marketing and business development efforts at Kueh Ho Jiak. As she says matter-of-factly, “If we are doing something so good, we should tell more people about it. So, instead of working from home, we had to make the business more visible.”
As a result, Kueh Ho Jiak opened a stall at Tanjong Pagar Plaza Market in 2017, selling Sandy’s ang ku kueh, pineapple tarts, hae bee hiam, honey bahulu, and mini yam cakes. The venture paid off as the mum and daughter duo were featured in Netflix’s Food Tales in 2023.
Elizabeth admits, however, that she and her mother don’t always agree right away. “When I wanted to do e-commerce, for example, she complained about spending so much money on setting it up when we didn’t have regular customers. After thinking about it, she eventually agreed. By doing so, we were able to grow our clientele, and our business increased by 80 percent through the pandemic.”
Their growth has allowed them to expand the team and offer corporate events such as product launches and team-building programmes, as well as children’s workshops.
So, what’s on the horizon? Elizabeth shares, “In June, some of our corporate kueh-making workshops will include a mental well-being element, and offer tips on reducing stress. This allows us to protect our heritage while making an impact on people’s lives.”
Photography Cher Him
Art Direction Ed Harland
Hair Kenneth Ong, using Balmain Hair
Makeup Keith Bryant Lee & Wee Ming, using Chanel Beauty
