Enjoyed that restaurant’s bread? Buy it to have at home

SINGAPORE – The restaurant bread game in Singapore is strong.

Three-Michelin-starred Les Amis has a jaw-dropping, change-with-the-seasons selection served from a cart and that large, handsome loaf of sourdough sliced tableside; there is two-starred Cloudstreet’s Stout & Licorice loaf; one-starred Araya’s Chilean breads, including its nori and beef fat Bocado de Dama; one-starred Seroja’s Roti Paung; Imbue’s Malai Bread with ginseng honey butter; and Locanda’s Soft Roll with eggplant and tomato dips.

You get the idea.

Now, some chefs are making it easier to buy and enjoy their signature bread at home, and introducing other bakes too.

Chef Elena Perez, 36, mother of five-month-old Eva, is taking a break from restaurants but selling her signature Shiokupan from home. Chef Fernando Arevalo, 39, of newly opened Latido in Tras Street, is launching Boronas by Fernando in February, selling his rye rolls and more. And chef Daniele Sperindio, 37, who is in the midst of relocating his one-starred Art di Daniele Sperindio, will make room for a bread and pastry boutique at the new premises.

Carb lovers, here is what to expect, and what you can order for the weekend.

Boronas by Fernando: Colombian breakfast

Where: 02-12 Asia Square Food Garden, Asia Square Tower 2, 8 Marina View
Info: Opens in mid- to late February

Diners at chef Fernando Arevalo’s newly opened Latido in Tras Street, and at his previous restaurants Bacata and Preludio, are such fans of his signature Pan de la Casa – rye rolls – that they buy them to take home. He sells about 80 little loaves a week.

“The business is already there,” says the 39-year-old Colombian chef. “And to have the bread production separate from the restaurant is helpful.”

The packaging for Boronas, or breadcrumbs in Spanish, is a stylised, folk art representation of maize, an important crop for Colombia. Incidentally, the logo for Latido is a representation of home.

“The whole idea of my company is to create awareness of Latin American culture,” he says. “It’s not just ceviches.”

The bakery, at a food court in Asia Square, will supply bread to Latido as well as sell to the public. A team of five, including a head baker and a cashier, will run the stall.

Customers will be able to buy the signature rye rolls there. The $8 mini loaves, with a fermented mushroom, maple and bacon fat glaze, will come with either smoked butter or caramelised onion butter.

The chef, who has worked here for 13 years at restaurants such as Bistecca and Artemis, before opening Preludio in 2018 has been visiting Asia Square to look at foot traffic and to see what office workers there are buying for breakfast and lunch.

“The crowd for lunch is massive, and breakfast is significant,” he says.

He plans to offer a Colombian breakfast set for $9.50, which comprises a potato bun filled with a freshly made omelette and Colombian coffee.

“It’s a better version of Eggslut,” he says, referring to the American sandwich chain. “I think Singapore needs it. My favourite meal of the day is breakfast, and my wife and I like to wake up at 6am and go breakfast hunting. Most times, we go for local food because western breakfast food that is good and well-priced is very difficult to find. We want to take on this challenge.”

The lunch offering is likely to be a crusty roll made with koji, used in Japanese cuisine for fermentation, stuffed with slow roasted pork, salad, pickles and parmesan cheese. He is also thinking of selling Pandebono, a gluten-free Colombian cheese bread made with cassava starch, with a guava sauce to dip into.

He plans to have signature sandwiches available only at a specific Boronas store, and is scouting locations in East Coast and Holland Village, as well as at VivoCity and Jewel Changi Airport.

“You will see how we are able to offer things no one else does,” he says. “We are probably the only people showcasing Colombian food here. The bread in Colombia is very special. There is a lot for me to choose from.”

Aitas Singapore: Shiok pan

Info: To order, go to @aitas_sg (Instagram) and order via the Cococart link

Looking at the array of bread on pastry chef Elena Perez’s dining table, it is difficult to imagine they all came out of one home oven. And yet the Spanish chef, who is from Basque Country, makes and sells restaurant-quality bakes from home.

The 36-year-old worked at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon and Pollen Street Social in London before coming to Singapore in 2014 to work at Iggy’s. She went on to Artemis, Preludio and Rosemead before quitting in 2023 to start a family and do consultancy work on the side.

It was at Rosemead that she became known for her House Rolls & Shiitake Cultured Butter, soft Japanese milk bread rolls or shokupan. Diners were so enamoured by it that two diners might order three loaves. During Covid-19, her pastry boxes for the restaurant were in hot demand.

When her pregnancy made consultancy work difficult, she turned to selling bread from home in May 2024. That lasted until baby Eva was born, and then she took a break. Now, Aitas, Spanish for parents, is up and running again. Customers order through the link on its Instagram account for pickup or delivery on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Available for order are the famous pull-apart Shiokupan ($15 for a 15cm loaf); Shiitake Mushroom Butter ($10 a jar); Chori-pan ($16 for three), large cubes of milk bread with a chorizo and roasted piquillo pepper filling; Kaya-pan ($12 for three); Pecan Tart ($64); and Block-o-Brownie ($45).

For the Kaya-pan, she suggests heating up the bread, cutting a slit on top and stuffing a piece of butter inside.

Chef Perez sells her bakes from home, but gives them a restaurant sheen. The Shiokupan, made with a cooked flour and milk paste called a tangzhong, is brushed with a thick maple and mirin glaze and torched before being boxed up.

The Chori-pan is made in cube-shaped loaf pans, and the thick brownies are made in a mould that divides the brownies into nine portions. She boxes it upside down, so the new top is flat, with the score lines visible to make cutting easier.

“I can’t do normal things,” she says with a laugh. “I’ve had so many years of experience working in fine-dining restaurants. So even if I’m a home business, I want to make it a little different, with a bit of finesse.”

For Chinese New Year, she is mulling over whether to sell her version of pineapple tarts, which she had made for a luxury brand in 2024. It is a sandwich cookie with a less-sweet pineapple filling in between.

Opening a store now is out of the question because of the baby and the high rentals, she says.

“It’s more convenient for me to sell from home now,” she adds. “But in six months to a year, who knows what might happen.”

Mazzini di Daniele Sperindio: The Italian way

Info: Opens third quarter of 2025

At Art di Daniele Sperindio, there is a course called Scarpetta, the Italian term for a universal art form – mopping up sauces with bread. Housemade focaccia arrives at the table, and diners have at it with the meat, pesto and parmigiano sauces.

There is also a bread course, featuring housemade sourdough with a thin, crackly crust and a lightly chewy crumb, with Alpine butter served alongside. There is also warm ciabatta, with lemon-infused olive oil for dipping.

These compelling carbs are likely to find their way into Mazzini di Daniele Sperindio, Italian chef Daniele Sperindio’s spin-off business. The 37-year-old, who is from Genoa, is relocating Art, his one-Michelin-starred restaurant which used to be at the National Gallery Singapore. He has narrowed down his choice, but cannot say where the restaurant is moving to until things are signed and sealed.

Wherever the new location is, there will be a boutique which sells Italian bread, chocolate and pastries made on-site. The brand is named after Giuseppe Mazzini, a 19th-century Italian politician from Genoa who worked to unify Italy.

All this to say that chef Sperindio will not be selling strawberry shortcake.

“It will be a purely Italian bakery, a re-envisioned alta pasticceria rooted in Liguria, with key regional accents,” he says, using the Italian term for a store selling high-quality pastry.

So there will be Panarellina, a small almond sponge cake; Maritozzo, a brioche bun filled with cream; Sfogliatella, shell-shaped pastries, and Gianduiotto, ingot-shaped hazelnut chocolate. Customers will be able to pick up a selection of fine pastries or pasticcini, to take to friends’ homes or to treat themselves at teatime. At Christmas, there will be Panettone, the fruit-studded yeasted cake.

“Singapore is ready to have an unapologetically authentic Italian gourmet proposition for pastry and bread,” he says. “Gourmet doesn’t mean expensive. It can be approachable, fun and relevant. I want to really dig deep into my heritage. The more we build trust with our customers, the more willing they will be to try new things.”

He calls Mazzini a symbiotic business to Art.

“Right now, opening a standalone fine-dining concept is a potential mistake,” he says. “Fixed costs like rent and manpower are unavoidable. In a soft market, the key question becomes: How do you distribute these fixed costs? The solution lies in creating a symbiotic business model, where multiple concepts share infrastructure.

“This approach helps to spread expenses, ease the financial burden and ultimately make fine-dining a viable option.”

In 2024, when fine-dining restaurants struggled, he says Art was profitable. It shared a kitchen with Gemma, a steakhouse. Both closed in November 2024 when their nine-year leases ended, after negotiations about renovations with the landlord did not work out.

“This gives me an opportunity to reinvent Art,” says the chef, who has worked in Singapore for 13 years. “Art is an extension of who I am, and as I grow and evolve, so does the concept.”