Tastemakers: Former flight attendant’s nasi lemak chain now has 26 outlets and $7 million revenue

SINGAPORE – Former flight attendant Noorman Mubarak, 46, was earning up to $20,000 a month as a project manager in the oil and gas industry, when he quit and turned hawker in 2017.

Together with his wife and a long-time friend, he started Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang as a hawker stall at Yishun Park Hawker Centre. 

Today, the University of Queensland graduate – who has a degree in business management – has seen his stall expand into a Muslim-owned chain with 100 employees across 26 outlets and annual revenue of $7 million. 

He recently made the news

after saying in a Feb 18 Facebook post that he had “forced” his heavily pregnant wife, Ms Puti Andam Dewi Henry, 39, to stand at their nasi lemak stall in Yishun. As the registered stallholder, she had received a National Environment Agency warning for violating the tenancy agreement by not being physically at the stall.

Mr Noorman asserted that the stall is personally managed by both of them, as they utilise a human resources software, set standard operating procedures for staff and use CCTV to check on operations. He took issue with Ms Puti having to be physically present at the stall.

The matter has since been resolved, with Ms Puti appointing an employee as a nominee to operate the stall while she is on maternity leave until September.

She remains in charge of the stall’s financial, administrative and operational matters. Mr Noorman says the couple also communicate with their staff daily and visit the stall up to three times a week. 

Ms Puti – also a former flight attendant – was supportive of his move to become a hawker. Then 37, his decision was spurred by the birth of their first son. His job in the oil and gas industry required frequent travel, but he wanted to be home for his family. 

The couple, who married in 2013, have three children: an eight-year-old son, a two-year-old daughter and a one-month-old boy.

Mr Noorman was prepared for hawker life, as his late grandmother and his parents were hawkers. At age eight, he started helping out daily at his parents’ stall in Ang Mo Kio, which sold nasi lemak, roti prata and mee goreng. He would wake up at 3am, be at the stall by 3.45am and carry out chores in his school uniform before heading to school. 

“I wasn’t born with a silver spoon. I had to work to help pay for my expenses while studying for my degree,” he says, adding that his three younger sisters also worked at his parents’ stall to help fund his studies.

After graduating from the Australian institution, he worked in the country for a year as a manager at a central kitchen before returning to work at his parents’ stall in 2003.

In 2004, he joined Singapore Airlines as a flight attendant, where he remained until 2011, when he left to join the oil and gas industry. Starting as an offshore technician, he worked his way up to become project manager.

Returning to his hawker roots

In 2017, Mr Noorman hit upon the idea of returning to his hawker roots when he saw the construction of Yishun Park Hawker Centre near his flat. He suggested that Ms Puti apply for a stall which they could run together.

An avid home cook, his Indonesia-born wife’s signature dish is ayam taliwang, an Indonesian dish of spicy grilled chicken. As Mr Noorman wanted a unique version of nasi lemak, he decided to combine her dish with his nasi lemak.

Together with his friend Mr Muhammad Ikhram, 46, he invested $50,000 in setting up the Yishun stall.

In the beginning, Mr Noorman held on to his full-time job, believing he could juggle both. But he quit that two months later, exhausted from working at the stall from 4am before going to the office, then returning to the stall till well after 10pm.

As a full-time hawker, he worked up to 16 hours daily, with no days off. He prepared food from scratch, including the nasi lemak sambal, which takes five hours to cook.

His bestseller is the Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang Set ($7.60). Fresh red chillies, candlenuts, garlic and shallots go into the taliwang sauce, which is slow-cooked for two hours. The sunny-side-up egg and chicken leg are cooked to order. 

Another popular item is the Nasi Lemak Ayam Cabe Ijo Set ($7.60), which includes a citrusy sambal made from green chillies and green tomatoes, spiked with lime juice and Thai lime leaves. 

Battling financial woes

When his first outlet broke even in 2019, Mr Noorman took out a personal loan of $20,000 to invest in a second outlet at Ci Yuan Hawker Centre, which was registered under Mr Muhammad.

With business at both outlets growing steadily, the partners invested $40,000 in a third outlet at United Square in January 2020. This turned out to be the beginning of their financial woes.

After a promising two months, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic dealt a severe blow. Mr Noorman reckons they lost close to $100,000 over the two years that they operated the United Square stall. He dug into his savings to cover losses at the outlet, which eventually shuttered in 2022.

Two more outlets, which opened in Tampines in 2020, also struggled during the pandemic and closed by mid-2021.

Mr Noorman, who went without a salary for four months in 2020, reveals there were months when his corporate bank account had only a double-digit amount after paying suppliers, bills and employee salaries. He also underwent surgery for a slipped disc in July that year.

“I was demoralised but I never considered giving up. I did not have a Plan B after I decided to go full steam on Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang.”

A turning point came when the Yishun Park outlet was listed in the Michelin Guide Singapore 2021.

That year also saw the opening of two profitable outlets at Canberra Plaza and a coffee shop in Tampines Street 81.

By 2022, however, his partner Mr Muhammad had lost his appetite for risk. He left the company as a shareholder to run the Ci Yuan hawker stall as a franchise outlet. It is the only franchise outlet in the chain.

Mr Noorman continued expanding, with outlets at Gardens by the Bay and Plaza Singapura, before running into another hiccup.

A costly lesson

In July 2023, he plonked down more than $100,000 to open a 45-seat restaurant called Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang Signature in North Bridge Road.

It served an elevated version of his signature dish at $15.90 a set, using fresh organic free-range chicken, but drew flak from customers who could not stomach the inflated prices.

Mr Noorman closed the restaurant after a year and losses of $150,000.

“It was a costly lesson in branding and marketing. We need differentiating brands for different products at different price points.”

He now sticks to outlets in hawker centres, foodcourts and coffee shops. His initial plan was to grow to five outlets in 10 years, which he achieved within five years. Between 2022 and 2023, he ramped up to almost 20 outlets islandwide, taking the total to 26 by March 2025.

His newest are a foodcourt stall at Marina Bay Sands, which opened in January and is now the highest-performing outlet in terms of sales, and a Bedok coffee shop stall which opened on March 15. 

Future plans

Mr Noorman now aims to hit 50 outlets islandwide. He is also consolidating operations, with plans to close five foodcourt outlets with high rentals and open five outlets at coffee shops instead. 

He also hopes to expand in the region, using either a franchise or joint venture model.

He does not consider himself successful yet, as he says up to 40 per cent of his outlets are currently not profitable. His salary is still about 25 per cent below what he used to earn in the oil and gas industry. 

Of his entrepreneurial journey, he says: “Nobody in their right mind would want to go through this. It is full of stress, but what I want to achieve is not for myself. It is for my family, especially for my children.

“I want to create generational wealth for them so they can pursue their dreams.”