Making traditional bread in modern Singapore: How one bakery is rising to the challenge

But the moulder represents a slice of modernisation kneaded in with Sweetlands’ heritage.

The bakery’s owner, Mr Nicholas Tan, brought in a second-hand machine for his bakers to try, as he felt it would relieve them of the laborious task of shaping the dough by hand. But he faced resistance.

“When I first brought the moulder, nobody wanted to use it. They said moulding by hand is easier, more accurate,” the 49-year-old said.

“And then when they started using it, they loved the machine,” said Mr Tan, adding that his staff kicked up a fuss when the moulder broke down once.

He eventually tapped a grant to purchase a new moulder in 2024.

Mr Tan still gets the bakers to shape the dough by hand from time to time, to ensure that the art is not lost – and as a contingency in case the machine breaks down.

Modernising the business, which opened in the 1960s under a different name, while ensuring it stays true to its roots has been a balancing act for Mr Tan, who bought over the bakery in 2020.

A few of the staff from the original crew of 17 have stayed on with Sweetlands, which now has more than 25 employees.

Mr Tan previously worked as a chemical trader for close to 20 years, until 2015, when his father’s death made him rethink work.

“At the wake and at the funeral, I started doing a bit of soul-searching and realised, hey, do I really want to continue doing a corporate job for the rest of my life? I wanted to give back (to the community),” Mr Tan said.

Mr Tan said: “Taking over the bakery is not about me leaving a mark here before I pass. It’s more about leaving something that the next generation can still experience.”

He recalled butter-sugar toast breakfasts that he used to have with his grandmother, and a now little-known dish made from pomelo skin that she used to make.

“I want my children to experience the same things that I experienced when I was young,” said Mr Tan, who has two children, aged four and nine.

He has introduced cempedak cake to Sweetlands’ menu, based on his grandmother’s recipe. Participants at a recent Singapore HeritageFest workshop had the chance to make this for themselves.

He has also documented his bakers’ recipe for the traditional loaves to ensure that the same flavours and texture can be faithfully replicated in the future.

“Our store looks like something that’s out of the 1970s, 1980s. It’s a little snapshot of history,” said Mr Tan, adding that revamping the store is something he is undecided about.

Unlike commercial sandwich bread, the traditional loaves that Sweetlands produces typically has some charring from the baking process.

“With that charring, after you cut off the skin, the toasted, roasted flavours are trapped within the loaf itself and you get a more woody note to the bread,” Mr Tan explained.

The bakery in Balestier – one of a handful that still produce traditional bread loaves – counts cafe chains such as Killiney Kopitiam and Fun Toast among its customers. It produces more than 1,000 traditional, sandwich, French and dome-shaped hua bao loaves daily.

While walk-in customers account for just 10 to 20 per cent of Sweetlands’ business, the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit months after Mr Tan took over, forced the bakery to put more focus on its retail sales.

Instead of breaking even within 15 to 18 months of buying the bakery as he had projected, Mr Tan had to take three bank loans – which he is still servicing – to keep the bakery afloat.

Mr Tan’s younger brother Chester, a lawyer, helped with the legal paperwork when the business changed hands, as well as with marketing the bakery.

Having helped out with Sweetlands for about two years and realising that there was a lack of support for heritage businesses, Mr Chester Tan, 33, founded the Heritage Business Foundation in 2021. The non-profit supports heritage businesses with marketing, business consulting and networking, and by chronicling their stories online.

“For some of the businesses that we work with, our website is the only evidence they ever existed,” said the younger Mr Tan, who added that some of them have shut down along the way.

“Some of them get some coverage towards the end, when they shut down, but many of them just ride off into the sunset. You never hear them again. So, even if we can’t help, then the least we can do is create a record that these businesses existed,” he said.

The foundation’s work is inspired in part by the kindness of others towards Sweetlands since his brother took over the business.

When Sweetlands’ oven broke down during the pandemic, for instance, the nearby Sing Hon Loong Bakery – also known for its traditional loaves – allowed Mr Tan and his employees to use its oven.

It was the first time Mr Tan had contacted Jackson’s owner.

Said Mr Tan: “He was very nice, given that it was a cold call. He said, ‘Nick, there are not many traditional bread businesses left in Singapore. If we can help each other, we should help each other’. So I was very grateful.”