Why do restaurants serve the same few desserts?

Straits Times

a day ago

Cakes are one of the food items Foodedge Gourmet supplies to cafes and restaurants. ST PHOTO: TARYN NG
Why do restaurants serve the same few desserts?
SINGAPORE – A meal at a cafe or casual restaurant typically ends in one of four or five ways: with a lava cake, cheesecake, brownie or scoop of gelato. If dining at a Chinese eatery, dessert might take the form of a paste of some sort – perhaps a bowl of jelly adorned with canned fruit.
Not everything is whipped up fresh on-site. At many of these establishments, you may be getting the same product made at the same central kitchen by the same few hands.
Enter the suppliers responsible for some of Singapore's most ubiquitous desserts, whose creations have percolated throughout the culinary ecosystem, landing everywhere from five-star hotels to bubble tea chains. You name it, they probably made some part of it.
Usually accustomed to operating behind the scenes, they step out of the shadows t o tell The Straits Times how they spent decades contouring the country's sweet tooth, and wh y t he same few items are found at the end of so many menus.
A pre-made paradise
Ms Joyleen Khoo, 62 , co-owner of Dessert Guru, started her career in the food and beverage industry as a hawker in Bedok, then a cafe owner with outlets at Pearls Centre and Far East Plaza. During her latter stint, the popularity of one offering – a soursop drink – sparked an idea: Why not sell the base ingredient in puree form?
The pivot came just in time. When the financial crisis hit in 1997, Ms Khoo and her husband closed their cafe and focused on perfecting their soursop puree recipe, and getting their fledging original equipment manufacturer business off the ground.
Out of this idea sprung 10, then 20, then 50 others. Today, their larder is filled with just about every ingredient one might need to run a bubble tea or Chinese dessert store: purees pulped from avocado or durian; jellies that can be slurped like noodles or rolled into balls that burst in the mouth; pre-made sesame and peanut paste; and toppings such as attap seeds, chendol and grass jelly.
'We realised over time that we couldn't keep selling the same thing for 20 years,' says Mr Ken Tan, Ms Khoo's son. The 33-year-old runs the business alongside his mother.
It is this variety that he thinks sets the company apart from other suppliers of bubble tea toppings.
Ms Joyleen Khoo and Mr Ken Tan, co-owners of Dessert Guru, at their headquarters in Bedok.
ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR
They serve more than 1,500 clients, ranging from hawker stalls to restaurants on the Michelin Guide . Putien, for instance, uses Dessert Guru's soursop puree in its drinks.
The former bartender describes himself as a travelling mixologist, roving between clients' stores to demonstrate how his products might be used in drinks and desserts.
He says: 'If you go to any mall, you are unknowingly tasting our products in at least one stall.'
Hop to the next kiosk and you might just stumble upon something made by Oishi, a leading ice cream and sorbet manufacturer that has stocked the freezers of more than 1,700 restaurants, casual chains and fast-food joints since 2003.
When ST visited the company's factory in April, state-of-the-art machines were whirling away at bucketfuls of mint chocolate chip ice cream, intended for the sub-zero chests of an ice cream chain.
Apart from tubs of ice cream, gelato and sorbet in more than 80 flavours, the kitchen churns out soft serve, waffle and pancake, cone, and crepe premixes; as well as frozen bakes.
Oishi staff making a batch of mint chocolate ice cream.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
If you order a slice of cake, however, there is a chance it may have come from Foodedge Gourmet, another supplier whose expertise runs the gamut of cafe edibles. Cookies, muffins, cakes, ice cream, pizza, pasta, pies and quiches – anything that can be chucked in a fridge or freezer and reheated in a microwa ve.
'We supply a lot of cafes that don't have chefs and an open flame,' says co-founder Manmeet Pal Singh, 62.
He stresses that volume does not come at the cost of quality. 'We emphasise good ingredients. We don't use preservatives here. We use butter, we use good salt.'
The company creates specific flavours for high-end restaurants as well, but in those cases, 'you will never know that it's from us'.
Old is still gold
Foodedge Gourmet's sprawling catalogue – totalling more than 500 items and flavours – belies the restraint that underpins its approach to dessert-making.
Trends come and go, and the company eschews flash-in-the-pan fads for flavours with proven staying power.
'Some things are just not worth doing,' says Mr Singh's daughter Bandana Kaur, 34, who manages marketing and branding.
Take the Dubai chocolate craze, for example. 'We don't have a pistachio chocolate cake because our key line is about affordability. If it's not in that price range, then it might not be worth it.'
At the end of the day, tried-and-tested favourites still reign supreme. Mr Singh notes: 'People are creatures of habit. No matter how many flavours you have, they always go back to their brownie or cheesecake. They just prefer comfort foods.'
It therefore makes more economic sense for cafes and restaurants to play it safe when it comes to the dessert menu. The cakes displayed in chillers have a shelf life of two days and have to be snapped up within that time frame. To avoid food waste, they stick to the standard few items customers buy .
Mr Singh says: 'Maybe you can afford to take a risk on one time. But you can't keep on taking risks. Let's say with one round cake, if you throw two pieces away, you just threw all your profits away.'
Oishi co-owners Shamsa van Keulen (left) and Erik van Keulen took over the brand in 2022.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
It is the smarter move for suppliers too, says Oishi co-owner Erik van Keulen, 53, who took over the business in 2022 with his wife Shamsa van Keulen. 'We're not trendsetters. As a manufacturing business, we seek volume as a means to mitigate our expenses.'
Although Oishi offers a smattering of vegan or keto options, most of its frozen treats still embrace indulgence for its own sake. 'Although there is more talk about healthier solutions or alternatives for ice cream, in reality, people still want the full-cream stuff.'
He adds that for every tub of non-traditional ice cream sold, clients order five filled with traditional flavours – chocolate, strawberry, and cookies and cream.
'It's a bit like the organic aisle in the supermarket. Brands don't want to be there because it's too expensive. That's the aisle that people try to avoid .'
Then there is the question of how to health-wash something that is still expected to deliver a sugar rush. Dessert Guru's Mr Tan says: 'We try to reduce the sugar in our products, but there's still a sweetness that comes naturally from fruits, so you can't please everyone.'
The company has tried to source for alternatives, such as gelatin powder made from seaweed, but not all new inventions have piqued the interest of clients. 'We much prefer if they tell us what they want us to make,' adds Ms Khoo.
Staff packing mango jello strips at Oishi's central kitchen.
ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR
Indeed, with competition heating up in the food and beverage industry, businesses are casting about for ways to make even their standard offerings stand out.
'Increasingly, people are looking for some degree of customisation,' observes Mr van Keulen.
Fast-food chains might introduce, say, a bespoke flavour catered to the local palate, while hotel chefs might want to put their own stamp on the menu. Sometimes, clients may request slight modifications – like a hotpot restaurant that asked Oishi to develop a chocolate ice cream that was less strong to appeal to all ages.
Still, he points out, there is only so much that restaurants dare to tweak. Even conversations about jazzing up lava cakes and waffles with new flavours 'don't really go beyond a fairly superficial point'.
'They're not going to say, come up with a totally new concept of a frozen yogurt. They just need something that is a little bit different, that they can build a bit of a narrative around.'
Foodedge Gourmet's team also dishes out advice on how clients can differentiate the same product through creative plating. Mr Singh recalls an instance, several years ago, when the company supplied the same double chocolate brownie to three neighbouring restaurants.
He told the first one to sell it plain. To the second, slightly more upscale cafe, he suggested serving the brownie on a hot plate with a scoop of ice cream, and urged the third to drizzle it with chocolate sauce and caramel, and adorn it with strawberries. This way, all three restaurants could market the same product at different prices.
Foodedge Gourmet supplies restaurants and cafes with dessert staples like chocolate lava cake.
ST PHOTO: TARYN NG
If a client buys in bulk – above 64 whole cakes or 120 trays of brownies – then customisation becomes a possibility too.
Ms Kaur says cafes and home bakers tend to approach the company when they open their third outlet and start needing help with scale. 'They'll give us a recipe and we'll sign a non-disclosure agreement, since it's their intellectual property. Or sometimes, they'll make fresh cakes and we'll convert them to frozen products, so there's less wastage,' she says.
Why restaurants outsource desserts
Lately, life in the dessert industry has been far from sweet. As it turns out, that sugar high is coming at an increasingly high cost.
Dessert Guru now forks out nearly double of what it did a year ago for sugar. Likewise, Foodedge Gourmet says the price of coconut has 'gone through the roof', while chocolate has tripled in cost.
Mr Singh regards US President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs with trepidation too, fearing that its effects might trickle down the food chain.
'It's the uncertainty that's the worst. During uncertainty, people stop buying and become more cautious. There's basic food, and there's indulgence. Desserts like ours fall under indulgence, and that's what people cut down on in such times,' he says.
For now, though, interest in his products has yet to ebb. On the contrary, he has been receiving more queries from kitchens looking to outsource dessert work.
Pastry chefs tell ST that since the Covid-19 pandemic, jobs for aspiring patissiers have been in short supply. To cut back on manpower costs, resource-strapped restaurants and hotels turn instead to the repositories of companies such as Foodedge Gourmet.
'In Singapore, I do feel like many restaurants are not 'reluctant', but perhaps do not allocate the budget or space to have a head pastry chef. I think they mostly hire a chef de partie, or a sous chef, or assign a kitchen team member to run the pastry section,' says Les Amis pastry chef Cheryl Koh, 44, who is also the founder of dessert brand Tarte.
This development mirrors trends in Britain and the US, where pastry chefs have become an endangered species, according to reports by Bon Appetit in 2022 and The Guardian in 202 3.
Mr van Keulen also says t hat with the price of cold storage on the rise, many businesses are eschewing overseas imports for 'local suppliers that are more agile, more flexible and have shorter lead times'.
'Whereas in the past, it was more common to deliver pallets to their stores and then subsequently dish it out, recently people are asking, can we just leave the product with you and then draw from it as and when we need it again?'
With manpower and cost pressures rising, restaurants and hotels are tapping companies like Oishi for help.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
Apart from convenience, outsourcing also augments customer satisfaction by ensuring consistency in terms of quality and portion size, says Temasek Polytechnic's Culinary Academy head Andy Tan.
And it lets off some steam in an infamously pressure-cooker environment. 'Outsourcing allows kitchen staff to concentrate on core menu items, enhancing time management, staff wellness and overall operational efficiency,' he adds.
Ms Kaur also tells clients to concentrate on what they do best. 'If you're selling coffee, make sure your coffee is made in-house . But a cafe without a few pastries may not be complete, and if they need a few extra hands for that, that's where we come in.'
This arrangement, however, does not suit all establishments. Mr Tan points out that for fine-dining restaurants, boutique cafes and bakeries that pride themselves on artisanal creations, housemade desserts remain essential, as they showcase originality, craftsmanship, brand identity and the talents of chefs.
Michelin-starred spots such as Odette and Araya, for example, have dedicated pastry chefs tasked with delivering a memorable final flourish.
'At Odette, we are taking a great pride in building a dessert programme that follows the narrative of our menu,' says the three-Michelin-starred restaurant's chef-owner Julien Royer. 'Our tasting menu is a crescendo in terms of flavours. Just like a piece of jazz music goes up and up and up before coming down, our dessert sequence ends the meal on a sweet and light note.'
Who, then, taps such services?
While its owners decline to go into specifics, Oishi's website lists KFC, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Four Seasons Hotel among its customers.
Dessert Guru has supplied Haidilao, Sukiya and Astons with ingredients in the past, while Foodedge Gourmet declined to comment on its clientele.
In the view of Temasek Polytechnic's Mr Tan , a certain level of discretion is only to be expected, even if such establishments put their own spin on these externally obtained desserts.
'Eateries are often reluctant to admit their desserts are outsourced, as it conflicts with the handcrafted image they aim to portray. Diners expect authenticity and there's a fear that outsourcing could make the establishment seem 'less premium',' he notes.
Rainbow tadpole balls by Dessert Guru.
ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR
Dessert Guru's Mr Ken Tan derive s satisfaction from his small company's outsized impact. 'We have secretly revolutionalised the dessert and bubble tea industry in Singapore. Many of these toppings and ideas came from us, just that nobody knows,' he says in reference to creations such as rainbow tadpole balls and red tea jelly, which can be found at Koufu foodcourts and Mei Lin Dessert, a stall at Changi Village Hawker Centre.
For Oishi's research and development manager Lee Jia Ni, 29, chancing upon her inventions is always a pleasant surprise. 'I was quite surprised when I went to Jack's Place and realised, oh, that's our ice cream. Even on the weekends, I'm tasting my own work.'
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