KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 — The movement control order (MCO) has definitely been a challenge for many businesses, especially those in the food-and-beverage (F&B) industry where margins were already razor-thin and consumers fickle.
Yet the old proverb stands true: one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Whereas many have found the MCO to be a bane, others have found it a boon, discovering a new lifeline and purpose with the shake-up.
Take Basil Tan, for instance. He founded Sauce Lab — “basically a start-up which produces homemade sauces without using any preservatives and MSG,” he says — in May after his café business slowed due to the lockdown.
The 30-year-old had studied Hospitality & Tourism, a field he was passionate about and from which he had gleaned the necessary skills for his first business. It was hardly an overnight leap into entrepreneurship, however.
Tan says, “After graduating from Switzerland, I worked in the hotel industry for three years before venturing into opening my own cafés — The Front Door at Petaling Street and Second Sunday at Damansara Jaya. I’m now running a café called Mighty Monster in Mytown Mall, Cheras.”
Clearly, starting a business that focuses on homemade sauces wasn’t Tan’s initial business plan. The route to running a café — or indeed, a chain of cafés — was more enticing and the timing seemed right given the interest in café culture and coffee nowadays.
As they say, hindsight is 20/20. What appeared to be an easy opportunity turned out to be the threat; others had the same idea and there are a plethora of cafés everywhere you turn.
As with running any F&B business, it’s far simpler to start one than to sustain it. What happens when you can’t sell enough cups of long blacks and lattes? Many cafés, when faced with strong competition and an inability to stand out from the pack, had to shutter ignominiously.
Tan wasn’t spared either. He explains, “Because of MCO, our café Mighty Monster is badly affected and one outlet has been shut down.”
A quick pivot was required. Not building an entirely new business from scratch but one that took shape based on whatever resources were at hand.
To this end, Tan decided to experiment by using some of the basic sauces that were already used in his cafés while crafting a few new sauces so regular customers wouldn’t be left out.
He explains, “Our main goal with Sauce Lab is to allow home cooks to elevate their home cooking by using our artisanal sauces. We also created some new flavours to offer a variety of sauces to our customers.”
These sauces include Tan’s “namesake” — the Basil Pesto made with fresh basil, cashews, Parmesan and olive oil. There is also fragrant Ginger Scallion Oil and Roasted Red Pepper for that toasty capsicum flavour.
Their Japanese Tartar Sauce is made with Kewpie mayonnaise, designed for a platter of freshly fried fish & chips; there’s a robust Garlic Aïoli, pungent enough to satisfy anyone hailing from the Mediterranean; and the sauce du jour is everyone’s guilty pleasure, Salted Egg Yolk.
And if we judge a sauce maker by their sambal, then Sauce Lab’s Sambal Belacan is the one to test. Perhaps no one is having more fun tasting all the sauces than their creator.
Tan says, “During MCO, many cafés and restaurants came out with many interesting packages to cater to people staying at home. We realised people do love cooking at home but the most tedious part is to make or think about sauces to complement their dishes, hence the idea of selling sauces for home cooks.”
It’s early days yet and Sauce Lab has proven to be agile in adapting to any shift in customer preferences. After three months of operations and considering all feedback received, Tan notes that they have removed less popular sauces and introduced new ones such as the Tomato Marinara and the Avocado Hummus.
Certainly the bright green of their creamy Avocado Hummus would contrast well with the deep purple of their Beetroot Hummus. Enjoy steamed cobs of corn slathered with Sauce Lab’s Sambal Mayo or their Roasted Chilli Oil as a dipping sauce for noodles and pan-fried gyoza dumplings.
It’s not all savoury either; try drizzling Sauce Lab’s Salted Miso Caramel on generous scoops of ice cream to make a simple treat far more decadent. And so on... we are limited only by our imagination, no?
Ah, but the imagination is a challenge, hence the need to showcase the various ways these sauces can be enjoyed beyond using them as straight-up sauces. One way Sauce Lab achieved this was via their social media pages. But there’s nothing like getting a feel for the real deal.
To this end, Sauce Lab needed to reach out to prospects who weren’t already customers or social media followers. Tan says, “We started having booths at bazaars when the MCO was lifted. By having a presence at the bazaars, those who are sceptical can come over to our booth and taste all of our products before deciding which ones to purchase.”
Another area where Sauce Lab has improved upon is their production processes, a timely transformation of their operations given the recent return of the conditional movement control order (CMCO) in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.
Tan explains, “We had to speed up our production time as people are discouraged from staying out late. So we had to make sure to end everything by 10pm.”
The pandemic has hit the supply chain for many, Sauce Lab included. Tan says, “Getting the raw materials is difficult as some of our suppliers are closed or have limited stock. Having been in the market for some time now, it’s easier for me to understand what our market wants when it comes to food or beverage.”
There are plans for Sauce Lab to supply other cafés and restaurants in the future, as well as to have their jars of sauces on supermarket shelves. That is in the long run; for now, however, Tan asserts their aim is more modest.
He says, “Our short term goal now is to maintain the quality of our sauces and hopefully to reach out for more collaborations with local or new start-up brands that also began during the MCO – so that we can go through these tough times together.”
Boon or bane, every challenge is an opportunity. Here’s hoping Sauce Lab and others like it can thrive amid the adversity, perhaps as a community of peers determined to persevere.
Learn more about Sauce Lab at facebook.com/saucelabmy/ and instagram.com/saucelabmy/.
