Nestled in Kampung Attap in the artsy Zhongshan Building is Tommy Le Baker, Tommy Lee’s second bakery that he opened in 2017. Serving quality sourdough and an array of traditional French bread and treats, the bakery runs on the simple idea of offering great quality food. Here, Lee shares his insight into the joys of running a bakery and how a sense of purpose is key when it comes to managing a small business.
The decision to open a bakery didn’t just come to me like ‘that’. I was working in the corporate world, selling baking additives and pre-mixes. One day, my father got ill and so, I decided to take a sabbatical to take care of my father. It was during this time that I stumbled into a little palm oil miller in Jalan Ipoh who was making atta flour.
For someone who has lived in France before, seeing a flour mill in the city was quite a big shock for me because I thought it would usually be situated next to a wheat field. I was very curious, so I went in and bought about three kilograms of atta flour.
While taking care of my father at home, I experimented with my starter recipe and I took out one of the most basic French recipes, which is the French baguette or the white bread recipe. I replaced the yeast with the natural atta flour starter and it became a loaf of bread.
Everything I used to make that first loaf of bread was locally sourced. It was quite an epiphany for me to realise that I could make bread without sugar, fats, butter or oil, but just by using local ingredients. That was my natural calling to plant a bakery in Malaysia.
I opened my first shop in Jalan Ipoh and it happened in a very organic way. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t really plan. Whatever happens in front of me, I will just take on the duty to do what needs to be done. In the beginning, I didn’t know if the bread would sell, but I just made them.
I start each day differently. Usually, I will definitely exercise and work out an hour on my physical and mental health. Today I started the day at about 5:45 am. It’s a very calm time to wake up slowly and enjoy the moment.
Tommy Le Baker in Kampung Attap, Kuala Lumpur.
My shop is already open by the time I arrive at the bakery at 7 am. Everything is run on autopilot here. I’m usually on standby if anything happens or if there is an issue with any of the equipment. After that, I will have another coffee and toast and I will check the mise en place to see the tasks for my bakers on duty for the day ahead. Then I will work together with customer service or sit down to check my emails.
My ideal working environment is steady and not overly planned. If it’s overly planned, spontaneity will not be able to have a chance to be explored and things will come out differently.
I would usually unwind after a work day if my day had been a very taxing one. I don’t think there is a need to unwind if it is a very pleasant one. As a service-oriented business, we also take pockets of breaks throughout the day.
Tommy Le Baker’s skillet-baked brisket sandwich.
The best part of opening the bakery is that I didn’t know anything in the beginning. It’s just the joy of not knowing, the journey is what brings joy to me. If anybody wants to open a bakery, I would suggest just opening it, because this turned out to be one of the biggest joys of my life. It’s a very family-oriented business and people can bring their family here and spend time together.
Don’t rely only on passion. Passion is more spoken of in this world today rather than the real meaning of it. It’s just fireworks of a particular initial moment. I think it’s important to find advocacy in what you do because if you have advocacy, you have a purpose. For me, I’m doing this because I want to introduce a bread that is made with natural locally sourced ingredients that can be a daily staple.
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