A week in the life of a chef in Singapore during the circuit breaker

May 6

I decided to take the bus instead of the train to work today. The scenic route and quiet ride had me thinking about the past couple of weeks. We were all set to launch SPRMRKT's third venue at Dempsey Hill on April 4, but when news of the circuit breaker broke a day before opening, it was a hard pill to swallow.

We decided to open the new outlet for dine-in for a couple of days before making the switch to delivery and takeaway. The restaurants have always been on third-party delivery platforms, but we were gearing up to our own online ordering site E-SPRMRKT. The challenge here was to bring the full dining experience – including our arts programme and artisanal retail shop – to our customers' homes.

I arrived at Dempsey and had my usual cup of coffee. I spent the morning clearing emails before having a meeting with HR to discuss the placement of staff as they can no longer move from outlet to outlet during the circuit breaker. Then, I checked in on the production of our Mother's Day cupcakes – each petal is piped by hand and it's a delicate process that requires skill and focus.

I got off work at 7.30pm and took the train home. I did some housework and cooked tomorrow's lunch for the kids (20-minute fried rice). We played a round of Foodies, the current family favourite, and tucked the kids in by 10pm.

May 7

I got into work at 9am today and spent half the day sorting out orders for the Mother's Day cupcakes. I checked in with our pastry chefs on the production schedule – it was tight but we felt that we could fulfil the orders. By 2pm, we had twice the number of orders than yesterday. I ordered more ingredients for tomorrow – thankfully, our suppliers have been very responsive and we've been managing our stocks more efficiently too.

Got home before 8pm and had dinner. Managed to catch the kids before bedtime and told them to pick something to play. Foodies again! Hearing them describe the dishes made me wonder if my food obsession is rubbing off on them. Once they went to sleep, I checked on cupcake orders again and they're up 30 percent.

May 8

Production was in full force when I stepped into the kitchen. Cupcakes were coming out of the oven on one end and getting piped at the other. Because of the circuit breaker, we can't transfer staff from one outlet to another so our two pastry chefs didn't have any backup.

At 2pm, an hour before cupcake orders close, customers were still calling. I helped with piping to get everything done in time. When we were almost done, I started organising orders for delivery the next day, making sure that special messages were fulfilled. We then started packing the cupcakes, labelling each box correctly. It's nice to see the front and back of house teams work together on this – a little banter helps lift the mood and keep everyone going. It was past 9pm by the time we left the kitchen.

May 9

It's my day off but I still left the house at 9am to run some errands. I couldn't stop myself from dropping by the outlet to make sure that the deliveries went out smoothly. After that, I bought some groceries and got lunch for the family. I've been craving for cheng tng so I stopped by Toa Payoh Lorong 8 for Four Seasons, which has the best bowl in town.

I got home at 1pm and had a quick lunch with the family before preparing dinner. I wanted to cook something simple so roast chicken and potatoes are ideal because you can just put them in the oven for 20 minutes. But I got so caught up with work I forgot to put the chicken in the oven. We ended up eating at around 6.30pm and I continued working out delivery routes till 9pm.

I showered and played a quick game with the girls. Even on my day off, I don't get to spend that much time with them. Just like any other working parent, there are moments that I miss out on, but I'm fortunate to have a supportive family to come home to. Once the kids are in bed, I jumped back on the computer to work on deliveries till 1am.

May 10

It's Mother's Day! I woke up at 6.30am to get a headstart on the deliveries. The walk to work was rather tranquil with the gentle cool breeze of the morning. All the orders were packed the night before so I just had to make sure that the drivers pick up the right pile of cupcakes. The first rider arrived at 9am and left without a hitch. I told our guys to make sure that all the riders have a drink of us when they pick up the boxes since they have to brave today's wet weather.

By noon, most of the cupcakes have been picked up. We had to fill some lunch orders too and by 2pm we're all done. I managed to pick up a couple of boxes of cupcakes for my own mother and wife. I think most of us in F&B have this bad habit – our family seems to always be an afterthought.

I bought Subway sandwiches on the way home for the family. After dinner, the kids had a surprise for their mum. They prepared a stage to put up a performance and made a gift for their mum. It’s moments like these that make the heartaches of parenting worthwhile. They always make me tear but and remember that the reason why I work so hard is because I want to build a better future for them.

May 11

I arrived at the outlet at 9am to clear a backlog of accounting and admin work. I scheduled a quick digital catch-up with our managers at 1.30pm – nothing beats having everyone around during our staff meal where we can catch up while having together.

I usually skip lunch but today we're doing a tasting from our new vegetable-forward menu to check for consistency. I wish our guests had more days to try the menu when we launched it for dine-in dinner but we've decided to put it on our all-day takeaway and delivery section for now.

During the staff meeting, we discussed our Father's Day specials (that's how things are in F&B, once you're done with one promotion you immediately move on to the next). After that, I had a video shoot demonstrating how people can cook a comforting dish at home. It's an engaging way to reach out to a new audience and as a chef, we have to multitask a lot more now. I'm doing these videos often enough now that I managed to wrap things up in two hours. Got home slightly earlier than usual and managed to spend a couple of hours with the kids.

May 12

I spent the morning trying to finish up what’s needed for the E-SPRMRKT launch. We want to provide a convenient way for customers to get food, drinks and responsibly sourced groceries on one platform. While working on that, we also had a meeting with HR to boost staff morale and come up with ways to help the team through this difficult time. Sue-Shan, our founder, suggested sending a care package of fruits to staff.

The rest of my day was spent trying to finish the weekly reports. I stopped by the grocery store for some essentials on the way home. In the past, I would have done this online, but it’s harder with limited delivery slots. Hopefully, the E-SPRMRKT can help fill the gap for those looking to grab food and pantry staples at the same time.

I managed to get the kids to bed early and spent some time with my wife watching a mindless movie. I didn't really pay attention to the plot because we spent the time catching up and talking about her week. It's always a nice way to end the day.