Chef Son Starts Lava Mooncake Home Biz For Retrenched Mum, Truffle & Cheese Flavours Included

When chef Keith Chu’s mum was retrenched from her clerical job in 2019, the 30-year-old had to make a difficult decision. Then employed as senior Chef De Partie (station chef) at one-Michelin-starred progressive British restaurant Roganic in Hong Kong – where he holds permanent resident status – he had to give up his job and return to Singapore to help with the finances.

“The pay in Hong Kong was generally pretty good. It’s just that if I [factored in] my apartment’s rental on top of my mum’s living and medical expenses back in Singapore, [it] would’ve been a strain,” Keith tells us 8days.sg.

“It was challenging for her to find a new job because of her age and my mum was unsuccessful for many months,” Keith adds. The 55-year-old woman also has chronic illnesses like diabetes and high cholesterol, further exacerbating her job woes.

Thus, home-based business Melt Bites was born. They sell lava mooncakes – characterised by a molten filling.

“I’m just very grateful that my children (she also has a daughter who has just started working fresh out of uni) are so filial. When I told Keith I was retrenched, he just said ‘okay’, then suddenly he quit his job and flew home,” Poh Hong shares. “Being a parent, the love you get from your kids, it’s irreplaceable.”

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Melt Bites’ baked mooncakes are encrusted with buttery pastry that’s “more like a French tart shell, giving it a melt-in-your-mouth feel. Most people use traditional mooncake skin, which contains alkaline. I personally think that affects the flavour,” says Keith.

His creations also contain more contemporary ingredients like parmesan cheese, bechamel sauce and truffles. Eventually, he hopes that his mum, who divorced his Hong Konger father when Keith was five, will be able to run the business full-time with an expanded, year-round menu of molten-centered bakes that go beyond just mooncakes.

He relocated to Hong Kong in 2015 after snagging a job as sous chef at Nordic restaurant Frantzén’s Kitchen (acclaimed Swedish chef Björn Frantzén’s first international outpost before he opened Restaurant Zén in Singapore, which boasts three Michelin stars) which has earned a Michelin Plate.

After two years, he left the restaurant – and took a demotion – to join Roganic when it opened. “Roganic just opened at that time, and their style of cooking captured [my attention]. I wanted to learn more about sustainable cooking and pastries, so I decided to move down a position to learn.”

When Keith returned to Singapore in September 2019, he spent seven months as the head chef of now-defunct mod Sin izakaya Izy Fook, an eatery co-owned by 987FM DJ Sonia Chew. Thereafter, Keith landed his current role as sous chef at chic Mediterranean restaurant Artemis Grill & Sky Bar at Telok Ayer.

With Keith working in Singapore, the family’s financial situation improved. “It’s not as strained due to the CPF contribution by my company [that he uses to pay off the housing loan for their flat],” he explains.

He’s now able to support his mother financially, giving her the flexibility to stay at home. “In 2020, Covid happened. We told her to just stay home as vaccinations weren’t ready at that time,” he adds. The earnings from Melt Bites’ two-month pop-up that year, he explains, “definitely isn’t enough to support her. It was more like some extra cash for her to spend.”

But in the long-term, he’s hoping his mother will eventually be able to operate Melt Bites all year round. “We’re trying to develop something easier for her that’s not as tedious. The key thing is that it must still be delicious and must still survive delivery,” he says. “We’ll still focus on the ‘melt-in-your-mouth’ kind of product.” Poh Hong tells us that she’s been experimenting with lava cookies in her spare time. “I’ve been baking those with matcha lava, rose lava – but I want them to look perfect before we start selling them,” she says.

As for why Keith decided on the lava mooncake concept, he says: “During my time in Hong Kong, a friend introduced me to salted egg lava mooncakes. I was intrigued by how it tasted and asked him for the recipe. I started experimenting with the recipe and incorporated my culinary style into the mooncakes. These aren’t so common in Singapore, so we thought it would do quite well.”

They managed to sell around “250 boxes” during mooncake season last year. But selling those boxes, he admits, was a hard-fought battle indeed.

“Last year was a disaster,” Keith shares candidly. He spent much of 2020’s two-month pop-up juggling between his full-time job, working out an ordering system, and teaching his mum – long used to home-cooking – how to bake like a chef.

“It was very hard for her at first. She has zero [professional] culinary background, so she kept wanting to agak agak. Very easy going style,” he tells us. “Now she understands where I’m coming from. She writes down the recipes. She knows we’re selling quality; customers are paying for consistency.”

Mum concurs: “I’m still surprised how I managed to make it [as a baker], ’cos all my life I’ve never [baked]. The experience is very different from a nine-to-five job. There’s stress no matter what you do, if you want to do your best. But if people say [your work] is good, you’ll be smiling all day. It’s a feeling that can’t be replicated”.

His mum now handles most of the baking, while Keith deals with orders and enquiries before and after work at Artemis Grill & Sky Bar. His girlfriend, who works as a financial consultant, also chips in.

This year, he procured new equipment like extra moulds and a mixer, as well as a standing freezer to chill more mooncakes and aims to sell “400 boxes”.

The pastries come in a simple, elegant, cardboard box. Each smallish mooncake can be polished off in about two bites.

Keith’s new flavours for 2021 are available in these combinations: Salted Egg Parmesan Mooncake ($48 for six), Truffle Parmesan Lava Mooncake ($58 for six) and Mooncake Combination Box ($55 for three of each).

Melt Bites’ lava mooncakes are baked to order without any preservatives, and can only be stored in the refrigerator for up to three days. Keith advises microwaving them for 25 seconds, or heating them in an oven at 160°C for five minutes before consumption.

Soft buttery pastry (crowned with edible gold leaf for bling) envelope creamy parmesan cheese-spiked custard and a core of velvety salted egg and parmesan béchamel. The umami savouriness of the salted egg and cheese is delicious — but the soft filling isn’t exactly like lava, despite us following the heating instructions. Yummy, but so rich that one piece was enough for us.

“Since home bakeries usually focus on novel experiences, I wanted to take [it up] a notch by adding a touch of luxury to my mooncakes [this year] by using fresh truffles which are currently in season,” Keith tells us. Luxe indeed – this mooncake comes topped with shaved Italian black truffles, in addition to the gold leaf.

We enjoy this version (the same buttery pastry now stained with charcoal powder) more than the salted egg one. The mellow earthiness of the truffle-flecked custard filling tempers the brininess of the parmesan, making it moreish and less jelak. The extra truffle on top isn’t purely for show either – it adds a subtle perfume to the confection. However, while the filling is slightly runnier than the other mooncake after a stint in the microwave oven, it didn’t quite flow out like we expected. Still, it does coat the tongue luxuriously. Get a box to impress the sweet-toothed boss or girlfriend.

Place orders here. Delivery charges vary depending on location. Collections and deliveries only on weekends. For orders above 10 boxes, WhatsApp 9021-3770. More info on Facebook and Instagram.

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Photos: Alvin Lim/Melt Bites