21-Year-Old NSman Sells Restaurant-Quality Pizza & American Barbecue From Home

Most NSmen spend their weekends chilling out with friends and girlfriends, getting some rest after a hard week in camp. Not Hendra Yeo. The 21-year-old spends his free time flipping pizzas and tending to hunks of beef short ribs in hulking smokers in the backyard of his family’s semi-detached home in Kembangan. This is where he operates his home-based business, Cuts & Slices.

Pizzas and American-style barbecue (where meats are smoked at low temperatures over a long period of time) are his passion. So much so that in the space of three years, he’s bought three pizza ovens and two smokers using his savings and his salary from NS. “Honestly, I don’t spend much on other things,” he says shyly.

Like most other home-based businesses, Cuts & Slices was born during the Circuit Breaker. “I saw that a lot of people were selling food from home, so I thought, why not give it a try? Cooking is my passion and this is a way for me to show my family that I’m confident in what I’m doing and that I could do well in a culinary career,” says the graduate in chemical engineering from Singapore Polytechnic. “After NS, I plan to go to culinary school. I have my eye on the Culinary Institute of America (in Singapore), where I would like to do a Bachelor’s Degree in Food Business Management.”

Hendra first started making pizzas when he was 18 based on YouTube video tutorials. His first try at a party at home was such an epic failure that he had to do it again so it wouldn’t be his friends’ only impression of his pizza-making skills. His second effort fared much better and it led him down a rabbit hole of pizza-making. A year later, he bought a $999 wood-fired pizza oven from Carousell so he could really indulge in what had quickly turned into a passion. “From there, my interest just grew. I took every opportunity to learn, so every time there was a party, I would make pizza,” he says.

Just before the Circuit Breaker rolled around in April, Hendra bought his second pizza oven, a premium $1,000 portable fire and stone Roccbox. “This brought my pizzas to a different level, to what I really wanted to achieve, which is Neapolitan-style pizzas, where the crust has to be light and puffy, with a slight crispiness.”

Those Neapolitan-style pizzas, however, do not travel well. According to Hendra, by the time they reach his customers, the crusts would be flaccid and soggy. Which led to his third purchase: an $890 two-deck electrical oven, which he describes as a miniature version of the ovens used in traditional New York pizza joints. This allows him to make pies that travel better for takeaways. “It’s just what I feel is best. What I make is closer to a New York crust in the sense that it’s not as charred or puffy as a Neapolitan one, but thinner and crispier,” he explains.

And then there are his smokers. Inspired by an episode of Chef’s Table on Netflix featuring Argentinean chef Francis Mallmann, Hendra tried his hand at cooking over fire and was hooked. In July last year, he bought a $700 vertical smoker from Amazon in which he smokes his beef short ribs. Earlier this month, he bought a larger-capacity horizontal smoker in which he also slow-cooks an insanely delicious hot smoked salmon. He honed his smoking skills watching YouTube videos by American barbecue legends such as Aaron Franklin and participating in online forums.

Because Hendra started the business during the Circuit Breaker, he could only offer takeaways rather than private dining. The pandemic is also the reason why he will not be opening his home for private dining just yet.

Hendra’s pizza dough is made using a sourdough starter he bought from Italy. It is fermented for up to two days so that it’s light but sturdy. When cooked, the dough is crusty with a light chew and a really tasty, toasty flavour that bears no hint of the sour tang that you might expect from a sourdough base. Our pizzas travelled well from Hendra’s house to ours, remaining sturdy and crusty throughout.

There’s good reason why this is a popular favourite among his menu of pizzas. There is such tasty balance between the salty slivers of salami, the lush dabs of fresh home-made ricotta cheeese, the sweetness of honey infused with chillies, and a sprinkling of earthy oregano.

This is another popular favourite, but it paled in comparison to its hot honey and ricotta sibling. On its base is a mix of mozzarella, pecorino and grana Padano cheese, topped with slices of smoked duck and caramelised garlic. While the individual elements were faultless, their flavours melded together in the oven to form an indistinct whole, as if it were just a simple cheese pizza.

$65 per kg for three bone-in ribs (about 3kg; feeds 5 pax)​​​​​​​

“Smoking is about fire management,” explains Hendra. “It’s not super hard; what’s difficult is keeping the fire at a state that you want for a very long time.” Evidently, he has his skills down pat because these short ribs are exemplary. Smoked anywhere for between seven and 10 hours (“it depends on how thick or thin the ribs are, and their fat distribution”) in a $700 Dyna Glo smoker using apple wood, the ribs — simply marinated with just salt and pepper Aaron Franklin-style — are succulent and fork-tender, with an alluring woodsy char and aroma. We’re already planning to order this again soon. They come with a loaf of baguette and a fantastic salsa. Designed to cut through the richness of the short ribs, the salsa — made from finely diced onions, capsicum and tomatoes tossed with minced parsley and red wine vinegar — is so piquant and more-ish, we can’t get enough of it.

Everything about this coral-hued hot-smoked number is divine. First brined for eight hours in a solution of salt and sugar, the fish is then smoked over very low temperature for four hours and brushed with an orange maple glaze. The result is silky, lush flesh permeated with the fish’s natural flavours. The flaked smoky-salty fish is perfectly matched by its classic condiment of dill-flecked crème fraiche on a simple table water cracker. The minimum order for this is a full side of salmon, which weighs about 1.5kg ($90). It’s not cheap, but take our word for it: it’ll be a hit at your next party.

While the pizzas are pretty good, we say splurge on the barbecued meats instead. We’re impressed by the quality of the painstakingly smoked beef ribs and salmon by this young lad — they’re as good, if not better, than those from professional kitchens.

To order, Whatsapp 96478054 or DM Hendra via Instagram at @cutsnslices.sg. Pizzas require 24 hours’ notice for pick-up or delivery on Fri, Sat & Sun. The smoked short ribs and hot-smoked salmon are only available on Sat & Sun. Order four days ahead. Delivery fees apply based on distance.

Photos: Hendra Yeo/ Annette Tan