Since April 9, Pang Kok Keong — the chef-owner of mod French patisserie and salon Antoinette — has been offering 20 loaves of bread daily to charity. His original plan was to leave the loaves out at the group’s Penhas Road location (30 Penhas Road) for the needy who are affected by the Covid-19 Circuit Breaker period to pick up, with no questions asked. But given the tighter restrictions and the government’s appeal for people to not travel out often, the loaves are now passed directly to volunteers from the charities Food From the Heart and Beyond Social Services for distribution. On days when the volunteers are unable to pick up the bread, Pang mobilises his own guys to send the loaves to the beneficiaries.

Pang calls these loaves his “charity bread”, for he has baked them for organisations such as Canossaville Children & Community Services and Chen Su Lan Methodist Children's Home over the years. It is a white bread that Pang describes as “soft and has a nice bite,” and is suitable for all ages. The big-hearted chef-owner has been actively participating in social initiatives such as fund-raising gala Chefs for a Cause even before the Covid-19 pandemic. He’s pictured above with other chefs and President Halimah at a charity event.

Preparation for making the bread has to be done the night before, and it takes about four hours of work the next day to bake those 20 loaves. “Yes, we can do something else with that time,” says Pang. “But if everybody thinks only for themselves then nobody will do anything for others!”

Baking the loaves are an additional commitment for the team, especially since Antoinette’s team of staff had to be trimmed by half due to the Circuit Breaker — some had resigned or been retrenched, others put on paid or no-pay leave. This downsized team works not just on Antoinette’s online orders but also the pick-up and delivery items for Pang's Hakka Delicacies, the chef’s offshoot selling Hakka kuehs and even thunder tea rice. This means everybody has to pull double-duty, in a way. Pang himself is the one who collates the Whatsapp orders for Pang's Hakka Delicacies, and also does heavy lifting in terms of preparing the Hakka heritage dishes.

“Honestly, we do not have the bandwidth to help others, we are in very deep,” says Pang candidly while speaking to 8 DAYS. Business has gone down by a terrifying 75% for the Antoinette group since the Circuit Breaker, and they had to close their Millennia Walk outlet (pictured) until further notice. “Our business runs on less than two months’ cash flow. Honestly, I am not sure if we will survive this situation…” Pang admits. “But if my business is going to die, I want to go out in a blaze of glory!”

He adds thoughtfully, “I'm sure there are other people who are in an even more dire situation than us, and we hope that by providing what we are able to, we can feed them for a meal or two. I hope it will inspire others to do the same: to help the needy in difficult times like this, however small the gesture may be. It can go a long way.”

The eternal optimist is not about to say die just yet, though. In between baking charity bread and fulfilling orders for Antoinette and Pang's Hakka Delicacies, the father to three young children and sole breadwinner in the family is also trying to come up with new takeaway items. “A lot of our food items on the Antoinette menu are not suitable for delivery. And on hindsight, I realise that thunder tea rice — while something that I love to cook and eat — is too time-consuming to make and the profit margins are too low,” he says. (We’ve heard many good things about his thunder tea rice too, but have been deterred from buying it as there is a minimum order of five bowls for the dish.) So, he is now trying to create takeaway bento boxes for Pang's Hakka Delicacies, in a bid to improve sales.

Photos: Pang Kok Keong /Instagram

We're eyeing Antoinette’s colourful Japanese-French style buns ($12 for a set of five), or perhaps the Superlova ($50 for a 15cm cake) for a weekend treat, a delicate rose petal mousse cake adorned with rose petal meringue, rose macaron, raspberry marshmallow and other yummy stuff. Order via https://antoinette.oddle.me/en_SG ($8 delivery fee with min order of $55).

As for chef's Hakka snacks — we really want to try the wholesome brown rice Leicha (thunder tea rice, $7/set; minimum order of five sets) as well as the mugwort kueh stuffed with white radish, salted turnip, sweet turnip, carrots, minced pork, garlic, dried shrimps dried Chinese mushrooms and fried shallots ($10 for a box of three). Pre-order Pang's Hakka Delicacies' items two days earlier by texting 90217507 via whatsapp. For menu items, go to: www.facebook.com/hakkapang. Self collection at 30 Penhas Road. Delivery available island-wide for $10 - $15 from 1pm - 6pm.

Photos: Antoinette/Instagram