Mat Western is a hawker stall run by two unlikely partners: French-born Muslim convert Umar Fabrice, 42, and 30-something Singaporean Hidir Kasim. The two pals are both professional chefs who became hawkers when their plan to open a pizzeria in Johor Bahru got delayed by Covid-19. Undeterred, they set up a stall in a Bedok North coffeeshop as a “test run” selling their gourmet house-made pizzas, pastas and burgers.

Umar, who is originally from Brittany, converted to Islam five years ago. “I was always interested in the religion even when I was back in France. After finding out more about it from Hidir and other friends, I decided to convert,” he told 8days.sg.

Viral video

On May 18, Umar unexpectedly went viral in a TikTok video by celeb chef and TV personality Chef Bob (who also goes by Shahrizal Salleh). In the short clip Umar - who is longtime friends with Chef Bob - apparently talked about his financial struggles and his mother’s recent visit to Singapore.

Captions in the video explained that business was “Alhamdullilah” (Muslim phrase for ‘praise be to god’), though Umar had not been drawing a salary for one and a half years since leaving his “high-paying job as an exec chef” of defunct European restaurant 7Adam to earn his own rizq (halal livelihood).

At one point in the video, Umar - whose voice was muffled due to the recording’s audio quality - teared up. Chef Bob added the caption: “Breaks my heart to see my dear friend cry. We did a calculation and his stall needs to have a daily sales of $1.7k for the next 10 days or he will be forced to get evicted or [worse] still he has contemplated [getting] loans from unlicensed moneylenders just to keep business afloat.”

Chef Bob was also heard urging Umar not to borrow from moneylenders.

Photo: Mohd Khair

Customers flocked to his stall

The TikTok clip was shared on Facebook by a netizen and went viral with over 4,500 shares. Customers immediately flocked to the stall to support Umar, with a queue spotted on May 19 and food selling out by 5pm. 

Video a “misunderstanding”

But a day later, Umar posted on Facebook that he needed to “clarify some issues” about Chef Bob's video, which he called a “misunderstanding”. He explained: “First - I was not crying to get any sympathy. I was sharing with him about [an] emotional topic about my mom, who visited me last month here in Singapore. Business is good. Alhamdulillah. I was talking about some other business not related to the shop. I will never resort to any sort of money lending or anything illegal.”

Umar, a native French speaker, also acknowledged that a language barrier may have created the misunderstanding. “Please pardon my English, I don't speak very good English during conversations. And that might also turn to some misleading information [sic],” he posted.

Umar clarifies

Speaking to 8days.sg, Umar said that the conversation in the video was “taken out of context”. According to him, his stall’s business has its good and bad days, and he “did not know” that Chef Bob was posting his emotional sharing on TikTok.

“When I saw my face I was a bit shocked, the things I shared with him were personal,” Umar said. “Before I was a Muslim, I already knew going to loansharks was dangerous. I don’t want to be famous for this kind of thing. I just want people to come to my shop and appreciate the food.”

He called up Chef Bob to request that he take down the video, which the latter did. Umar, who declined to elaborate on what he was actually discussing with Chef Bob, added: “This is my personal life, I don’t want people to know my life. I want them to know me as Umar the chef, I don’t do this kind of thing for sympathy and have people say: ‘This ang moh.’”

Umar’s mother alarmed about video

Umar’s mother, who had visited him last month from France, also got wind of the video. “When she saw it, she thought I wasn’t doing well (laughs). I don’t want to share my problems with my mum. I don’t want her to worry about my problems. It’s normal,” said Umar.

He also received calls from concerned friends. “They asked, ‘Wah, what happened?’ My family was emotional when they saw the video. But I spoke to my mother and my family. Now they are more peaceful,” he said.

Umar also reckoned that it was disingenuous and against his religious beliefs to get public support when he was not genuinely struggling. “I don’t want people to see me like this. It’s me, Umar, who has the problem. Not my business. As a Muslim, I cannot lie about something and take the money people give me because I lied for drama. In Islam, it’s really, really wrong,” he averred.

Still good friends with Chef Bob
But Umar is not mad at Chef Bob, and says they are still good friends. “Me and Bob now okay, no problem,” he shared. “Chef Bob is my friend. He’s really passionate and he told me that his intention was not bad, he just wanted to help me as my friend.” 

Chef Bob also apologised in a post on Facebook, where he shared that Umar's customers had "came in throngs on a Thursday afternoon" and waited two hours for their food. "Hopefully you guys [become] return customers," he said.

Next month, Umar is planning to open his delayed pizzeria in JB. He also hopes to open his own restaurant by next year. He shared: “Like a small pizza [place], where we do what we are doing right now and focus on pizzas.”

Mat Western is at Blk 122 Bedok North St 2 Coffeeshop, S460122. Open daily except Tue, 11am-9.30pm; Fri 4pm-9.30pm. Facebook, Instagram.

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Photos: Alvin Teo