PA “For Rich Family” Sells Atas Ice Cream From HDB Flat To Customers Who “Don’t Care About Price”

There’s ice cream and there’s ice cream. Andrew Chen is a firm proponent of the latter. “I looked into the local ice cream scene and in my opinion, it could be a lot better,” says the eloquent 41-year-old who launched Onebyone, a home-based ice cream business, last February. From making the ice cream in his tastefully-decorated five-room Dawson HDB flat to packing and delivering the products, Andrew does everything on his own.

The one-man operation is a reflection of Andrew’s purist approach to serving ice cream – his menu hinges on the exclusive use of high quality ingredients, without any emulsifiers or stabilisers that may interfere with the depth of flavour. There are twelve flavours available, including chocolate, vanilla and hazelnut, as well as the more unique hay (the most expensive $45-a-tub flavour, see pic below, involves a painstaking process of smoking the grass and infusing it into ice cream) and wasanbon (a premium, fine-grained Japanese sugar derived from sugarcane). All ice creams are made upon order on the day before delivery, one 600ml tub at a time – an ethos that the biz is named after.

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Used to be a PA for a “rich family”

Prior to starting Onebyone, Andrew was a personal assistant and driver for a “rich family” in Singapore for about six years. “When people ask me, do you want to watch a movie about a rich family having different factions [like Crazy Rich Asians], I’d say no, I lived it already.”

“I attended to their needs. Over time, [with] them being rich, they’ve developed many levels of dependencies. The reason I left was because the only thing predictable about that job is its unpredictability. It can be weird things like, ‘Andrew, a snake is wringing the cat to death now, can you please come and do something about it?’,” he shares.

Launching an ice cream biz was a logical choice for the artisan. “I’ve always wanted to do something on my own that’s related to food. I don’t like heat, so a hot kitchen is not for me and that led me to ice cream.” The dessert is also something that he was familiar with. “I’ve always made ice cream casually. When I made ice cream for personal consumption, I just started with okay ingredients and it still turned out a lot better than what I found [at ice cream shops], so [eventually] I stopped eating ice cream outside.”

He finds the local ice cream scene “mediocre”

A bold statement sits on Onebyone’s Instagram page: “The ice cream scene is at best mediocre”. Ouch. We asked Andrew to explain his rather harsh judgement. “Ice cream shops like to use UHT milk because it helps to limit wastage, you can [leave the milk carton] open for a longer time. They like to add emulsifiers or stabilisers to ice cream, so they can keep the ice cream for a long time before it’s all consumed. When you use ingredients like UHT milk and emulsifiers, then whatever [ice cream] flavours you’re trying to form is not going to come through,” he says.

This is why Andrew refrains from using any added emulsifier or stabiliser. His products are made exclusively with fresh milk – some ice cream flavours use Hokkaido fresh milk, which has a higher fat content. Australian cream is used too. “I throw the carton away if it’s opened for more than 12 hours,” he adds.

Despite having no formal culinary training, Andrew created his ice cream recipes on his own with an Italian machine that “costs around $1K” (which he declined to let us photograph). As a “food and wine lover” who frequently dines out, he occasionally turns to his friends in the F&B industry for troubleshooting help when he hits a snag.

He also cites fine-dining restaurants like three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park in New York, where he has dined before, as inspiration. “I cannot recreate what seasoned professionals [at fine restaurants] do. What I can do is mirror that same attitude and mindset of caring about what they create into what I’m doing.”

Gourmet lifestyle

Andrew shares that his penchant for food has less to do with his previous occupation, but rather, how he grew up. “My dad worked for an airline so we travelled a lot. During my school holidays, I’ll take a trip and spend a few hours [in a new city]. It opened my horizons, seeing how people eat in different places.”

“The older you get, the more you travel and the more you taste. These collective experiences opened my eyes to how things should taste, and that is how I approach ice cream,” he adds. Despite earning less than in his previous job (he declined to elaborate on his earnings), Andrew says he’s willing to continue spending on good food. “I’m just greedy, I like to eat and I like depth of flavour.”

In the past year, Andrew and his wife have holidayed in New York, Copenhagen and various parts of Italy. He’s also planning to attend the Sigep Rimini ice cream trade exhibition in Italy in January to find new sources for his ingredients.

Don’t expect complicated flavours

Unlike some ice cream purveyors who pride themselves on inventive flavours, Andrew prefers to keep things simple. “I’m not a creative person. You won’t see me [creating flavours] like Ben & Jerry’s. I just do what other people have been doing, but try to present it in its best possible form through my methods, sourcing of ingredients and attitude.”

With twelve flavours of ice creams ranging from $25 to $45 (as a comparison, 473ml of local ice cream shop Creamier’s ice cream costs from $13.90), Onebyone’s 600ml tubs are undeniably steeper than average, though they reflect the artisan’s commitment to delving into each ingredient’s provenance. For example, Andrew uses Piedmont IGP hazelnuts from Italy – IGP stands for Indicazione Geografica Protetta or Indication of Geographic Protection, which means that the product has to come from a specific geographic area. Hazelnuts with the IGP label are recognised to be richer and more aromatic. The best-selling pistachio flavour is made from prized Bronte DOP (controlled designation of origin) from Italy.

Well-to-do customers

“A lot of [my customers] don’t really care [about price]. They just want the ice cream to taste the way it should,” he says, sharing that a customer once purchased 12 tubs in a single order. Andrew adds that he does not know the background of most of his customers. “I don’t want to ask who they are, my function as a service provider is just to make ice cream,” he asserts.

Despite his discretion, some customers are apparently well-to-do – a prominent doctor and socialite has posted about his ice cream, while another regular customer sends a driver to pick up ice cream orders from Andrew’s home. Moreover, yet another customer once compared Onebyone’s chocolate ice cream to the version served at three-Michelin-starred contemporary European restaurant, Zen.

Andrew says he did not intentionally seek out his previous employers nor their network as customers. “I prefer to grow my business via word of mouth,” he shares.

No plans to open a physical shop

Opening an ice cream shop is not a part of his plan. “I cannot make that much ice cream [to run a shop] as I want to run my business alone. I’m not a team player. [A home-based business] is what I find to be most suitable for me.”

He shares that business is currently “not as good as before”. He says: “When it was good, I sold about 300 tubs a month. Recently there’s been about a 30 percent dip in sales. I’m not sure if it’s because people are travelling more.”

Despite the downturn, Andrew, who’s married with no kids, says he’s content to “carry on like this for [the next] three to four years”. He adds, “I’m a firm believer in trying to get the ice cream as best as I can given my resources, and worry about money later. I don't have the pressure of trying to feed a large family, I'm just happy doing what I'm doing.”

Vanilla, $27 for 600ml

Luxuriously threaded with itty bitty vanilla seeds from Papua New Guinea that infuse every bite with a delicate floral flavour, this is an excellent rendition of the dessert staple. We tried it side-by-side with Haagen Dazs’s vanilla ice cream, and Andrew’s version is undoubtedly superior – the latter is creamier, vanilla-ier and not as sickly sweet.

While the ice cream has a satisfying satiny mouthfeel, we found that it melted a little faster and therefore, felt less lush, than the other flavours on Andrew’s menu. “To make it more gao and melt slower, I will have to increase the amount of cream and vanilla, which will increase the price,” explains Andrew. He also recommends finishing the tub within a week, as frequent melting and refreezing will decrease the quality of the ice cream.

Piedmont IGP Hazelnut, $36 for 600ml (8 DAYS Pick!)

The resonant roasted hazelnut aroma hits our palate immediately. Incredibly full-bodied with subtle complexities from the ice cream’s rich dairy base and its star ingredient’s nutty punch, thanks to the high quality nuts. This is one of the best hazelnut ice creams we’ve had.

Black Sesame, $32 for 600ml (8 DAYS Pick!)

We can’t help but admire the charcoal-hued ice cream’s seductive, glossy sheen for a second before digging in. While some black sesame ice creams can be slightly gritty, Andrew’s version is exceptionally smooth (thanks to a ‘secret’ technique), which lends an added flair of elegance to the dessert. The intensity of its nutty flavour is on par with what you’ll find at swish Japanese restaurants, and we enjoyed its slightly bitter finish, which kept things interesting.

Bottom line

Fine-dining restaurant-standard ice cream that showcases its high-quality ingredients simply yet elegantly. The flavour profiles are exceptionally robust – a little goes a long way when it comes to these full-bodied frozen treats. The lush, aromatic hazelnut and black sesame offerings are especially worth the splurge.

The details

Place orders here. More info via Instagram.

Photos: Kelvin Chia & Onebyone