IT'S HARD not to warm to Kang Chin Chin, founder of Fat Sunday, the brand that prides itself on giving its customers that rich and satisfying "Fat Sunday" experience. Dressed simply in a casual V-neck T-shirt over a dark pair of "lounge-y" shorts, she comes bounding over the moment I alight from my car.
Her energy — and smile — is infectious and it's not long before you feel like you're in the company of an old friend. Ushering me into her spacious apartment in Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur, the fresh-faced 42-year-old tells me to make myself comfortable at a table lined with jars of cookies, the words "Fat Sunday" proudly emblazoned on them.
"Have you tried any of these?" asks Chin Chin, the smile never leaving her face. The shake of my head prompts her to immediately reach for one of the jars. "Do you like chocolate chip cookies?" she asks excitedly before opening the lid and sliding the jar in my direction. "I LOVE chocolate chip cookies," I tell her, and she beams in delight.
Fat Sunday was founded and established in 2015, conceived from Chin Chin's 15-year-long passion for creating premium, full-flavoured desserts and sweets. "We've had this brand for more than six years now," she begins, palpable pride lacing her tone.
"We?" I blurt out. "Oh, behind Fat Sunday is myself, my husband, Jeevan Vijayan, who's the brand's creative director, and Kenny Teng, our partner. Jeevan doesn't do any baking — that's my territory!" replies the mother of two, eyes dancing.
As I reach for another cookie, I couldn't help asking the bubbly mass communications graduate about the origin of the brand's name. She smiles before explaining: "Back in the day, my husband studied in the United States. He's a qualified architect who also has a degree in art. I used to visit him, on and off. Every Monday to Saturday, we'd eat well (the healthy stuff) but come Sunday, we'd let loose and just ate whatever we wanted. Sundays became our 'fat' Sunday!"
So, when the couple decided to venture into the business and was contemplating a name for their brand, they wanted something that denoted indulgence. Elaborates Chin Chin: "You've tried our cookies, right? We don't do low fat or any keto thing. We're all about richness and satisfying. What better name than 'Fat Sunday'?"
Indeed.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
The first item to kick off the range was pineapple tarts as it was something she'd learnt how to make as a child. Recalls Chin Chin, who hails from a single parent family: "From the age of 6 months until I was 15, I was sent to a babysitter from morning to evening as mum had to work. I called my babysitter 'grandma'. She used to cook for her huge family and as I got older, I found myself gravitating to her kitchen to watch her."
Continuing, she says: "I remember when I was around 7 or 8, she started baking and would sell her cookies to neighbours. I was always intrigued whenever she made her pineapple tarts. I ended up helping to roll the paste, stirring the filling, and even making the tarts. Every time it was festive season, we'd all have our own station in her house and we'd rally to help her make and bake the tarts. I was doing that until I was 12."
After the pineapple tarts came the peanut cookies. Because her mum loves it. Chuckling, Chin Chin shares that her mother doesn't bake or cook. "I don't even have any background in baking but I was determined to make those peanut cookies for her instead of buying them," she admits, adding that it took her years of trial and error before she arrived at exactly what she wanted.
Elaborating on the rest of the offerings under Fat Sunday, Chin Chin tells me that oftentimes what she ends up making are the result of recommendations and input from family and friends. "I personally love black sesame so I decided to create black sesame cookies. Meanwhile, my husband is a fan of Garrett popcorn, something that was cultivated from our time in Chicago, which is where that brand is from."
When Garrett arrived on Malaysian shores, Jeevan would always ask his wife to buy the popcorn for him. Chuckling, Chin Chin shares: "I had to go to Mid Valley Megamall where they had a kiosk. The parking was terrible so I'd have to park on the side somewhere, run in and run back out again. It was just so annoying that in the end I thought, why don't I just make my own popcorn!"
Suffice it to say, she didn't just develop any run-of-the-mill popcorn range. "Unlike those popcorn they sell at the cinemas, where they basically use caramel powder for flavouring, I make my own caramel and everything's done by hand," she explains.
Adding, she concedes: "It's a lot of work and that's why we only sell from our online stores and supply to selected supermarkets. It's a limited range — we don't make it during festive seasons because the cost is high."
The hub of their operations is a production kitchen located just down the road from Chin Chin's house. Due to Covid, it's a much scaled down workforce that she's working with but orders are starting to pick up again.
"Everything we have is from my own recipe; nothing handed out except for the pineapple tarts. It's all been trial and error," says Chin Chin, before adding: "After we'd got the popcorn recipe down pat, I remember my husband saying that something was missing if we didn't also have chocolate chip cookies in the range. This one took me the longest time to develop."
Suddenly turning to me, she poses thoughtfully: "You make chocolate chip cookies right? Everyone makes chocolate chip cookies. So, if I were to make it, I needed to make it different. For me, I had Famous Amos as a benchmark because they really do have the best cookies! I aspired to make the best chocolate chip cookies or at least almost equal to Famous Amos. And that's why creating that particular range took me the longest time. The butter was important, the ratio of the dough, the salt, the chocolate… everything."
Chuckling sheepishly, she adds that she held so many tasting sessions with her husband and friends that they ended up getting sick of eating chocolate chip cookies! But of course, she didn't just stop there.
Cereals came next. Says Chin Chin: "I love cornflakes but I didn't want to do the normal cornflake cookies. I wanted it to be more like those cereal cookies." Reaching for another jar and unscrewing the lid, she offers me another cookie to try. "Taste this," she coaxes, before adding: "Does it taste like malt cereal? That's what I was after. It's cereal but a different kind of cereal."
They're good, I mumble through a mouthful of rich, buttery cookie. Once again, a delighted smile lights up Chin Chin's face. Excitedly, she shares that after the cereals, double chocolate chips ensued, followed by cranberry and oats.
Recalls the avid baker: "After I gave birth to my twins, I found it hard to lose all that additional weight. So, early last year when we had the lockdown, I said it was time to do something about it. And besides, my twins were starting school. I felt that oats would be a good start towards getting healthy. It also dawned on me then that we didn't carry oat cookies. And that's when I started developing our cranberry oat crunch cookies."
It took her a while to refine the recipe but, judging by the piece that I've just popped into my mouth, she's succeeded in getting the right mix. It's heavenly. "I actually love cranberry," enthuses Chin Chin, adding that she used a lot of butter in the mix to give the cookies its chewy texture and rich taste. "This isn't your normal, healthy cranberry cookies," she exclaims, adding: "With Fat Sunday, there's no skimping on ingredients."
There are currently seven types of cookies to choose from. In addition, Fat Sunday also carries brownies, butter cakes, burnt cheese cakes and chilled cheesecakes, all made to order. Before anyone baulks at the RM39 price tag for the big jar of cookies, rest assured that only the best quality ingredients are used for the products.
Laments Chin Chin: "We try to keep our prices down but the cost of raw ingredients keeps going up. And of course, materials for our packaging, stickers et cetera add to the total." Despite that, Fat Sunday's products continue to remain well received by customers, who comprise Chin Chin's own friends and family, as well as the general public who are attracted by the eye-catching range displayed in supermarkets.
"I remember in the early days, whenever there were functions, we'd bring some of the cookies for our aunties and family members," shares the 42-year-old, adding: "And then from there, they started buying from us and eventually they'd pass the cookies around to their own friends and family. Before we knew it, the cookies started going places!"
It was Soroptimist International, a global volunteer movement, that gave Chin Chin the extra push she needed to create her products and realise the brand. "When we started receiving orders from members of Soroptimist, people who were complete strangers to us, I was inspired to embark on this journey seriously. I mean my friends and family were definitely supportive but of course, they'd only say nice things!" she adds with a knowing grin.
FOR THE LOVE OF BAKING
As a young girl, Chin Chin often found herself entranced by the heady aromas that emanated from her babysitter's cosy kitchen. The lure of the bustle that would often accompany "grandma's" baking days was like a magnet to the youngster. Eventually, she was old enough to take her place in the kitchen and help out with preparations. "That's how the interest was triggered," confides Chin Chin, eyes lighting up at the memory.
The passing years only served to heighten her passion. Even when she was at college pursuing a mass communications degree, she continued to bake for friends. Recalls Chin Chin: "On weekends, I'd bake for friends and family. I started with pineapple tarts and batik cakes. There was a professor at Help University who always used to order my batik cakes for Hari Raya. Her family loved it."
But as it turned out, her serious foray into the world of baking as a business came only much later. She dabbled in fashion retail first, opening a first-floor boutique called Gossips in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur at the age of 26 with a friend. Baking remained a constant, but always on the side.
"I was doing fashion retail for five years before I sold the business," shares Chin Chin, adding that it was the advent of online retail that sealed the deal. "Everybody was doing online retail and we couldn't cope with our overheads anymore. So, we switched and went online too. I was doing this until I turned 35 and had just got married."
By this time, the itch to return to her first love, baking, was getting harder to ignore. Deep down, Chin Chin knew that fashion retail wasn't really where her heart was. "When my husband and I moved in together, I decided to just start baking again for fun," she recalls.
Adding, Chin Chin, who has never attended any cooking or baking classes, says: "My mother-in-law was in Soroptimist and I knew they always held functions and events to raise money for charity. I thought why not I bake for them and maybe I could sell there too. So, I started baking my pineapple tarts again. The fact that all the aunties loved my tarts only reinforced my decision."
VALUE OF HARD WORK
Although life could be cushy for her, Chin Chin admits that it's just not in her DNA to sit and do nothing. "It has much to do with my mum, I guess," she muses thoughtfully before sharing that the biggest lesson she learnt from her mother, who raised her single-handedly in Kuala Lumpur after her parents separated and her father returned to Melaka, is the value of hard work.
"Mum was the sole provider. She worked as a secretary in a law firm," remembers Chin Chin, who's an only child, adding: "She'd send me to the babysitter at 7am so she could go to work and then came back to pick me up at night. She took care of me until I was 21, saw me through college, and ensured that I never wanted for anything. I even had a handphone at the age of 14. And that's a big thing for a kid to have back then."
Her mum, recalls the bubbly Scorpio, wasn't really happy working where she was but soldiered on for the sake of their little family. She was also providing for her jobless sisters in Melaka. "I remember telling her that as soon as I got my first job, she need not work anymore. I'd provide for her." True to her word, when Chin Chin opened her own boutique, her mother was able to leave her job at the law firm.
Today, the sprightly 66-year-old helps her daughter with the business, supervising kitchen operations, conducting quality control, and making sure that everything's in order.
Reiterating again, Chin Chin says: "My mum taught me the importance of working hard. Nothing in my life I've got for free. That's why I believe it's important to really push yourself. You can't just sit there and expect things to fall on your lap."
Her journey is one of resilience, peppered with faith. Chuckling again, Chin Chin shares breathlessly: "I run this business, I bake, and I'm a full-time mum. I don't have a helper. My days are busy. After I drop the twins off at school in the morning, it'd be straight to the kitchen with my bakers. At 2pm, I come home, grab a quick lunch and then go pick up the kids. I'll be with them until 7pm when they finally go to bed. My days are pretty much like that."
She even works on weekends. "I like to conduct QC (quality control) to make sure everything is in order and that we're on top of the orders that come in. These days, we get a lot of corporate orders too, and of course, there's the supermarkets. From just one supermarket when we started, we now supply to 18!" adds Chin Chin, whose downtime reading comprises recipe books that she collects from her travels, especially to Australia. "I don't have much time for anything else," she confesses with a wry grin.
Asked where she envisions her business to be one day, Chin Chin pauses momentarily to ponder the question. Her brows furrowing, she replies: "Previously, we wanted to go international with our brand. We thought about Singapore, for example, but then we realised that if we want to do cookies and food, we'd need to have a central kitchen there."
Musing thoughtfully, she continues: "That would have been a big challenge. Now we're thinking along the lines of creating a brand, expanding it and selling it. That's our ultimate goal. And then we'll do something else."
She's always had a head for business and creating something new, confides Chin Chin as we near the end of our delightful afternoon tête-à-tête. The jar of biscuits next to me is starting to look decidedly depleted already.
A flicker of a smile crosses her face when she concludes softly: "Hopefully, somebody will be interested to buy over our business. When this happens, we'll be able to embark on a new journey; one that will allow us to just keep creating. I think I'd like that!"
For more info on Fat Sunday, go to www.fatsunday.my or follow them on Facebook.