The co-founders of Little Fat Duck takes the next step in their drive to cater to the masses.
“LOOK, duck!” I exclaim to my friend, pointing to a tiny cafe located on the lower ground floor of 1Utama shopping centre in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. After having trawled the mall for what feels like forever just to find somewhere to settle for lunch, the sight of a cafe with bright white neon light, the words Little Fat Duck written across the shop front, is a most welcome proposition.
Practically skipping towards the cafe in my excitement, I’m already picturing tucking into a delicious meal with duck in it. A bunting advertising Pasta of the Day stands next to the cashier counter. Eagerly my friend and I start scanning the menu and the daily promotions. “Where’s the duck?” I mutter in disappointment. And we are unable to find it no matter how much I was willing my eye to spot it.
“Is this place halal or not?” my friend’s voice interrupts my silent mutterings. Suffice to say, it’s a question that’s pretty common among us Muslims, especially when wanting to explore new places to eat.
ON THE MENU
“Sorry we don’t have duck,” says co-founder Adel Ishak, chuckling, when we meet with him at his office in SS25/28 in Kelana Jaya, Selangor, as I recount to him our experience — and my unfilled duck cravings — days earlier in front of his outlet. “It’s just a catchy name. Something people will remember.”
From just a food truck serving pasta, Little Fat Duck has certainly evolved. The initial idea was simple — to bring affordable Italian and French cuisine to Malaysians. But it didn’t take long for it to endear itself to the public’s palate. And today, it is officially halal, which means that everyone gets to enjoy the offerings.
Those familiar to the eatery will know Little Fat Duck as being the go-to place for cheap and delicious pastas that’s located in malls such as 1Utama and Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur.
“Pasta is something that people can eat every day. It’s fast and easy but can be quite expensive. On promotion days, we only charge RM5 for it,” shares Adel.
The spaghetti bolognaise is a must-try. The rich and meaty tomato-based sauce even won Best Bolognese Sauce category on the Food Network Asia’s Food Wars competition in 2015, beating the sauce offered by another local food truck joint, La Famiglia.
“The bolognaise sauce is my mum’s recipe. She didn’t know at first that I was doing this business. I even asked her to show me how she makes the sauce. I told her I wanted to cook it for a friend’s party,” Adel recalls, laughing.
Their bestseller, however, is the chicken confit — a whole chicken thigh on a bed of smooth mash potatoes with a generous helping of brown sauce. The chicken is tender and juicy as is marinated for 12 hours and cured for 24 hours before frying.
Eyes dancing at the recollection, Adel shares that when it all first started, it was just him and his partner, Adi Ong (who couldn’t join us today as he’s outstation), doing all kinds of experiments with food.
“I’ve mastered the theory of cooking but don’t ask me to cook. I don’t really know. But I can tell if the dish needs more salt or something else,” says Adel, sheepishly, before adding: “We also asked our friends to be our guinea pigs and they gave us feedback and criticisms to get better.”
Seven months into the business, which was established in 2014, the duo decided to open an outlet in 1Utama. “Business has been good,” confides Adel, smiling. Now, they have six outlets altogether around the Klang Valley.
Continues the bespectacled entrepreneur: “But we don’t want to open just in the city. We want to go outside of KL too. That’s why it’s important for us to obtain the halal certificate so people across the country can feel comfortable and confident about eating our food. It took us a year to finally get the certification.”
THE WHEEL DEAL
The food truck trend started in the United States a few years ago and its popularity hasn’t seemed to wane. Established restaurants, especially fast casual operations, have also been launching food trucks. In fact, 19 per cent of fast casual restaurants say they’re very or somewhat likely to launch one in the next year or two, according to a National Restaurant Association research.
Here, however, the trend enjoyed its peak in 2015, says Adel. Those who thrived, survived. But many gave up and had to gulung tikar (close down) and sell their business. “The influx was just too much,” says Adel.
Rob Wilder, who runs the ThinkFoodGroup’s Pepe food truck in Washington DC, wrote on restaurants.org that one shouldn’t launch a food truck just because everyone else is doing it. There are many factors to consider before jumping on the bandwagon — know the rules of the road, develop a limited menu and design your truck or trailer to match your concept. “Make sure you have a clear picture of what you expect to achieve,” Wilder advises.
A food truck can help you reach new customers but it comes with unique challenges. These include weather dependency, tight quarters and mechanical breakdowns. And Little Fat Duck has not been spared any of these either. Adel recalls the times when he and Adi would park their truck at food events or at their home base in SS15 in Subang Jaya, Selangor. Back then, they did all the cooking in their modest truck.
“It was tiring, having to cook in the morning and sell in the evening. We did everything at the back of the truck. We set up tables and chairs on the street. So if it rained, there went the business for the day. It was quite challenging,” says Adel.
BEHIND THE SCENE
Their thriving business prompted them
to have an office for administration and a proper kitchen for preparation, storage and packaging.
We follow Adel as he proceeds to give us a tour of where the magic actually takes place — the kitchen. To enter, we must put on the yellow “Puah Chu Kang” boots and a head cap for safety purposes. As I put on the boots, I notice stacks of brown boxes lined up against the wall.
“It’s our pasta, imported all the way from Italy,” Adel says with a smile. We enter the cooking area. A worker with head cap and gloves on is frying meatballs. There are only four kitchen helpers working here.
“We do everything in-house,” explains Adel. “We cook the meat and the sauces here before delivering them to our outlets. Over there, we just cook the pasta, reheat the sauce and fry the chicken. The chicken will go through a blast chiller and get vacuum-packed to maintain its freshness.”
We move further to the back of the kitchen. Two other workers are stirring pasta sauces in large steel pots. In one week, they cook close to 1,200 litres of pasta sauces — bolognaise, carbonara, sausage spinach bechamel, chicken mushroom mornay, creamy tom yam and pesto.
To maintain the quality of the food, Adel would conduct regular inspections, coupled with the occasional surprise visits in between. “It’s easier now with smartphones. If we have an issue, we just snap a photo, send to the group and resolve quickly,” he shares.
DOING GOOD
The second of three siblings, Adel, who lives in Subang Jaya, has a degree in Mass Communications and has worked in public relations before. “It’s actually my partner who has the F&B training. My background in PR, however, has helped in our branding exercise,” says the 29-year-old.
The truck, which has driven Little Fat Duck to where it is now, continues to be used for selected events and is available for catering. Recently, it brought joy to the children at Rumah Hope, a home for abused and neglected children, in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
“We drove there, parked the truck and served the children free food. They were so happy. It’s just a small gesture but I know
it meant a lot to them. It’s our way of
giving back to society,” shares Adel, eyes shining.
As we near the end of our chat, Adel reminds me again of my unfilled duck cravings when he concludes: “We’d love to expand our menu, maybe put a duck in it.
But duck is quite expensive. For now, we’re going to stick with the existing menu to keep the price affordable. We’ve not done too badly!”
Visit www.littlefatduck.com for more info.