To understand what it took for Chef Yenni Law to get where she is today with Meat Feds, you need to go back to her childhood.
Born in Taiping, she’s always found cooking to be fun. She was born into a family of great home cooks, but because of that, she never really got to do the important parts, such as the actual cooking.
“I was more like my mother’s minion in the kitchen, doing everything else except for cooking,” she said.
Little did she know that would lay the groundwork for her culinary profession.
But pursuing her studies at Taylor’s School of Hotel Management, Yenni didn’t think she would end up as a chef.
“I actually aspired to be a GM of some fancy hotel someday,” she recalled. “Somehow, due to some silly reasons, I chose to specialise in cuisine. Which was one of the subjects I really sucked at.”
Although she got bad grades at first, she knew she had to buck up or bear the brunt of putting her parents to shame. With her headstrong mindset, she ended up graduating with honours.
And that was how Yenni truly embarked on her tumultuous culinary journey.
Her own business
After 10 years in the industry, she had the chance to take over an existing failing business called Boathouse.
“I’ve always wanted to own a restaurant one day, but I knew very well that coming from a family whereby my parents were just schoolteachers it was impossible for me to own my own business,” the chef shared.
So when the opportunity arose to take on Boathouse, she was eager but scared. Going from being a chef to an entrepreneur, there were a lot of learning curves and challenges.
“As a chef, I wish to give my guests the best of what I cook or create, and the hard part is making sure it makes business sense doing it,” she shared. “Because we can’t run a business without money, and F&B is a cash business.”
To stay ahead of the curve, Yenni has to constantly wonder, “What do our guests like or dislike? What does it take for the team to feel happy? How are our suppliers doing? What are the festive seasons? How do we manage low seasons? How many people are showing up or not showing up for work?”
From relationship to financial management, there’s much for the chef-owner to consider outside of just cooking.
“Very often my parents would always ask me why I ever chose this profession. Why couldn’t I be a normal person and get a proper 9-to-5 job like every other normal human being? But I was never really an obedient child to begin with,” Yenni joked.
But through hardship and perseverance, the chef managed to sustain Boathouse, and even started to make a mark for herself. She was even offered to write a recipe book with a mini autobiography titled Meatology.
When it was published in 2015, Yenni also refreshed Boathouse, rebranding it to Meatology, too.
Closing shop
But 2019 came, and the COVID-19 pandemic struck. It was a fight to keep Meatology alive—one that they ended up losing.
“I had built my business over the past 17 years from a failing business to a profitable one—only to lose it all in the end,” Yenni expressed.
At that point, the restaurant had a capacity of 110 pax. But because of the pandemic, they could only rely on takeaways. The team tried everything from gimmicks and deals to giveaways and entertainment. They even livestreamed to sell their meats and teach people how to cook steaks at home.
For the entire year, that was all they did. Even when Meatology wasa allowed to reopen, they were only allowed to serve 30 pax in one seating.
“Those two years really took every dime we had from the business,” Yenni said. “By the end of it I just had to call it quits. I had to fold. I had already exhausted all funds including my life savings.”
She continued, “I could have called it quits sooner at the beginning of COVID, but I refused to go down without a fight. At least I know I’ve tried everything.”
The start of something new
Losing a business of 17 years is nothing short of shocking. For Yenni, it felt like losing a 17-year-old child.
“Depression started to creep in,” she admitted. “I accepted the reality that I no longer could run a business but didn’t have the courage to take my own life.”
Thankfully, she shared that these thoughts are in the past now. But it took a lot of will and perseverance to overcome them.
“I ate the humble pie and went out looking for jobs,” she shared. Thankfully, she had kind friends who would connect her with job interviews.
However, she felt that people were afraid to hire her for the sheer fact that she hadn’t been an employee for more than a decade at that point. Could someone like that really take orders?
Thankfully, another opportunity came. Yenni’s wine supplier reached out and asked if she was interested in running a restaurant with them.
At that point, she didn’t have other options left. With no money and no job, all she had left was her trusting mentee Shelly (who would be her business partner), a credit card, and a whole lot of experience.
“Having any confidence or not wasn’t even something to be considered at that point,” she said.
“It was only to do or not to do. Was I even scared and marred by the fear of my previous failure? Of course I was. But driven by that fear, I worked even harder than I ever did. It was like the threshold of being able to put in the hard work has been erased from my vocabulary.”
Thus, Meat Feds was born.
A meat-centric eatery, Meat Feds is all about sharing with people the many special and different parts of the cattle, which they do not usually get from a typical steakhouse.
Yenni believes that each part of the cattle is unique in its own flavour and texture, and wanted more diners to experience that.
After three years of collaborating with their wine partners, though, they decided to part ways. Meat Feds still works with them as a supplier, though.
Lessons over the years
Having been in the F&B scene for decades, Yenni understands that it’s ever-evolving. As such, it’s vital to stay nimble and agile. When times are moving fast, you need to move faster to stay relevant.
“So far, I am not content, and I always keep searching for ways and new skills to stay ahead of myself on a daily basis,” Yenni expressed.
This mindset is one that she extends to the rest of her team, too. Yenni’s ambitions for Meat Feds is to invest in their own talents and grow them to be entrepreneurs and their own partners.
“From this whole experience, I now am a strong believer that somehow the universe doesn’t give us what we cannot possibly handle,” she determined.
And clearly, Yenni isn’t someone who just survives through all her hardships, but thrives through them, too.
Featured Image Credit: Meat Feds