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Fortune Centre is fast becoming an enclave for Japanese eateries. A new addition: hole-in-the-wall bakery, Tsumiki Bake. It was opened in July this year by Japanese baker Waki Yoneoka, 47, who wakes up at 3.30am every morning to whip up fresh loaves of shokupan (Japanese milk bread), sourdough and focaccia.
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Chat with Waki about bread, and it’s clear that the Chiba-born baker is passionate about her bakes. But just two years back, she led a drastically different life.
Waki worked 20 years in the finance and fintech industry. She began her corporate career in Tokyo, before relocating to Singapore in 2010 to join an MBA (Master in Business Administration) programme at INSEAD Business School’s Asia campus. Since then, she started — and eventually shut down — her own tech start-up, then worked in a Singaporean fintech firm as the Managing Director in charge of biz in Japan. She was retrenched from her MD role two years ago due to structural changes in the company.
“The retrenchment gave me the opportunity [to reflect on] the meaning of working for a company. I was already in my mid forties, and started thinking, ‘what’s the meaning of my life?’. I took a sabbatical to cool down, and decide what type of career I wanted. Two friends I knew passed away, and it also struck me that I might die at any time, so I wanted to do something that I won’t regret when I die,” Waki shares.
In total, Waki and her American husband (who also works in finance), invested “less than $100K” into opening Tsumiki’s bakery.
Why set up shop in the rather dingy Fortune Centre? Waki explains: “I was visiting Fortune Centre regularly before opening the shop, ’cos I love the vegetarian food here. I also noticed gradual changes here – in the last few years, interesting eateries like Ume San (an Umeshu bar and izakaya with a vending machine facade) have also opened, and some hidden Japanese bars. My shop space is also small, which also means that I can save on rent a little bit”.
Waki first dabbled in baking during the Covid lockdown period, when she picked it up as a hobby while working her full-time MD job. She practiced using recipes online, and through trial and error. “I’ve always been quite obsessed with bread, and I’m picky about the fluffiness, texture and taste of bread. After I came to Singapore, I had difficulty finding nice bread. I started baking with the determination to make a bread that I really like,” she explains.
But what defines good quality bread to Waki? “Bread where I can really enjoy the flavour of its ingredients. Texture-wise, it depends on personal preference, but definitely moist and fluffy for me,” she says.
To prepare her bakes, Waki spends around six hours baking bread in the morning, and another two hours prepping dough after her shop closes in the evening – hence the reason her bakery only opens four days a week.
She tells us that the transition from an air-conditioned nine to five job to baker was a little tough initially, but manageable. “In the beginning, it was harder physically, but my body adapted quite quickly. After just one week, I could stand a lot longer. This is my dream business, and I’m quite passionate about it even though it’s demanding physically, so I’m still enjoying it,” she says.
We haven’t tried her bakes yet, but Waki says that she places great emphasis on her ingredients. The baker took two years to concoct her shokupan recipe, which she makes with Japanese flour, Meiji milk, organic sugar and French AOP butter.
Currently, her best-selling shokupan offerings include the Plain Shokupan ($1 per slice; $6.50 a loaf) and Matcha Anko (red bean paste) Shokupan ($2.50 per slice; $18 a loaf) featuring Hokkaido red beans and Uji matcha powder. Besides these, she also sells focaccia from $6 for a quarter loaf, and sourdough from $6 for half a loaf. Sweet bakes like Kinoko bread ($4 plain; $5 for earl grey milk flavour), a soft buttery bun similar to a brioche, are also sold here.
Occasionally, Waki whips up seasonal offerings, like apricot jam-filled Moon Bunny Buns for the Mid-Autumn festival.
Tsumiki Bake is at #02-02 Fortune Centre, 190 Middle Rd, S188979. Open Wed – Fri 12pm – 5.30pm; Sat 12pm – 4.30pm. Closed on Mon, Tue & Sun. More info via their website.
Photos: Tsumiki Bake
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