The Patissier's Chronicle

We were involved in a legal dispute that lasted almost 2 years. It was a last ditch attempt to protect our “The Patissier” trade mark, which we had registered since 2005, against infringement after all non-legal avenues were exhausted. This was very much a “David vs Goliath” contest, given that the counterparty is a large company backed by a Singapore-listed conglomerate.  Although we eventually won the case on all counts, the whole episode had left a somewhat sour taste in our mouths. And we wish to highlight our experience as a cautionary tale to small businesses (like ours) who are contemplating using trade mark as a form of intellectual property protection in Singapore. Successful registration of a trade mark with IPOS (i.e. the Stat Board that administers intellectual property laws in Singapore) does not automatically protect owners against infringement. IPOS will accept all applications for trade mark registration as a first basis. Although all new trade mark submissions are ...

We often do get questions from our customers on why a certain cake has not been available for such a long time, or why can't we add a particular cake to our list of regular cakes to be available monthly.  We have over 100 cake recipes. And we add between 3 - 5 new recipes into our list every year.  So it is impossible for us to produce all the cakes in our recipe book during the course of the year. We typically have between 13 - 15 of what we termed as "staples", i.e. standard cake flavors that are available every month. These are the likes of our Meringues, Double Chocolate Pralines, Chocolate Fudge, Tiramisu, Empress Dowager, Citrine Rhapsody etc. And we top this off with 2 - 3 "rotating" flavors, which consist of cakes that are not "popular" enough to make our staple list. Examples of "rotational cakes" are our Green Tea Bavarian, Pistachio Chestnut, The Ribena, Ho-Ho-Horlicks... the list goes on. The rotational cakes will stay on our menu...

Today not only marks the (delayed) 56 th birthday celebration of our nation. It is also exactly one month from the Mid-Autumn Festival this year. The Patissier first started selling with our own version of mooncakes last year. It was an experiment of sorts; we want to come up with our own unique set of products to partake in the occasion and are interested find out if our customers will buy into an alternate type of moon “mousse” cakes.  We have no intention to compete with our traditional moon cake peers, as we have neither the capacity and capability for mass production. We are also very aware that the market for mooncake is a highly competitive one, where customers typically prioritize the quality/beauty of packaging over the pastry. So we set a modest target of 60 boxes for our Eskimo Moon Pies last year. And we were really happy that all 60 boxes were sold. Overall reception from customers was also encouraging enough for us to decide that we should bring our moon cakes bac...

  We run a paid membership program. But we do not “hard sell” our membership to customers. In fact, we typically will discourage signing up for our membership if the customer does not intend to purchase regularly (at least 8 – 10 regular size cakes a year) from us. Some have balked at the $88+gst annual membership fee for the first year. And as per all memberships, ours also come with terms & conditions for use. However, customers who have signed up and are able to utilize their memberships sufficiently will appreciate the benefits and (vast) savings that come with being a member of The Patissier. This probably explain the 1,800+ active paid members we have currently, many of whom have been with us for years. (Thank you) ⁣ For those interested in joining our membership program, you may sign up online at www.thepatissier.com However, we urge you to read the T&Cs to better understand how our membership works and decide if it will work for you, before signing up.

Customer placed an order online and opted for a generic Happy Birthday tag. Then called the shop insisting that we provide her with a customized message tag FOC, despite knowing that we charge an extra $2 for this. Her rationale was "I already paid over $70 for the cake with delivery so you cannot charge me for the customized message".  We have come to realize that there is "selective incomprehension" on the concept of customization with some folks. In the case of message on cake, our chefs will prepare generic message tags (e.g. Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary etc.) and these are provided FOC to customers who requested for them. However, if the required message is something outside of our generic options, we need to ensure that this is specially done for the customer concerned. And as with all customization, there is an additional fee involved - in this case $2+gst. This we make known to customers before they place their orders, so that they can make an informed ...

Today marks a significant milestone in our nation's progression from Covid-19. Dining-in is again permitted at F&B establishments after repeated stop-starts over the past year. And fingers crossed for the current liberation to continue (and expand further) as we move towards a new endemic normal. Coincidentally enough, the author received a Facebook Memories notification this morning. On 10 August last year, he finally had the chance to enjoy a leisurely brunch, with newspapers in tow, for the first time in several months. This was after Singapore first went into Covid-19 circuit breaker lockdown, followed by "Phase 1 to 3 then back to Phase 2" of Heightened Alerts during the period of April to early-August 2020. As such, the author deemed it appropriate to commemorate his (renewed) dining freedom by visiting the same F&B joint that he patronized exactly one year ago. Sitting at the same table. Ordering somewhat the same meal for brunch (they ran out of ham croiss...

National Day 2021 is just a day away. And our latest cake creation to commemorate our nation's 56th birthday,  Sago Gula Singapura,  is turning out to be our most popular ever.  Our National Day cake is only available for one month (August) every year.  For our National Day cake of previous years, we typically sell between 40 – 60 cakes for the whole month. But as of this morning (8 August), we have already sold 81 of our Sago Gula Singapura ! We are overwhelmed by the love that our customers have shown towards our latest creation. So much so that our kitchen was caught a tad off guard and have run out of coconut puree, which is one of the main ingredients used to make the cake. And given the National Day long weekend, the earliest our supplier can deliver more puree is on next Tuesday.  So for those who have yet to order your Sago Gula Singapura , you will have to wait till next Thursday (12 August) at the earliest to have your cake and eat it!

This author is really not into TV sitcoms. He much prefers TV series. The last sitcom he watched was probably Season 1 of "Veep". That was eons ago. And only for the one pilot episode. But he chanced upon a caption in The Straits Times about this new comedy show “Ted Lasso”. And since most of the TV series that he's been following are currently stalled by Covid-19, he decided to take a chance on “Ted Lasso”. And what a mistake this turned out to be. Not that the sitcom about an American small-time football coach hired to coach a premier league soccer team in England, despite having no experience coaching soccer, is bad. On the contrary, it was actually so entertaining and addictive (much like our Meringue) that this author stayed up the whole night to finish all 10 episodes of Season 1!  Jason Sudeikis (SNL, Horrible Bosses) was an absolute gem as Ted Lasso, the newly minted soccer coach of AFC Richmond, a fictional EPL team. Comedy genius aside, it was his character’s ...

  For those are who new to The Patissier, our meringue is the most popular cake in our shop. Our Passion Fruit Meringue, in particular, is our signature cake. Our meringue is typically sold out a week in advance these days. This has raised queries about the (limited) availability of our meringue. So here are answers to some of the common questions asked by our customers: 1. What is the maximum quantity of meringue orders you can take per day?⁣ We can take up to 24kg of meringue orders daily. This is equivalent to FORTY EIGHT (48) 6” cakes.⁣ ⁣ 2. Why can’t you increase the maximum quantity per day?⁣ We make our meringue from scratch daily. To produce the current maximum quantity, our chefs are already coming into work at 5 ~ 6am every day. And we deem it rather inhumane to ask them to come in any earlier just so we can sell a few more cakes.⁣ ⁣ 3. How does your “Wait List” work?⁣ We will make a couple of spare meringues daily. This is just in case we miss out on an ord...

August 1st of every year is dedicated to all our men and women working within the healthcare industry in Singapore . Yes, it is Nurses' Day today. Ot her countries celebrates this on 12 May, which marked the birthday of Florence Nightingale. But we celebrate Nurses' Day on 1 August because it marks the beginning of the development of nursing in Singapore. We usually receive quite a few cake orders yearly from caring doctors or grateful individuals to be sent to hospitals and clinics during this time of the year. And anyone who has not been living in a cave over the past year would have read about the dedication and sacrifices that our healthcare workers have made especially during this Covid-10 pandemic. Some even had to deal with all sorts of discrimination from ignorant folks within our society. So we are really happy to play our small part in showing our appreciation to all our nurses and healthcare workers in Singapore. Thank you all and Happy Nurses' Day!