SINGAPORE – By giving curry puff a modern twist, three young hawkers have turned the traditional snack into a lucrative chain of stalls.
Brothers Lim Yuan Ming, 23, and Brandon Lim, 29, joined hands with business partner Oh Chin Jie, 31, to start What The Puff in December 2024. The brand has since grown from one to three hawker stalls.
The business now produces about 1,500 puffs daily – with flavours such as cheese and char siew – and drew around $500,000 in revenue in 2025.
The idea for What The Puff came from the brothers’ parents, who run Lao Er Teochew Economical Rice & Porridge at Block 216 Bedok Food Centre and Market, a stall they took over about 10 years ago.
The brothers are well aware of how demanding their parents’ work is, having worked there over the years.
“We saw the struggles they went through, having to cook over 20 dishes every day and work tirelessly from early morning till the afternoon,” says Mr Lim Yuan Ming.
Curry puffs seemed like a simpler product to sell. His father suggested trying new flavours, including a cheesy curry puff.
“Curry puffs were an iconic snack of our childhood. We thought, why not give this traditional snack a modern twist?” he says. “We wanted to breathe new life into this well-loved snack and make the new generation of diners fall in love with it again.”
Clearly defined roles
The roles were clearly defined from the start. Mr Oh, who was working as a cook at fast casual chain The Daily Cut before leaving to start What The Puff, led recipe development. Mr Brandon Lim worked with him on operations, while his brother handled administrative work such as payroll and dealt with suppliers.
Research and development for the puffs began at home in October 2024 and continued after they opened the first stall.
The trio spent weeks eating curry puffs – with friends and family as tasters – making up to eight iterations in a day. The Cheesy Curry Puff alone went through about 10 variations.
The buttery pastry was tough to pin down. It took almost half a year to settle on, says Mr Lim Yuan Ming, as small changes in recipe, temperature, moisture and even wind could affect the result.
Their first outlet opened at Changi Village Hawker Centre in December 2024, with the three partners putting in about $10,000 of their combined savings.
While business was slow at the start, returning customers who gave positive feedback spurred them on. The trio started making the puffs themselves daily for over a month until they hired their first employee to assist with production.
In late January, they took $15,000 from the first stall’s earnings to open a second outlet at the same hawker centre in Bedok where the Lims’ parents ran their Teochew porridge stall. All three partners did not draw full salaries for the first six months.
