#TheFNBTribe: Meet Gerald Sim
Head of Food and Procurement at Sunday Roast BBQ, Full-Time Student and Meat Whisperer
“…I’ve always liked cooking — and barbecues were kinda like the manliest job you could do as a chef, right?”
Like many students, Gerald Sim attends classes every day as a final-year student in SMU.
But unlike his peers, he’s already running a thriving F&B business.
The 24-year-old is one of the three bosses of Sunday Roast BBQ, a catering company that takes pride in delivering a premium barbecue steakhouse to your doorstep (or condominium poolside, if you prefer).
With a ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude, Gerald’s commitment to serious meat is well…serious.
Do it yourself = maximum quality control.
“I learned how to cook when I was much younger. My mum is a really good cook. She’s a cook by estimate like me and we seldom follow recipes. We hate recipes. In fact, I feel like they limit me.
I started barbecuing when I was 12 years old. My family has barbecues at least once or twice a year and I’ve always liked cooking — and barbecues were kinda like the manliest job you could do as a chef, right?
I like my steak done in a particular way, and I feel that the best way to get it to that particular doneness is if I do it myself. So that’s why I really pursued cooking, because I have high standards to meet for myself.”
He understands how premium quality translates into *ka-ching!*
“I grew up with my family dabbling in meat, so they import frozen meat from over the world. I’ve had the privilege of visiting suppliers in other countries with my dad.
On my first trip to New Zealand (I think I was about ten?), I went to a slaughterhouse to see a cow get… processed. I thought it was quite cool. I’ve been to Barcelona to see [how pigs are processed], New Zealand and Australia to see lambs and cows and chickens…
Singaporeans really like their food and quality is really important when you want to go high-end.
Restaurants can make a lot of money and I know their cost with my experience. I knew how to price [the meats I bring in] correctly because I’ve worked for my dad since I finished army, so that gave me a lot of exposure to the real business world.
Basically, your cost of goods sold shouldn’t exceed a certain percentage. So it helped me a lot with pricing and knowing where my limits were.”
This industry is “not something any Tom, Dick and Harry can walk into thinking they know everything”.
“I would say you’ve got to know the F&B business first. It’s a very different and dynamic industry. Even in family businesses, there are very different, niche areas that everyone goes into. It’s not easy.
Avoid too many overheads [rent, inventory, manpower, taxes and waste management] because that kills most F&B businesses.”
On starting a business:
“I didn’t actually want to start a business. I’ve been doing barbecues on the side for quite a while over two years, but only for my friends.
Xavier is my business partner whom I’ve known for about 8 years now. We met in church and he’s been a really good brother to me. He owns another team building company with Ian, my third partner, so I decided to explore the option of [monetizing our barbecue stints].
We thought, ‘it’s a small investment and we’ll see how it goes’; we weren’t expecting much.
To be honest, if I didn’t have any F&B background, I wouldn’t have gotten into F&B. Yes, everybody needs to eat, but there are a billion F&B outlets in Singapore, so you’re kind of fighting a crowded mass market.
So if you really want to go in, you gotta find a niche and make sure your niche is big enough for you to survive.”
He takes calculated risks knowing his customers take them too.
“No business model is foolproof; there’s always an element of risk.
But I think what was important is that we knew that there was a market for it, we just didn’t know if we could reach the market in time before someone else did.
We were always confident that people are too lazy to barbecue, and there was no premium option for a BBQ then. So you’d pay about $15 per person but to be honest, you don’t get that much value out of it.
When [our very first customer] first saw us, her face was like, ‘Oh dear, what have I done? I’m paying a few hundred dollars for these two young kids to cook for me!’
But I think we earn the trust of our customers by our food and our commitment in service to them. That’s what we always aim to do; we aim to please, and that’s very important, especially in our business model.
We’ve since cooked for her three times already.”
He always prefers openness and honesty.
“Firstly, it helps that we’re all guys. Pretty straightforward. If we’re not happy with something we just bring it up, and discuss.
Generally, we all have our roles quite well-defined. Sometimes when we cross each other’s boundaries by accident, we get put in place by the respective person.
Whatever we say in our respective realms, most of us take it as the truth. So you never see me going to the website telling Ian, “Ian, I think you have to move this box down.”
Ian can ask, “Hey can we include this in the menu?” And if Xavier and I say it’s too difficult logistically or too procure, then Ian just says OK. We’re pretty straightforward, you know?
If it’s a No, it’s a No. If it’s a Yes, it’s a Yes.
Or if we want to try it out, we try it out and see how it goes.”
Sunday Roast BBQ is expanding their team! If you’re up for doing the dirty task of grrrilling, read up on how they go about creating the perfect BBQ on their blog, then go ahead and apply at Rezhelp!
About Rezhelp:
We’re an F&B community for people who love what they do. We believe there’s nothing stronger than inspiration in action.
