Nora’s small and soft spoken. But please don’t mess around with this chilli padi. She has 16 years of F&B experience under her belt, in fast food, catering, fine dining, and now as the Head Barista at Free The Robot.
From old school conservative to new age hipster, she’s seen it all. And she doesn’t look her age, dammit.
She’s a professional hustler.
“I came from a hard family so I started working really early, when I was 16. I used to be really quiet and didn’t like to talk. But F&B got me out of my shell.
I started in KFC, went on to catering, and fine dining.
I didn’t work full-time at one place because I didn’t want to be stuck with one SOP and structure. I wanted to learn more.
So I worked as a permanent part-timer at a few places for years. 6 days a week, and at night I did fine dining. Sometimes I’d work for 2 weeks with no off days, then take a week off to travel.
I hustle hard. It’s all about self discovery. My weaknesses, my strengths, my style of working, and how open I am. I do a lot of self reflection.”
She used to hate coffee.
“I’m actually a tea person! I didn’t really like coffee at first, but thought I’d give it a try. I used to taste coffee and be like, urgh, sour, urgh, bitter.
But after a while, I learnt to appreciate the different types of coffees and complex flavours and all that. Now I love drinking black coffee. Double shot espresso.”
She’s not your typical barista.
“I don’t look like a barista. Sometimes people will ask if I’m new, or they give me weird looks when I say I’m a barista. They think I’m in the creative industry, like advertising or something.
But I’m not creative at all. I’m actually very OCD. I like things straight, clean, and shiny.”
16 years in the industry has changed her as a person — for the better.
“When you’re in F&B, you will change as a person, see things in a different way. Learn to read people, their body language, the way they move, hold glasses, read the menu…
I’m the kind of person who likes to see things in the big picture. I like to understand human behaviour, so I can serve them better, or make my life easier!
Back then when I was in fine dining, the company was all about knowledge and welfare. They sent us for wine training, bar training, service training, food training, so we had to be versatile.
They would find your weakness. My manager was great but very, very painful to work with. Very firm Chinese dude. I got scolded many times. So when I decided to do service, it was really tough. I had 3 months of hell.
But my 6 years in fine dining actually built my character, from someone who usually hides behind, to someone who always wants to be at the frontline.”
Craziest incident ever?
“I once broke 12 champagne flutes in one night. At one go. At a Louis Vuitton event in Takashimaya.
So I was holding 13 champagne flutes, passing 1 to a guest. Somebody knocked into me, and everything toppled. Argh! Everybody looked at me.
At that time, I just didn’t know how to feel. I’ve never broken that many glasses before in my life. But my manager saw what happened, so it was okay.”
In coffee and life, the mantra is: Learn, unlearn and relearn.
“It’s interesting that even after 16 years in F&B, from my old school days in catering and fine dining till now, how things are always changing, always evolving.
I’m so old school and there are some things I feel strongly about, but I need to be receptive to changes.
At the same time, like in everything else, you need to learn the basics first to have a strong foundation. If your foundation is shit, it won’t work when you try to break the rules. You can’t be a good barista without strong knowledge.
There are some baristas out there who can’t accept new coffees. They cannot unlearn and relearn. But I always believe that you need to learn, unlearn and relearn. I live by that.
You have to build on your foundation, get stronger, get better, get better, get better…”
On being a leader:
“Sometimes it’s not about what you learn out there every day. It’s about what you learn about yourself. That’s self discovery.
Then you realise that, oh you are an asshole! And you think that you’re a good leader, but you’re not.
What makes a good leader? Someone who’s patient, who’s constantly learning, relearning and sharing that knowledge with the people under you. Rather than just talking down to them, you have to work with them, put yourself at their level and progress together.
The beauty of training is that the trainer will learn as well. I always believe in taking someone with me.”
Perception of F&B jobs in Singapore
“On a personal level, I used to get peer pressure from family and friends talking about getting out of F&B, getting a good, proper job…
To me, it is a proper job.
But sometimes people are like that, and in F&B you need to learn how to accept. There are people who get upset, but I’ve learnt to embrace people who don’t accept my career choice.”
Visit Nora at Free The Robot from Tuesdays to Saturdays for a good cuppa and coffee chat!
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.
