BY GILLVEN MIXCOLLIN ANAK GAWING
KUCHING: Fancy a drink of kombucha tweaked to perfection to suit local taste buds?
Budding entrepreneur Fabian Chin, 29, has concocted just the right version of the fermented, sweetened black tea drink for the local market.
It is the end product of a brainstorming he had with friends shortly after he returned home from Singapore where he had worked as a chef for seven years.
“We were just wondering what if we initiated a localised, captivating business selling homemade kombucha, considering many people in Kuching were not aware of kombucha?,” he recalled.
He began experimenting developing his own kombucha product in 2022.
Research and development (R&D)
Together with his friends he came up with KombuLab – a portmanteau of the words Kombucha and Laboratory – to actively research and develop interesting and varied kombucha flavours.
And in August 2023, Chin introduced his kombucha to the local market.
“The business had a shaky start but has now registered good growth,” he said.
His foray into this business is the culmination of a long journey which began just after Chin finished his secondary school education in 2012.
Chin readily concedes that the pursuit of academic excellence was just not his thing.
Hands-on experience
Instead, he figured he would do well, if not better, as a hands-on person.
He went to work straightaway, at a clothing retail outlet and a juice bar, and after two years decided to explore opportunities in Singapore.
The leap of faith almost did him in as he discovered at the eleventh hour that his prospective employer at a restaurant there could not get him a work permit.
Chin, who developed a liking for cooking from his elder sister who operated a stall, panicked.
Alone with no family members and friends in the country, he knew he had to quickly adapt to his unfamiliar environment and land himself a job.
And for next three months he spent much of his time glued to WiFi at McDonald outlets, searching for jobs. And his perseverance finally paid off.
Over the course of the next seven years Chin found himself working at three different restaurants, namely, Eighteen Chefs Star Vista, ONE°15 Marina and ATLAS.
Working alongside ex-convicts
Looking back, he recalled having to work alongside ex-convicts at Eighteen Chefs Star Vista which had a programme for former prisoners.
“Because of the programme, I met some colourful people there,” he said.
At ONE°15 Marina, he had his most valued work experience which he said greatly contributed to his personal improvement.
“My chef gave me a lot of motivation and taught me, he was like a father figure to me,” he said.
But he worked at ATLAS the longest, around four years, earning the distinction of being well versed in all areas of prep and having a knack for motivating his team members whenever service got busy.
He thus built his reputation as a chef but, as they say ‘east or west, home is best’ and Chin started longing for home.
Home is best
So despite the prospect of a lucrative career in the republic, Chin decided to throw caution to the wind and packed for home, although it meant having to start from ground zero.
And that was when he sat down with his friends here to think of what to do next. The rest, as they say, is history.
