Bengawan Solo (company)

Last updated
A Bengawan Solo store at The Arcade Bengawan Solo.JPG
A Bengawan Solo store at The Arcade

Bengawan Solo is a Singaporean bakery chain. It has 45 outlets islandwide with a factory at 23 Woodlands Link. The bakery is known for making and selling Indonesian style kue, buns, cakes, cookies and mooncakes due to the fact that the owner and founder, Anastasia Liew, is an Indonesian who migrated to Singapore from Palembang in early 1970s.

Contents

All products are prepared at the central kitchen in Woodlands and delivered to the stores 2-3 times daily. Pandan cake is the most popular item in the shop. [1]

Bengawan Solo
IndustryBaking
Founded1979
FounderAnastasia Tjendri-Liew
Area served
Singapore
ProductsIndonesian baked goods

History

Bengawan Solo was founded in 1975 by Anastasia Tjendri-Liew, an Indonesian-Chinese who emigrated from Palembang, Indonesia to Singapore. [2] Tjendri-Liew had initially started an unlicensed home baking business producing butter, kueh lapis, and chiffon cakes in her HDB apartment at Marine Parade, which was popular such that she supplied her products to supermarkets and shops (such as a department store in Lucky Plaza) before officers from the Ministry of Environment shutdown her business in 1979. However, since the demand for Tjendri-Liew's baking products continued, she decided to open a shop in Marine Terrace a few months later. Tjendri-Liew managed to secure a low starting rent of S$1,200 only because the shop was vacant for 1-2 years due to the previous tenants not doing well. She decided to name her business Bengawan Solo is named after the Indonesian song and river of the same name. [3] Her business continued to remain popular, only increasing further following a positive review from a newspaper. Urged by her customers to set up a shop in a more 'central location', Tjendri-Liew opened Bengawan Solo's second outlet in 1983 at Centrepoint shopping mall, Orchid Road. Following the opening of three more outlets, by 1987, Bengawan solo needed a central kitchen. The kitchen, which was a 'first' for Singapore's confectionery industry, was built on a 9,500 sq ft. plot of land in Harvey Road. Other future baking companies followed suit, utilising a 'centre kitchen' to supply its outlets.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baking</span> Food producing method

Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread, but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferred "from the surface of cakes, cookies, and pieces of bread to their center, typically conducted at elevated temperatures surpassing 300°F. Dry heat cooking imparts a distinctive richness to foods through the processes of caramelization and surface browning. As heat travels through, it transforms batters and doughs into baked goods and more with a firm dry crust and a softer center. Baking can be combined with grilling to produce a hybrid barbecue variant by using both methods simultaneously, or one after the other. Baking is related to barbecuing because the concept of the masonry oven is similar to that of a smoke pit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bakery</span> Type of business that sells flour-based food

A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based baked goods made in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, bagels, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises. In some countries, a distinction is made between bakeries, which primarily sell breads, and pâtisseries, which primarily sell sweet baked goods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indonesian cuisine</span> Culinary traditions of Indonesia

Indonesian cuisine is a collection of various regional culinary traditions that formed in the archipelagic nation of Indonesia. There are a wide variety of recipes and cuisines in part because Indonesia is composed of approximately 6,000 populated islands of the total 17,508 in the world's largest archipelago, with more than 1,300 ethnic groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McKee Foods</span> Snack food and granola manufacturer

McKee Foods Corporation is a privately held and family-owned American snack food and granola manufacturer headquartered in Collegedale, Tennessee. The corporation is the maker of Drake's Cakes, Fieldstone Bakery snacks and cereal, Little Debbie snacks, and Sunbelt Bakery granola and cereal. The company also formerly operated Heartland Brands.

"Bengawan Solo" is an Indonesian song written by Gesang Martohartono in 1940. The song is a description of the longest river in Java, Solo River. The song became popular in Indonesia during the Second World War and was one of the songs promoted nationally in the newly-independent country after the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schwebel's Bakery</span>

Schwebel's Bakery is a regional producer of bread and other baked goods that was established in Youngstown, Ohio, in the early 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pandan cake</span> Indonesian cake

Pandan cake is a light, fluffy, green-coloured sponge cake flavoured with the juices of Pandanus amaryllifolius leaves. It is also known as pandan chiffon. The cake is popular in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, China, and also the Netherlands. It is similar to the buko pandan cake of the Philippines, but differs in that it does not use coconut.

George Weston Limited, often referred to as Weston or Weston's, is a Canadian holding company. Founded by George Weston in 1882, the company today consists of the Choice Properties real estate investment trust and Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada's largest supermarket retailer, in which it maintains a controlling interest. The company is majority owned by Wittington Investments, Ltd Canada, a holding company that the Weston family are the controlling share holders in. Retail brands include President's Choice, No Name and Joe Fresh. The former Weston Bakeries division, which owned the brands Wonder, Country Harvest, D'Italiano, Ready Bake and Gadoua, was sold off to FGF Brands in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Chang Kee</span> Singaporean food and beverage chain

Old Chang Kee Ltd. is a Singaporean multinational snack, food and beverage chain. It specialises in curry puffs and other local snacks. Headquartered in Woodlands, Singapore, it is listed on the Singapore Exchange.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pepperidge Farm</span> American commercial bakery

Pepperidge Farm is an American commercial bakery founded in 1937 by Margaret Rudkin, who named the brand after her family's 123-acre farm property in Fairfield, Connecticut, which had been named for the pepperidge tree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doberge cake</span> Layer cake from New Orleans

Doberge cake is a layered dessert originating in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., adapted by local baker Beulah Ledner from the Hungarian Dobos torte. Still popular in the area, the cake is made of multiple thin layers of cake alternating with dessert pudding. Very often the cakes are made with half chocolate pudding and half lemon pudding. They are covered in a thin layer of butter cream and a fondant shell or, alternatively, a poured glaze on the outside. They are normally made with six or more layers. Traditional flavors are chocolate, lemon or caramel.

Metro is an Indonesia based chain department store selling cosmetics, apparel and fashion accessories. Founded by Ong Tjoe Kim in 1953, Metro currently has 12 outlets located across Indonesia and 2 in Singapore.

Cake Boss is an American reality television series, which originally aired on the cable television network TLC. The series premiered on April 19, 2009, and has spawned four spin-offs: Next Great Baker, Kitchen Boss, Bake You Rich, and Bakery Boss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buddy Valastro</span> American pastry chef

Bartolo "Buddy" Valastro Jr. is an American baker, reality television personality, and businessman. He has taken his small, family-owned bake shop, Carlo's Bakery, and turned it into a baking and restaurant empire. Valastro is best known as the star of the reality television series Cake Boss, which ran on the TLC cable channel from April 2009 until April 2020. He has also starred in Next Great Baker (2010), Kitchen Boss (2011), Buddy's Bakery Rescue (2013), Bake You Rich (2013), Bakery Boss (2013), Buddy vs. Duff (2019), Buddy vs. Christmas (2020) Buddy Valastro's Cake Dynasty (2023-present) and Legends of The Fork (2023-present)

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sprinkles Cupcakes</span> Cupcake bakery chain

Sprinkles Cupcakes is a bakery chain established in 2005. It is considered the world's first cupcake bakery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uncle Tetsu's Cheesecake</span> Japanese bakery chain

Uncle Tetsu's Cheesecake is a Japanese bakery chain that sells cheesecake as its signature dish. It originally opened in Japan in 1990 as a bakery shop on Oyafukou Street in the ward of Hakata-ku in the city of Fukuoka. The founder, Tetsushi Mizokami, serves as the namesake for the modern-day global chain.

How to Cake It is a digital web show on YouTube that posts videos showcasing Yolanda Gampp creating cakes that look like other objects, as well as baking tutorials. Her cake designs have been featured on various websites and in magazines. How to Cake It has expanded to selling merchandise, holding live workshops, and a second YouTube channel. The main channel has 4 million subscribers and their most popular video has over 12 million views. They upload new videos every Tuesday.

Anastasia Tjendri-Liew is the founder and managing director of Bengawan Solo, one of Singapore's bakery franchises.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen Volf</span> Danish baker and entrepreneur

Karen Kirstine Volf, also Wolff, née Hansen (1864–1946) was a Danish baker and pastry cook who in 1890 established a bakery in Hellerup, north of Copenhagen; this was unusual for a woman at that time and place. As a result of the popularity of her cakes and biscuits, by the early 1900s she was able to serve the whole of Copenhagen by introducing automobile-based deliveries. In the 1920s and 1930s, the business expended to the whole of Denmark with outlets throughout the country. Today her biscuits and cakes continue to be produced on an industrial scale as Karen Volf products by the Bisca establishment in Stege on the island of Møn.

References

  1. "Behind the scenes with Anastasia Liew at Singapore's Bengawan Solo". South China Morning Post. 2019-06-30. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  2. "Domestic goddess". NewspaperSG. The Straits Times. 13 July 2009. Archived from the original on 2017-04-22.
  3. "Founding of Bengawan Solo". Bengawan Solo. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11.