Biotech alumnus Anna Lim became a SouperChef. She opened her first soup restaurant in 2002. There are now over thirty branches across Asia.
Take me back a bit, what was your childhood like?
My childhood was in Brunei and was very carefree. We spent a lot of time playing badminton, going to the library and we went swimming. I spent a lot of time playing with all the kids around the neighbourhood. There wasn’t much entertainment, so I also used to read a lot. I was an avid reader.
What made you decide to go and study overseas?
I think at that point in time, after my ‘O’ levels, it was a good opportunity for me to do a pre-university course in Perth. I went to a boarding school for girls at that time. I think my parents thought that maybe it would widen my horizons a little bit. We have a lot of friends and family in Perth as well so that was why Perth was the chosen place for me to continue my education.
How was your time at Murdoch?
It was great. I made a lot of good friends. I think because I did bio‑technology at university, and it was a very small class. By the time of year three there was only 24 of us left. We became very close knitted because we were doing the projects together. We really got to know each other well so it was a very enjoyable time.
I also stayed on campus, in the student village and was a Resident Advisor in my third year. I had two very good flatmates, both vet students. They extended their hospitality, and I would go to visit their home down south. I felt like I was part of the family and enjoyed the bushland, the cows, and the animals. It was probably very similar to Brunei. A lot of open space!
When did it first dawn on you that you wanted to run your own business?
I’m Hainanese and I come from a family that runs businesses. My mum actually runs a Hainanese coffee shop, and my grandfather used to run a restaurant. So, I come from a family where there’s very deep roots in food.
When I came back from Australia, after I had been working maybe about four years, I thought that there’s something else I really want to do with my life. I considered returning to Perth to run a chicken rice business. I had this idea of selling chicken rice at only $10 per plate. I was like, ‘Oh man that’s good money.’ I thought I could have a very good lifestyle if I went back to Perth and also probably have some days off.
I was seriously considering migrating at that point in time. I wanted to do something different and not be stuck in the corporate life.
Anyway, my husband, Andrew, and his former Murdoch classmate, Benedict, and I still got together regularly, and we wanted to do something together. We decided to give The Soup Spoon a go.
I think it helps that we all bring different skill sets to the table. None of us would be able to do it alone and it really is a team.
It would have been a very different life if I had actually migrated to Perth. My husband would probably be playing golf every day! I think it would have been a very different lifestyle, but I’m not complaining. There is a lot of enjoyment and there is a lot of satisfaction in what we have created.
When you first started out what did you initially want The Soup Spoon to be?
Well, I was very ambitious. I still remember when I started my business, I was interviewed by a radio station and I actually, very naively at 25 years old, said ‘I want to be the Starbucks of soup.’
I think that the journalist must have thought I was mad, but I was very inspired when I had read Howard Schultz’s book about how he built Starbucks, one cup at a time. So, when journalists asked me at that time, I said I’d build the business one bowl at a time.
So that was my aspiration. Obviously at that point in time it was just a lofty ambition. But I felt Starbucks had changed how people consume coffee. And what we wanted to do was really to transform how people perceive soup, because every culture in this world actually has a soup that they call their own.
But if you go to every country, you only just get to see those ‘Mum and Pop’ shops that sell soups. If you go to Thailand for example, you have the different Tom Yum soups sold in probably roadside stalls and restaurants, but there wasn’t a place that you can go to truly experience soups of the world. So, that was really what we wanted to be like, to be that global benchmark that changes how people perceive soup.
We thought why can’t soup be elevated and be seen as a main course? One where it speaks of culture, where it speaks of comfort, and everything that there is in just one bowl.
What has been the most exciting moment of creating and running The Soup Spoon?
After probably a couple of months, the media came, and the Sunday Times in particular showed up which kind of propelled the business.
When the news article went out it was a front-page Sunday Times feature. I already knew the article was coming out, so I had prepared a lot of soups. But at like 6 o’clock that day, I really had to chase everybody out as I had sold everything that I could and there was really nothing left to sell.
The response was good, and then you really start to think that maybe there is something here. People were coming up to tell me ‘Oh this is the best clam chowder that I’ve tasted’ and, ‘This is the best mushroom soup I’ve had’ and so on.
I think that was a defining moment for me. To know that maybe there is something special here and something that we should continue pursuing despite a lot of hard work.
And it was hard. Most of the time at the end of the day when we went into the kitchen a lot of things were not done. I would be sitting there peeling potatoes and telling myself, ‘What am I getting into!’ Or ‘This is no life!’ You don’t get enough sleep and occasionally I was just too tired to drive and had to just park at the side of the road. Then you have this kind of moment I described where everybody enjoyed it. It gave us the drive to kind of push through and it made us want to do more.
What do you love about your role?
I think creating new recipes, being inspired by our travels to diverse cultures, and perhaps just eating a dish and then thinking to myself, ‘Oh wow, this dish, which may not be a soup dish, actually has got all the makings of a good stew.’ Then I will actually create that and make it into a stew.
I always tell people, don’t go to a country and expect to have the soup that we make here because this particular soup doesn’t exist. It is usually a soup that I have added my own little touch to, my own little inspiration.
For example, I make tangy tomato soup. It’s a soup that everybody knows - a very classic British soup, but I made it spicy. I made it tangy, because that’s really how we are in Singapore, we like things a little bit spicy. So, then it became a different genre of tomato soup.
I think that’s what excites me, when I get to create new soups and stews, but also, most importantly, it’s when I get customers’ feedback who write back and tell me they enjoyed it, or that they never thought that it could be done that way etc. I think that brings the most joy.
What do you cook when you get home?
My passion project at the moment is making sourdough bread. I became a baker during Covid having previously never baked in my life. I am more of cook normally.
I think baking is so different because you really need to know the structure and makings of a good bread. I think I watched every YouTube video that there was on the subject. Two years down the road, I am actually opening a full sourdough concept, including sourdough pastas, sourdough pizzas and sourdough breads. It encompasses everything that I have learned in nutrition, digestive ability and includes knowledge that I have learnt in biotech as well.
I think the degree that I had in biotech was very useful because I treat everything I do like a structured experiment. OK, today we are doing this, right let’s change this out and see what happens. Repeat. What did we get? Ok that didn’t work, let’s change this out. Then repeat etc. etc. I think that my study really helped me in my journey as an entrepreneur and in creating all the foods that I make and perfecting them.
So today it is sourdough. That is my current passion, and we will be opening a fully-fledged bakery soon.
So, a lot of passion and a lot of enthusiasm are needed to achieve an ambitious project. Anything else?
I think the main thing is never to stop learning. I think if you think you have reached a level, it’s time to really keep improving yourself, keep innovating and just not give up in anything that you do.
For me, I had no background in cooking, besides just cooking at home. To have a business, it’s the determination, tenacity and really hard work.
There is a lot of hard work. Do not be afraid of hard work because that is the only true way to succeed. You may have your strategy, and passion, but actually at the end of the day, it is grit you know, without grit nothing can happen.
