Interview: Online bakery Alouette's owner Rachel Cheung

I’ve been cooking and baking for quite some time, but it’s always for my friends and family. During the circuit breaker, they told me I should probably start selling. 

I don’t actually like to eat bread. But I was thinking, why not put cheese on top. I wanted to make something I like to eat. It’s quite unhealthy to eat bread all the time. And that’s the reason why I started cooking and baking – my husband was working as a forex trader, and he works the night shift. The food at night is very unhealthy. It’s how I started sourdough as well because I know it’s healthier. Everyone was saying sourdough was so hard, so hard to make it right. 

So I just wanted to challenge myself and I watched everything online – trial and error. We started off using videos as a base for some of the recipes, but then we combined a few and tweaked it to something that I personally like.

Alouette is the French word for lark. The original name was suggested because the initials are my family’s initials – it’s very meaningful for us. 

Truffle camembert, for sure. The focaccia. The double camembert has always been – people always buy that, with the truffle camembert and truffle cheesecake together. The one that’s in most demand is the garlic buns because I don’t make that often.

When I asked her more about the garlic buns, she shrugged, admitting that it’s a very time-consuming process.

To make the garlic buns, the peeling? Takes a while, a few days. It takes a whole week to peel 15 to 20kg of garlic cloves. I can’t do it alone – my entire family will help out. We have to make the bread the day before, then also cook the garlic and all. I don’t really like a strong garlic taste either, so I always try to refine it with herbs and other added ingredients. 

Here, she laughs, acknowledging that many have missed her 2pm bake drops on Instagram.

I think it’s best to send everything in one message. Whatever order you have, just list it in one message – don’t send multiples because it pushes your message up to the top and I might not check it. Another thing: don’t use WiFi but use mobile data. 

I’m super thankful for family support. Initially, my husband wanted me to focus on our kids – but that way, you kind of lose who you are? But no matter what, he knows that I’ve found my calling in life. I love baking. After trying, I got very obsessed. 

I’ve also been blessed because my customers are amazing. They’re the ones who give me inspiration for my products. For instance, our truffle cheesecake, right? One of my customers had bought a truffle ice cream for me – she said “this ice cream is so nice, why not try to make it?” I tried, and bought an ice cream machine. But I didn’t have time to make it, so I thought, why not a truffle cheesecake? 

My customers have even offered to build a support system when my online ordering platform crashed – they were worried about nasty customers who would scold me. Some even offered to come back, to do the work to actually fulfil orders.