ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS

Mr Daniel Tay, Founder and Director: Baker's Inn
Daniel is the Founder and Director of Baker's Inn which story began in 1998 at a remote section off Sembawang Road. From a small corner selling mainly bread, cakes and pastries, it has evolved into a stylish salon de the that offers many culinary and bakery delights to contemporary, trendy and sophisticated diners. There is a central production plant at Harper Road which produces bread, pastries and cakes for its own outlets in Singapore as well as the various hotels and cafes. Daniel was trained under his father, Mr Tay Yam Choong of Seng Choong Confectionery at Marine Parade during the 80's and 90's before he retired. The small, family-ran business was renowned for its bread, cakes and pastries. Daniel went on to study baking science and technology at Bangkok before moving to the prestigious restaurant, Fauchon in Paris for his training. He eventually earned himself the title of Pastry Chef at Rive Gauche Patisserie. A winner of numerous awards including the prestigious World Pastry Cup Singapore Selection that led to his being our nation’s representative at the World Pastry Cup held in Lyon in 1997, Daniel’s success in his chosen craft was further reaffirmed when he was presented with Inniskilin Icewine Pastry Chef of the Year at Singapore’s inaugural World Gourmet Summit Awards of Excellence 2001.
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Mr Morris Allen, Partner: Thai Thai Restaurant Pte Ltd
 In August 2002, Morris realized his ambition of opening a restaurant, a role that is in contrast to the well-known educator that he has been known to the public. Thai Thai Restaurant at 36 Boat Quay is a "delicious dream" cooked up with partner Chaluth Cheepsatayakorn, a skilled Thai chef. The focus is on genuine Thai cuisine, with a strong bias towards Royal Palace dishes. All the cooks are Thai and the pleasant riverside ambience, excellent food and sensible prices have created a large repeat-custom clientele. Morris is a committed and concerned educator with over 30 years of teaching experience. He is very familiar with our local educational scene and is aware of the pressures experienced nowadays by both parents and students. His very jmpressive bio reads a past president of MENSA (Singapore), the high IQ society, a past vice-president of the Association for Gifted Children (Singapore), and past Secretary of the Rotary Club of Singapore North. He was born in England and taught English in Africa, the UK, and Bermuda before coming to Singapore in 1982. After 5 years working in government schools here, he started a tuition centre in Selegie Road. 4 years later he opened his own English tuition centre at Goldhill Plaza with 17 students. Today, he is a Permanent Resident of Singapore and has six centres islandwide with a combined enrolment of over 3000 students. He frequently gives talks on parenting and matters relating to learning the English language and is on the Ministry of Community Development's roster of guest speakers. He was a member of the advisory panel for the Eureka learning channel of Singapore Cable Vision. He has been interviewed on local television and radio, and has been featured in various articles in magazines and newspapers. He has also had articles published in local magazines.
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Mr Chaluth Cheepsatayakorn, Chef and Partner: ai Thai Restaurant Pte Ltd
Chaluth holds an engineering diploma and a business degree but is pursuing his first love - cooking, in Singapore. He is a partner and Chef at Thai Thai Restaurant and was formerly a chef at Supsip Restaurant. He was featured in "A Fare Exchange" on Central Television. Chaluth trained to cook in the Royal Palace Tradition from 6 years of age with his mother who was trained in the Royal Kitchens from the age of 7. She worked in the Royal Palace until her marriage. Chaluth later operated 2 restaurants in Bangkok before coming to Singapore.
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Mr Tony Seow, Managing Director: Purple Sage Pte Ltd
Tony is Managing Director of Purple Sage Pte Ltd which prides itself that delivers one-stop solutions for catering events. Driven by a strong passion for food and hospitality, Tony started Purple Sage in Aug 2002. From a humble beginning of 5 staff and one office, he has grown the company to 15 full-time staff and 2 offices in less than one and a half year. The corporate segment now constitutes 80% of its business. In a relatively short time, Purple Sage has become the preferred vendor for Volvo, Citi, Temasek Holdings, Microsoft Singapore Pte Ltd, Prime Minister's Office, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., and Pfizer Singapore Pte Ltd. In the same period, Tony has catapulted the company from a mere annual sales of S$360,000 to more than a million dollars revenue. As a start-up company, Purple Sage's outstanding achievements have captured the attention of the media. Recently, Purple Sage has been featured in HerWorld, the Singapore Marketing magazine, the Eat! Magazine, Wine & Dine magazine, Finder magazine and also Channel News Asia. Tony had devoted most part of his work life to the food and hospitality industry, with a strong focus on service quality, business development, and event management. Tony has achieved many successful milestones in his previous jobs. For example while working as a Guest and Quality Assurance Manager at Hyatt Regency Hotel, Indiana, USA, he successfully conceptualized and launched a new membership privilege program, the "Gold Passport High Tea. He was also awarded the Gold Seal by the South Western Company in Nashville, USA, for all-round outstanding sales achievement.
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Mr Lawrence Chong, Chief Executive Officer: ACIVAR Brand Consultants Pte Ltd
Lawrence is the Principal Founder and CEO of Acivar Brand Consultants. Acivar specializes in helping Asian firms in implementing business strategies and brand positioning. By focusing on the medium and small Asian enterprises (SMAEs), Acivar is able to better at understanding these firms’ needs. Lawrence loves the challenge of nurturing; helping companies to grow in the competitive business environment, and seeing them outshine the market leaders. His passion is to assist visionary leaders in the region to build large Institutional Brands. Therefore, a lot of his time is spent on giving seminars and providing workshops on how small Asian businesses can tap into their latent potential and join the ranks of the outstanding brands. Currently, Lawrence is holding a one-year term as the chairperson of the Future Brand Delivery Group, an R&D community that gathers professionals from the IT, Business Management, HR and Customer Relation sectors. The group constantly reviews & provides analysis on how complementary technologies can be used to effectively help Asian brands grow exponentially. Lawrence is also the EXCO member of the Designers Association of Singapore DAS, which is actively involved with the various ministries and government agencies such as MITA, SPRING, IE Singapore and EDB in enhancing and promoting the value of branding and design to the local industries in Singapore.
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