A Taste Of Nostalgia

With the rise of bakery chains like BreadTalk and Four Leaves, Jie Bakery remains one of the few traditional bakeries that make their loaves from scratch without preservatives

- Michelle Yee

From down the street, you can smell it. The yeasty aroma of freshly baked bread wafts out of the bakery and lingers in the air. We followed the scent into Jie Bakery & Confectionery, located along Upper Paya Lebar Road. Further in the shop, you’ll see neat rows of downy loaves lining the cooling racks and a few bakers hard at work, rolling out and kneading the dough before popping them into a large gas oven that can bake up to 200 loaves each time. 

Traditional bakeries like Jie Bakery & Confectionery are a rare sight. Its old school signboard and well-worn interiors offer a glimpse of Singapore in the bygone days before modern technology made its mark on our lives. Owner Jimmy Mah estimates that there are now less than five bakeries like his left in Singapore. “In the 1970s, there used to be more than 200 of such bakeries, but due to the long work hours and low profit margins, most of them have closed down,” he says.

For the past 30 years, Mah and his team of bakers have been baking traditional white loaves from scratch. 

“I started out as an employee, baking breads for a bakery located close to this shop. I worked for my boss for a few years before he decided he wanted to sell off the business as it was not very profitable. I ended up taking over the business as I have a passion for baking. I renamed the shop and moved to my current location,” Mah shares.