09-May-24 10:00

Phon Yung Hou, Founder and Chef, Tokpork

“And I took that personally”. That was how the eccentric founder of Tokpork, Phon Yung Hou, felt when he was making RM300 a day in sales which paled in comparison to the others around him at Restoran Yum Me Place. There may have been a tease or two from the business owners around him that Tokpork was more hobby than business.

Phon wasn't always in the business of selling Nasi Lemak, but with the support from his former boss Leon Foong, the former Uber Malaysia boss and then SOCAR Malaysia CEO, he eventually got into the nasi lemak business, after testing a few other food ideas. With Leon helping Phon with the stall deposit, Phon used his last pay-check from SOCAR as working capital and set up shop at a kopitiam in the Bukit Damansara, which he still operates from today. 

Things were tough at the start, but as he says in this conversion, “it's about the game” and he wanted to continue to play it. In the early days Phon was only making RM300 a day in sales, but this all changed following a KL Foodie video which ignited his business. The morning after the video was released, Phon was sold out before lunch, even after preparing extra food.

In this episode, you will hear about the origins of this business in more detail and why he gave up his career to go into the ever challenging food business. We'll also explore his larger ambitions, why he wants to go into entertainment (and what he means by that), and the long term ambitions to build Tokpork and eventually sell it.