“It all started because of my wife,” Santoso said. “She spent over a decade in Europe studying at the Glion Institute of Higher Education in Switzerland, one of the world’s leading hospitality schools, and later managing a hotel.”
There, immersed in Europe’s rich culinary culture and high standards of luxury hospitality, Setiawan was introduced to Grade A vanilla beans through her coursework and interactions with top chefs and restaurateurs.
“She fell in love with this beautiful ingredient and its story,” he said. “That spark stayed with her long after she returned home.”
Originally from Indonesia, the couple migrated to Singapore in 2015.
“But when we first came here, we couldn’t find really good vanilla,” Setiawan said. “We noticed a lot of Singaporeans will go to the supermarket, buy vanilla products with a lot of chemicals, and give it to their kids.”
The couple, who share two sons aged six and 10, said that while their children were avid fans of vanilla ice cream, they often worried about the potential health effects of consuming too much artificial food.
“We love natural ingredients,” Santoso added. “So when my wife came back to Singapore, she had the idea of growing our own vanilla plants.”
“We were initially thinking about bringing awareness about organic vanilla to Singapore; that we can grow our own, which is great for health, especially for kids who may love desserts,” he added.
But with an education background in real estate and finance respectively, Santoso and Setiawan had no prior knowledge on agriculture.
“Everything I’ve learned has come from a place of curiosity and passion. I picked things up through a lot of self-learning – reading books, watching videos, and spending countless hours researching and experimenting.”
