SINGAPORE: Born with congenital cataracts, Ernawati Fauzana Zakaria was diagnosed with glaucoma at the age of 10. She is unable to see objects in focus.
But — trained by her mother to use knives and cook from a young age — her dream was to become a chef one day. It came true after she met a man with a vision: social enterprise founder Aaron Yeoh.
“She thought that no employer would want to hire a visually impaired chef,” he said. “So why don’t we set up a food kiosk and we test this hypothesis?”
It was a project three years in the making. Despite having no food and beverage (F&B) experience, he decided to go ahead with two visually impaired chefs.
There were eight weeks to go until the opening of Cafe Kunyah, a kiosk selling sandwiches and rice bowls at the Singapore Management University, when CNA Insider began documenting the team’s journey as they progressed towards their goal.
