What it takes to turn a 5-room HDB flat into a private dining pizzeria

A shared love of pizza has turned into a home-based business. Limited space, demanding schedules and contrasting working styles are now tests David Shen and Sheralyn Tay must navigate, as captured by On The Red Dot.

Sheralyn Tay, who runs pizza business PXZA with her husband, serving paying guests in the couple’s Yishun flat.

This audio is generated by an AI tool.

SINGAPORE: A married couple are busy preparing a pizza dinner for eight guests in their Yishun flat when they receive a last-minute request: Can they accommodate a ninth guest?

“Easy-peasy,” the husband says. The look on his wife’s face says otherwise.

“No, it’s not, okay? We have to move a lot of things,” Sheralyn Tay counters before bustling to reset the table.

As her stress level rises, hubby David Shen languidly brings out a stool from their household shelter. “Sheralyn gets a little bit nervous when it comes to a little bit of last-minute changes,” he says. “But you know, that’s life.”

CNA Games Guess Word Crack the word, one row at a time Buzzword Create words using the given letters Mini Sudoku Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser Mini Crossword Small grid, big challenge Word Search Spot as many words as you can Show More Show Less This is not just another day in married life, however, for the couple, both 45. For two years, they have welcomed paying guests to their five-room flat through their private dining business, PXZA, which they juggle with their day jobs. And it takes more than pizza-making skills to pull off these dinners. With home-based business regulations preventing them from hiring external help, the couple must handle everything themselves — with limited kitchen space and limited time between each course they serve.

This is not just another day in married life, however, for the couple, both 45. For two years, they have welcomed paying guests to their five-room flat through their private dining business, PXZA, which they juggle with their day jobs.

And it takes more than pizza-making skills to pull off these dinners. With home-based business regulations preventing them from hiring external help, the couple must handle everything themselves — with limited kitchen space and limited time between each course they serve.

David Shen asking his wife about squeezing an extra guest in as she starts to stress out.

On this evening, they are debuting a new pizza flavour, Coney Dog, which added a couple of hours to their preparation. With a last-minute extra guest and their different working styles, can they keep their 12-course pizza dinner on track?

On The Red Dot’s Hustle In My HDB returns for a second season to follow Singaporeans like them and explore how they navigate constraints and family life while running businesses in their homes.

“I’M OBSESSED WITH PIZZA”

Shen and Tay’s home-based pizzeria has its origins in the pandemic, when Shen was craving Neapolitan-style pizza — which is best eaten fresh from the oven and not as a takeaway, the couple agree.

So they borrowed an oven from a friend and tried making it themselves. Those early attempts were “quite terrible”, Tay recalls. But they persisted, testing their dough about three times a week, with friends sampling the results.

Eventually, one friend wanted to bring along his family for a meal, offering to pay and suggesting that the couple host private dinners. Thus they created PXZA, with omakase-style dining and menus featuring the freshest ingredients they can source.

It is a passion project fuelled by their shared love of pizza.

“I’m obsessed with pizza. I’m obsessed with the dough,” says Shen, a marketing consultant, who sees their private dinner parties as a way of building a community of “pizza fanatics”.

Tay, who runs an editorial consultancy and co-owns a fashion brand, has always found joy in cooking and in hosting others. “I love feeding people, and David loves making pizza,” she says.

Tay, who says she can accommodate up to 10 to 12 private diners, playing host.

But the pursuit of their shared passion requires good time management. Even as they both mainly work from home, their pizza preparations must fit around their day jobs.

To ease the workload on dinner days, which are Fridays and Saturdays, they get their toppings and other ingredients ready in advance.

Saturdays are especially hectic for Tay, who may start work at her fashion brand’s studio or workshop at 8am and return home at 3pm or 4pm, with not long to go before guests arrive.

“When I come home, it’s bang, bang, bang,” she says. “Get things done.”

FROM “FRIDGE JENGA” TO MISSHAPEN PIZZA

Meal prep is only part of the challenge. PXZA’s ingredients occupy about 60 per cent of the couple’s fridge and freezer, leaving Tay to play what she calls “fridge Jenga” to fit in their own meals too.

Tay trying her best to slot a container into the fridge.

Kitchen counter space is also limited. Shen sometimes moves his dough to the air-conditioned living room to keep it cool and free up space, while using ice during mixing to prevent it rising too quickly in Singapore’s heat and humidity.

The couple have divided the work according to their strengths.

Shen makes the dough and bakes the pizzas. He uses Excel spreadsheets for dough-making, which he says involves “a bit of chemistry”. But when it comes to toppings and flavours, he prefers to be “a bit more spontaneous (and) creative”.

Tay, meanwhile, brings structure and consistency to his ideas by managing inventory, the planning and written recipes. “He’s a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of guy — things will just work out,” she says. “Who makes it work out? I do, right?”

She also takes charge of the plating and hosting. And she decides which of his “crazy ideas” make the cut, often rejecting dishes that are difficult to prepare ahead of time or to reproduce consistently, for example.

She saw potential in his Coney Dog pizza, however, and agreed to it despite the hours needed to prepare its chilli con carne base. “It’s also very fun to be playing around with new things,” acknowledges Tay.

She appreciates how he pushes her beyond her comfort zone. His calmness can also soothe her nerves, like when he told her before the dinner where they debuted their new pizza: “Deep breath, dear.”

Shen, in turn, credits her with getting things “back on the rails” with her practical approach. When a misshapen pizza emerged from the oven, for example, she arranged the slices to make it look rounder before serving it.

Even with their differences to iron out after more than two decades together, she sees this as a natural part of getting things done rather than “a bad thing” to avoid.

They work through their disagreements while planning each meal so they can focus on serving guests. Once dinner service begins, she says, “we’re a team — we work together”.

Tay helping to re-plate the misshapen pizza Shen brought out from the oven.

Tay arranging the slices to make the misshapen pizza look rounder.

FOR THE FUN OF IT, NOT THE FUNDS FROM IT

With teamwork, the couple successfully accommodated their extra guest and served all 12 courses, which meant Tay could breathe a “huge sigh of relief”. Their new pizza, which Shen termed “a labour of love”, was also well-received.

Given the effort involved, with hours spent preparing and hosting each dinner, and the quality of the ingredients, Tay thinks the S$100 they charge per person is reasonable.

PXZA is not their main income source, and they have no plans to change that.

“Revenue isn’t really the most important thing for us,” says Shen. He calls their home-based business “a hobby that funds itself”, whose earnings pay for better ingredients, kitchen equipment and other “toys” they might not otherwise buy.

The couple taking a moment to appreciate the fruit of their labour as diners enjoy their meal.

They rely on word of mouth for custom rather than actively marketing the venture. Although they aim to host two dinners weekly, work and social engagements mean they may take bookings for fewer than half the slots each month.

Even then they see a need to improve the way they manage the workload. Tay handles most of the grocery shopping and the scheduling, and Shen acknowledges that he could take on more to ease her stress.

“I hope that he steps up a bit more,” Tay concurs. Storage space is another aspect that may need addressing. They are considering a minor renovation to add more cupboards to their living room.

They have also discussed collaborating with friends who run restaurants, although such projects would have to fit with their existing commitments.

Opening their own restaurant, meanwhile, is not on the cards for now. Shen prefers to focus on making “great pizzas” rather than managing profit and loss, while Tay values the freedom from overheads, staff wages and other business obligations.

The couple prefer to keep PXZA a passion project for now.

“It’d be nice to continue to welcome people into our home and feed them,” she says. “There’s nothing better than making people feel happy.”

And how long may that continue? “As long as it remains fun,” says Shen.

Watch this Hustle In My HDB story here . The series also features an entrepreneur who turned her bedroom into a beauty studio and now sleeps in her parents’ room . The programme, On The Red Dot, airs on Channel 5 on Fridays at 9.30pm.

CNA's best current affairs documentaries with a deeper look at issues affecting Asia, sent to your inbox weekly.

Get our pick of top stories and thought-provoking articles in your inbox

Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories

Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app

对披萨的共同热爱催生了一项家庭创业计划。有限的空间、繁忙的日程安排以及截然不同的工作方式，都成了大卫·申和谢拉琳·泰必须克服的挑战，On The Red Dot 对此进行了报道。

Sheralyn Tay 和她的丈夫一起经营披萨店 PXZA，在他们位于义顺的公寓里为付费客人提供服务。

这段音频是由人工智能工具生成的。

新加坡：一对夫妇正在义顺的公寓里忙着为八位客人准备披萨晚餐，这时他们接到一个临时请求：他们能否接待第九位客人？

“小菜一碟，”丈夫说道。但他妻子的表情却表明并非如此。

“不，不是这样的，好吗？我们得挪动很多东西，”谢拉琳·泰反驳道，然后忙着重新摆放餐桌。

随着妻子压力越来越大，丈夫大卫·申懒洋洋地从家里的临时避难所里搬出一张凳子。“谢拉琳一遇到临时变动就会有点紧张，”他说，“但你知道，这就是生活。”

CNA游戏 猜词游戏 逐行破解单词 流行词游戏 用给定的字母组成单词 迷你数独 小谜题，脑力挑战 迷你填字游戏 小方格，大挑战 单词搜索 尽可能多地找出单词 显示更多 显示更少 然而，对于这对45岁的夫妇来说，这并非他们婚姻生活中平凡的一天。两年来，他们通过自己的私人餐饮生意PXZA，在五房式公寓里接待付费客人，同时还要兼顾日常工作。而要成功举办这些晚宴，需要的不仅仅是披萨制作技巧。由于家庭经营法规的限制，他们无法雇佣外部人员，因此这对夫妇必须亲力亲为——厨房空间有限，每道菜之间的间隔时间也很短。

然而，对于这对 45 岁的夫妇来说，这并非他们婚姻生活中的又一天。两年来，他们通过自己的私人餐饮生意 PXZA，在他们五室公寓里接待付费客人，同时还要兼顾他们的日常工作。

要想成功举办这些晚宴，光靠披萨制作技巧是不够的。由于家庭经营法规的限制，他们无法雇佣外部人员，这对夫妇必须事事亲力亲为——厨房空间有限，每道菜之间的间隔时间也很短。

大卫·申问妻子能否挤出时间多招待一位客人，因为妻子开始感到焦虑。

今晚，他们将推出一款名为“康尼热狗”的新披萨口味，这让他们多花了几个小时准备。再加上一位临时加来的客人，以及他们各自不同的工作方式，他们能顺利完成这顿包含12道菜的披萨晚餐吗？

On The Red Dot 的《我的组屋创业记》第二季回归，继续追踪像他们一样的新加坡人，探索他们如何在居家创业的同时兼顾家庭生活和各种限制。

“我超爱披萨！”

Shen 和 Tay 的家庭式披萨店起源于疫情期间，当时 Shen 很想吃那不勒斯风味的披萨——这对夫妇一致认为，这种披萨最好是刚出炉的，而不是外带的。

于是他们向朋友借了个烤箱，开始自己尝试做。泰回忆说，最初的几次尝试“简直糟糕透了”。但他们坚持不懈，每周大约测试三次面团，并让朋友们品尝结果。

最终，一位朋友想带家人来用餐，主动提出买单，并建议这对夫妇举办私人晚宴。于是，他们创立了PXZA餐厅，提供厨师发办式（omakase）用餐体验，菜单上的菜肴均选用他们能找到的最新鲜的食材。

这是一个源于他们对披萨共同热爱的热情项目。

“我痴迷于披萨。我痴迷于披萨面团，”营销顾问沈说道，她将自己的私人晚宴视为建立一个“披萨狂热者”社区的一种方式。

泰伊经营着一家编辑咨询公司，同时也是一家时尚品牌的合伙人，她一直很喜欢烹饪和招待客人。“我喜欢为人们准备食物，而大卫则喜欢做披萨，”她说。

Tay表示她可以接待10到12位私人用餐客人，担任主人。

但要追求共同的爱好，就需要良好的时间管理。即使他们主要都在家工作，制作披萨也必须兼顾日常工作。

为了减轻周五和周六晚餐日的工作量，他们会提前准备好配料和其他食材。

星期六对泰来说尤其忙碌，她可能早上 8 点就开始在她时装品牌的工作室或工坊工作，下午 3 点或 4 点才回家，而离客人到来的时间已经不多了。

“我一回家就马不停蹄地忙活，”她说。“把事情都做完。”

从“冰箱叠叠乐”到失败的披萨

准备餐食只是挑战的一部分。PXZA的食材占据了这对夫妇冰箱和冷冻室大约60%的空间，Tay不得不玩她所谓的“冰箱叠叠乐”，才能挤出时间来存放他们自己的饭菜。

Tay正努力把一个容器放进冰箱里。

厨房台面空间也有限。沈先生有时会把面团搬到有空调的客厅，保持面团凉爽并腾出空间，同时在搅拌时使用冰块，以防止面团在新加坡炎热潮湿的气候下发酵过快。

这对夫妇根据各自的优势分工合作。

沈师傅负责和面和烤披萨。他用Excel表格来制作面团，他说这其中“有点化学成分”。但说到配料和口味，他更喜欢“随性发挥，更有创意”。

与此同时，泰伊负责管理库存、制定计划和撰写食谱，为他的想法带来了结构性和一致性。“他是个随性而为的人——事情总会迎刃而解，”她说。“谁来解决问题？当然是我，对吧？”

她还负责摆盘和招待客人。她还会决定哪些他的“奇思妙想”能被采纳，例如，她经常会否决那些难以提前准备或难以稳定复制的菜肴。

她看到了他做的康尼热狗披萨的潜力，尽管制作辣椒肉酱底需要几个小时，她还是答应了。“尝试新事物也很有趣，”泰承认道。

她很欣赏他鼓励她走出舒适区。他的沉稳也能安抚她的紧张情绪，比如在他们首次推出新披萨的晚餐前，他对她说：“亲爱的，深呼吸。”

沈女士则称赞她务实的做法让一切“重回正轨”。例如，当一个形状不规则的披萨从烤箱里出来时，她会把披萨切片摆放整齐，让它看起来更圆润后再端上桌。

即使在一起二十多年后，他们之间仍然存在一些分歧需要解决，但她认为这是把事情做好过程中自然而然的一部分，而不是需要避免的“坏事”。

他们会在制定每道菜的计划时解决分歧，以便专注于招待客人。她说，一旦晚餐服务开始，“我们就是一个团队——我们齐心协力”。

Tay 帮忙把 Shen 从烤箱里拿出来的形状不规则的披萨重新装盘。

Tay正在调整披萨片的位置，让形状不规则的披萨看起来更圆一些。

纯粹为了好玩，不是为了赚钱。

凭借团队合作，这对夫妇成功招待了额外的客人，并完成了全部12道菜的烹饪，这让Tay终于可以“长舒一口气”。Shen称之为“爱的结晶”的新披萨也广受好评。

考虑到准备和举办每顿晚餐所花费的大量精力，以及食材的质量，Tay 认为他们每人收取 100 新元是合理的。

PXZA 不是他们的主要收入来源，他们也没有改变这一现状的计划。

“对我们来说，收入并不是最重要的，”沈先生说。他称他们的家庭作坊式生意是“一种能自给自足的爱好”，收入用来购买更好的食材、厨房设备和其他他们平时可能不会买的“玩具”。

这对夫妇趁着食客们用餐的空档，欣赏着他们的劳动成果。

他们主要依靠口碑来吸引顾客，而不是积极进行市场推广。虽然他们的目标是每周举办两次晚宴，但由于工作和社交活动，他们每月实际接受的预订可能不到计划的一半。

即便如此，他们也意识到需要改进工作管理方式。Tay负责大部分的采购和日程安排，Shen也承认他可以承担更多，以减轻她的压力。

“我希望他能更积极一些，”泰也表示赞同。储物空间是另一个可能需要解决的问题。他们正在考虑进行一次小规模的翻新，在客厅里增加一些橱柜。

他们还讨论过与经营餐厅的朋友合作，尽管此类项目必须符合他们现有的安排。

与此同时，他们目前还没有开设自己餐厅的计划。沈更愿意专注于制作“美味的披萨”，而不是管理盈亏；而泰则更看重摆脱运营成本、员工工资和其他商业义务的自由。

这对夫妇目前更倾向于将 PXZA 作为一个爱好项目来经营。

“如果能继续热情地欢迎人们来我们家做客，款待他们，那就太好了，”她说。“没有什么比让人们感到快乐更美好的了。”

这种情况能持续多久呢？沈说：“只要它还有趣就行。”

点击此处观看《组屋创业记》的精彩故事。该系列节目还讲述了一位女企业家将自己的卧室改造成美容工作室，现在睡在父母的房间里的故事。节目《红点之上》每周五晚上9点30分在第五频道播出。

每周将 CNA 精选的、深入探讨影响亚洲问题的时事纪录片发送到您的邮箱。

订阅我们的邮件，即可获取精选热点新闻和引人深思的文章。

订阅通知，第一时间获取突发新闻和精彩报道。

加入我们的频道，即可在您常用的聊天应用上获取当日热门文章。