Standing behind the counter at the Toast Box outlet at the BreadTalk IHQ mall, Yee Leng Fong deftly dips a cup into a vat of boiling water.

She makes it look terribly easy, but if you were to try it, chances are you might scald yourself.

It is not the boiling water that hurts you, according to Yee, who is better known as Ling-Jie to her colleagues.

It’s the roiling cloud of steam that scalds you. But there’s a way to avoid scalding yourself and it’s all in the deft wrist action.

“A lot of people get scared when they’re scooping the boiling water and so they slow down. But that’s when you get scalded. So you must do it quickly with confidence,” Ling-Jie says in Mandarin.

The Kopi Master who trains other Kopi Masters

Ling-Jie is Toast Box’s first and only Kopi Master Trainer, having worked her way up from being a Kopi Master at the chain’s first outlet in Wisma Atria in 2005.

The 57-year-old has played quite an instrumental role in the chain’s expansion, because she has been imparting her knowledge to ensure that kopi across all Toast Box outlets taste consistent.

Ling-Jie’s job as a Kopi Master Trainer is—you guessed it—to train Kopi Masters.

Each Toast Box outlet has a Kopi Master who is in charge of making kopi (and other beverages, of course). On paper, it sounds simple, but the role of a Kopi Master demands so much more than that.

There is the plethora of beverages that a Kopi Master has to memorise — from a simple cup of teh o to a kopi c gao siew dai peng (iced concentrated coffee with evaporated milk and less sugar).

Central to the outlet, the Kopi Master also has to work in sync with the cashier to put out beverages quickly and efficiently. This is why you’ll always find the Kopi Master situated right next to the cashier and why you always get your beverages first before any other food items.

Pay attention to your Toast Box order the next time and you might spot how a Kopi Master works in tandem with the cashier. For Ling-Jie personally, there is a shortcut she uses for complicated orders, to keep the queue moving.

“For instance if a person orders three different types of kopi — kopi o, kopi, and kopi c — the cashier just needs to tell me, ‘three types of kopi’ and I’ll get it.”

A master trainer at work

It’s mesmerising watching Ling-Jie show a Kopi Master trainee the ropes.

Even though she is no longer a Kopi Master, her hands maintain a dexterity honed from years of experience — heaping ground coffee into a cup with her left hand while her right scoops boiling water with another cup.

She is patient but firm, chiding her trainees gently when they make mistakes. After all, making kopi is no child’s play and one can easily get hurt if they’re not careful.

But she is also encouraging to those she trains—mostly young, aspiring Kopi Masters—in an almost maternal way, and it’s very evident when she talks about how she builds up their confidence during training.

She starts with a simple task, like scooping the right amount of sugar or condensed milk before progressing them to harder, more daunting tasks like handling boiling water.

“Younger people are more likely to do a task when you present it to them as a challenge. And when they complete it, you encourage them. That’s how they learn.”

Her job as a Kopi Master Trainer has also brought her to Toast Box outlets overseas in countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and China, just to name a few.

Speaking about her time overseas, Ling-Jie chuckles as she relates how the language barrier presented some challenges, though it was nothing she could not overcome with a smidge of creativity.

“The Toast Box employees in Malaysia communicated in Malay but I can’t speak Malay. Those in the Philippines spoke really good English, but I can’t communicate well in English. So the only way I could teach them was through illustrations! I got them to draw out each step of the kopi-making process so that they could understand.”

“You’re a girl. Are you sure you know how to make kopi?”

Ling-Jie is humble about her success over the last 16 odd years.

To her, making kopi is such a common, everyday activity that she doesn’t think much about the strides she has made at work. But the real success is how she has made a career for herself in what used to be a male-dominated industry, and in the process, inspired other women alongside her.

One might say that Ling-Jie had always been destined to work with kopi, even though, as she would tell you, “in those days, very few women worked in kopitiam”.

“When I was younger, my mother would send me out to buy kopi for her. At that time, roasted coffee beans were ground on the spot whenever you ordered kopi (which we still do at Toast Box). I remember that I loved the smell of freshly ground coffee beans.”

Even after she got married, kopi was never far away. Her father-in-law owned two coffeeshops. As the boss’s daughter-in-law, she was tasked with managing one of them and her responsibilities included making kopi.

“Last time, the kopi that I made was so terrible,” she chuckles. “Customers didn’t like it. They didn’t want me to make their kopi.”

“Once, someone said to me, ‘You’re a girl. Are you sure you know how to make kopi?’ Maybe he said it because this used to be a man’s job.”

A lesser person might have given up their kopi-making aspirations, but not Ling-Jie, thanks to her self-professed “thick skin”.

“I would ask each and every customer if their kopi was up to their liking. If it wasn’t, I would ask them to give me another chance next time, and I would make the kopi exactly how they wanted.”

This drive to improve is encapsulated in the philosophy that Ling-Jie brought over to Toast Box when she was scouted to be one of its first few Kopi Masters back in 2005: 要有要求才有进步 (we can only improve when we set standards for ourselves).

And when she became the chain’s first (and only) Kopi Master Trainer in 2007, she also imparted this to her trainees.

“I always use myself as an example to encourage my trainees, to show them that there’s a future in making kopi. Look at me, I only have a PSLE certificate, I can’t communicate well in English, and I’m barely computer literate.

But I’m able to reach where I am because of opportunities from the company as well as hard work and a desire to improve.”

An inspiration to her colleagues at BreadTalk Group

Ling-Jie’s career has inspired many, but perhaps she has made the most impact on Jenny Yip, an Operations Manager at Thye Moh Chan.

Prior to joining Thye Moh Chan, Yip used to work as an Operations Manager for an F&B chain. She did not find it a happy or fulfilling experience.

Yip, who was the only female in her team and was allegedly often discriminated against by her manager and peers. According to her, she was left out of discussions, and passed over for travel opportunities, and salary increments.

Once, she applied for urgent leave to care for her daughter who had been hospitalised, only for her manager to remark: “You ladies are so troublesome, full of excuses.”

His comment bothered her so much that she chose to return to work on the same day just to prove him wrong.

Against that backdrop, meeting Ling-Jie, whom people in BreadTalk Group look up to and respect, was a 180-degree change for Yip.

Aside from a more enlightened working culture, Yip is also inspired by Ling-Jie’s determination and passion.

“It takes lots of patience to manage people, some experienced Kopi Masters might be more averse to learning new things or adapting to new surroundings. However, Ling-Jie is a problem solver, very assertive and always a believer of the ‘can do’ attitude.”

The F&B industry is very demanding, not just physically but mentally too, says Yip. So Ling-Jie’s example inspires her to work hard not just in her job but also in managing people.

“As a leader of my team, I always believe, ‘’Don’t Just Listen. Take Note And Take Action.’”

Thanks to this article sponsored by BreadTalk Group, this writer got to speak to an actual Kopi Master Trainer.

This interview was conducted in Mandarin; quotes were translated into English. Top images courtesy of Toast Box.