Currently operating from a kitchen on Duxton Hill, Al-Matin will soon open a brick and mortar bakery in Raeburn Park

Mohammed Al-Matin has got a good thing going on. His online bakery, Le Matin, only opened it doors in May, but thanks to a couple of successful pop-ups, countless sleepless nights, and a population with a sweet tooth, his viennoiseries have been selling like hotcakes.

Tipping its hat to his glowing resume – a Cordon Bleu education and his time at Noma and the now-defunct Restaurant André – his repertoire comprises five different kinds of viennoiseries that you don’t normally get here in Singapore. The buttery Kouign-Amann is a godsend (read: Tiong Bahru Bakery’s just doesn’t cut it), as is the hay-smoked Cruffin that’s crowned with lemon-verbena meringue. There’s also the cardamom-infused Canelé which, despite eschewing all traditions of baking with beeswax and copper moulds, tastes just like the real deal.

It’s a complex repertoire that relies on a simple business delivery model: sell the same 260 sets of pastries every week and people who want them badly enough will have to ‘camp’ for it online, each Sunday at 4pm. Once a strict fastest-fingers-first policy, people are now handed queue numbers at random, so everyone gets a fair, if somewhat arbitrary shot. The wait can still be painful.

So instead of fighting the Internet, we recommend getting your pastries right at the source. Currently operating from a kitchen on Duxton Hill, Al-Matin will soon open a brick and mortar bakery in Raeburn Park. Together with his growing team of bakers (that will soon include a pastry chef from Restaurant Zén), he envisions it to be a small and minimalist walk-in joint without bells and whistles – no seating and no espresso machine, only filter coffee. It would be a nice place to chill in otherwise, but no matter. The proof of this particular pudding will be in the eating, and we’re hoping the pastries will prove their mettle. If they do, Le Matin’s future looks bright, and ours looks sweet.

Updated on 18 March 2021: Le Matin Patisserie is now open for takeaways at 10 Raeburn Park

This story first appeared in the August 2020 issue, which you may purchase as a hard or digital copy.

Le Matin Patisserie
10 Raeburn Park
Block B, 01-25
Singapore 088702
Tel: +65 8206 0132