2nd November 2009 - Salahuddin Shamsul Khan, 45, a third-generation pastry maker, owns the bakery along Jalan Dhoby, Johor Bahru. Salahuddin Bakery was established in 1937 by his grandfather Shariff Khan from New Delhi.
The proud owner of this 72 year old bakery, Salahuddin, 45 (below right), is seen next to his elder brother Aladdin (below left), 47, and their close friend Firooz, 40 (below centre).
The bakery sells plain bread, baguettes, red bean paste buns, curry buns, coconut buns, sugared buns, cookies, cupcakes, curry puffs as well as Bengali curry puffs.
Sarfuddin (above), 74, has been managing the bakery for many years and he is being assisted by Sajjad, 25 and Hamzed, 30. Both have been working there for the past 3 years and hail from Pakistan.
Right in the centre of the pre-war shophouse is a huge coal-fire oven with wall blackened by years of smoke from the oven. Sajjad (above) puts the dough into the coal-fire oven every morning at approximately 9am.
Preparation of the oven starts as early as 4 am and the process takes about 4 hours before the first batch of dough is put into the oven for another 10 to 15 mins. Each batch goes in for the same duration until all the dough has been completely baked for the day.
By 10am, locals were seen entering the bakery to buy bread for their families. Most of them prefer to buy bread at Salahuddin as the bread is freshly baked from the coal-fire oven the traditional way. It tastes better as compared to those made using contemporary electric ovens.
When asked about how this 72 year old bakery will continue, Salahuddin said his son, Rahim Khan, 21, is more than willing to continue the family business. He is sometimes seen helping in the bakery.
