What’s Cooking

Introduce yourself!
Hello, my name is Muhammad Qusyairi. I’m 20 years old this year, and I run my own media production company, The Brindin’, as well as a Western food stall, Berjaya Western, in Yishun. For the media production company, I’ve been running it for about four years, since I was in secondary school, and it’s been going well! As the market changes, we also adapt and improve together. As for the Western food stall, it’s only been open for a few months, but business is doing well. Of course, we’ve been doing media coverage and outreach to get more engagement for our stall, which has helped too.

Wow, you’re really hustling huh! Running a media production house and a Western F&B stall are two very different things though. When and how did you decide to start up Berjaya Western?
The idea for Berjaya Western came when I was handling a lot of F&B projects under The Brindin’. I got a lot of ideas and learned a lot of techniques from them, and that led to my team and I opening our own F&B business, just to try it out!

In that case, would you call yourself a foodie?
I would say yes, more towards the healthier side, but the healthier side in Singapore is not cheap. This is also another reason why we started Berjaya Western—because we wanted it to be affordable and something that we can all relate to.

Why Western food then?
Being a student myself, in that area of Yishun, there aren’t a lot of Western food options, especially Halal ones. There’s just Malay food and all that typical stuff, so this was an opportunity for us to open the doors and bring in Western food to that area.

Going back to your media production work, what kind of projects does The Brindin’ usually take on?
We do a lot of events, like weddings and seminars, and also corporate stuff like videos, and even music videos for more creative work. We also do short films. Now, we’re exploring social media content creation for F&B businesses and other local brands.

Very diverse! What inspires you and your style?
I have my own work style, but it’s influenced by a lot of other creatives out there, be it local or overseas. For my fashion style, I would say it’s influenced a lot by the brands I work with, which are mostly local. In fact, I’m wearing mostly local brands on me right now!

Final question: what’s an item in your bag that you must have with you at all times?
Definitely a camera. I believe we need to document every single thing in our lives. Ever since I got my hands on a camera, it changed me, not in terms of getting more clients, but just in how special it feels to be able to document the things happening in my life. I like to take pictures in my free time, although I don’t have a lot of it these days (laughs). But I think that’s the cool part! When I really have the free time to document the little things, I appreciate them more.