Why this former cop left a 23-year profession to begin a fried hen eatery with $50,000, Life-style News

SINGAPORE – In the primary month Foxy’s Chikn opened in Joo Chiat Road, its proprietor Shahrizan Mohamed Sapri lay awake every evening worrying over the day’s takings. On a number of days, the until closed with simply $50.

It was a bruising begin within the meals and beverage (F&B) enterprise for the 42-year-old former police officer, who had left a 23-year profession to open the fried hen eatery. The single father of three had plonked $50,000 of his life financial savings into the enterprise.

“I really wanted to cry,” he says. “Many of my friends and family said I was crazy to leave a stable job and do this, especially when F&B is very tough now.” But he felt it was “now or never”, he says.

He resigned in February 2026 and opened Foxy’s Chikn on April 26. The Muslim-owned, 35-seat eatery, which serves hand-battered fried hen with housemade sauces, stems from his want to make a contemporary begin, depart a legacy for his two daughters, aged 15 and 10, and his son, 9, and shut a traumatic chapter of their lives.

In 2019, he found that his then spouse had been bodily abusing their two daughters. She was sentenced to a few years’ jail in 2021. He later divorced her and was granted sole custody of their three youngsters. Only his superiors and closest pals knew then what his household had endured.

“The irony of my life was that, as a police officer, I was out there protecting the safety of citizens, but at home, I had all these issues to grapple with,” he says, his eyes glistening.

Shahrizan obtained his O ranges from East View Secondary School in 2000 and graduated from ITE College East in 2003 with a Nitec in electronics. He served his nationwide service within the police power, then joined the Police Coast Guard as a daily till 2024, when he was transferred to the Police Operations Command Centre as a station inspector.

Fatherhood spurred love for cooking

He met his former spouse in 2009 by way of mutual pals and married her in 2010.

Two years after his first daughter was born in 2011, he started making ready easy dishes reminiscent of nasi goreng for her meals. Later, he cooked macaroni, mee goreng and different meals for all three youngsters earlier than or after work.

“Even when I was very tired, I would cook for the family,” he says.

From 2013, he started utilizing his annual depart to attend culinary programs and workshops that lasted three days to per week, studying to make every thing from Malay desserts to drinks.

“I wanted to expand my repertoire and improve my cooking techniques,” he says.

Somewhere behind his thoughts was the thought that he may in the future enterprise into F&B.

But earlier than that might occur, his household life unravelled.

In December 2018, after noticing one bruise too many on his daughters, he put in CCTV cameras at residence. His then spouse, a homemaker, stated the bruises have been regular as a result of the youngsters usually fell down whereas enjoying collectively.

“At first, I believed her,” he says. “But later, I felt it was very odd.”

One night in June 2019, he returned from work and noticed that his elder daughter’s two child entrance tooth had fallen out. She was eight.

The youngsters’s mom maintained that the kid’s tooth had come free. “I didn’t believe my wife because I see my daughter every day. Her teeth had been fine,” he remembers.

He took the woman to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. After talking to her alone, the physician knowledgeable him his daughter had revealed that her mom had been hitting and slapping her.

“I felt very sad that my daughters had gone through all this,” he says. “I felt I failed to protect them.”

The physician alerted the police. Shahrizan later checked his residence’s CCTV footage and noticed his spouse repeatedly slapping his daughter. “My heart broke seeing that,” he says.

His police coaching helped him stay calm, but it surely didn’t spare him the guilt of not uncovering the abuse earlier.

He visited his spouse in jail twice, hoping she would change. “I genuinely thought she could still change and I didn’t want my kids to grow up in a broken home,” he says.

But she confirmed no regret for what she had carried out to their youngsters, he says.

When the youngsters learnt that their mom could be launched from jail in 2023, they turned anxious. Shahrizan realised there was no likelihood of reconciliation when the youngsters resisted her return to the household. That 12 months, he filed for divorce.

“I did not want her near my kids. I didn’t want to risk them being hurt again,” he says.

Starting over

Counselling by way of the years helped to stabilise his youngsters’s psychological well being. “My children brightened up a lot. I see the difference in them. Before, they were reserved and seemed fearful at times. Now, they are very chatty and they like to tell me everything,” he says.

Shahrizan stays near his former parents-in-law and takes the youngsters to see them as soon as a month. He additionally invitations family members over for meals.

“I feel sad for my children that they don’t have a mum to care for them,” he says. “That is why I try to foster good relationships between my children and both sets of grandparents. I want them to have as complete a family life as possible.”

Leaving the police power and a steady revenue was not simple, he says. But he needed to create one thing his youngsters may in the future inherit.

After the tough first weeks, enterprise picked up. Foxy’s Chikn, which employs three part-timers, now sees regulars and receives company orders. Shahrizan has additionally skilled his staff to marinate and prepare dinner the hen and put together coleslaw.

The store has began overlaying prices, however he’s nonetheless not drawing a wage. He reckons he’ll be capable of begin drawing a primary wage in three months. For now, he’s surviving on his financial savings.

He has began spending extra time together with his youngsters once more. Recently, they went to Batam for 3 days whereas his staff ran the store.

His second daughter enjoys serving to on the eatery on weekends, tidying tables and folding takeaway packing containers. His son is happy with the enterprise, and has invited his pals and their mother and father over.

At Foxy’s Chikn, Shahrizan serves what he calls fusion-style fried hen, utilizing an American-style batter laced with Asian spices reminiscent of cumin and floor coriander. All the hen is buttermilk-brined for a day, then marinated and coated in housemade breading with greater than 10 spices, together with paprika.

The Tenders Set ($13.50) has three hen tenders, battered fries, New York Deli Coleslaw, ranch dip and a bottled drink. The coleslaw is made in-house, with cabbage, carrot and raisins brined, dried and tossed in dressing to remain crunchy and tangy.

The Chikn Sandwich Set, Spicy ($13.50), has a boneless hen thigh wedged between two halves of a brioche bun with gherkin pickles, smoky, garlicky housemade mayo-based sauce and a tingling 12-ingredient Flamin sauce made with cayenne pepper, paprika and Cajun spices.

Shahrizan started testing fried hen recipes on his youngsters in 2022. The buttermilk-brined hen shortly turned a household favorite.

Now, he’s planning seasonal specials and an upcoming Sunday brunch menu with dishes reminiscent of hen waffles and hen porridge to attract extra prospects on quieter Sundays.

After years of defending others, Shahrizan says his focus now’s nearer to residence: giving his youngsters security, stability and a future to stay up for.

After all, he says, “I started this so that I can leave something for my children”.

Foxy’s Chikn

Where: 01-02, 95 Joo Chiat Road
Open: 11am to 9pm, Tuesdays to Sundays. Closed on Mondays
Tel: 9773-1344

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This article was first printed in The Straits Times. Permission required for replica.