CEO Dato Stephen Sim and Thailand managing director Cherie Lo

From a modest start in Malaysia, Secret Recipe cafes are popping up all over. That's good cheesecake!

In a decade, family-values guy Dato Stephen Sim has given Asia a truly interesting lifestyle cafe, the best cheesecake around and the fastest-growing franchise business.

So what's the secret to Secret Recipe?

"It involves a lot of trust," Sim says.

A "concept cafe", Secret Recipe got its start in Kuala Lumpur in 1997. The concept was to make cheesecake a lifestyle choice - and worth the higher price.

"Back then there were no lifestyle cafes," says Sim, 49. "People would buy cake only for special occasions, like a birthday. They'd very seldom go to a shop and buy a piece of cake and have a cup of coffee."

With a family of six - one had worked in a bakery and another had experience building a brand business - Sim got two outlets up and running.

Skip ahead to 2008. Current employment: almost 3,000. Number of outlets: more than 180 in Malaysia and 40 more in cities in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, China and, of course, Thailand (where there are 11, plus two kiosks and four counters), and more opening in Pakistan and Brunei.

"We realised that we had a good product when we entered our marble cheesecake in a competition involving top chefs who are really good with pastry. We just took a cake from the shelf and we entered it, and it won the top prize."

Then there's that trust factor.

Running a franchise business is like being head of a family, he says.

"You need a lot of trust, because we only choose one representative for each country. We hand on every aspect of the business to them."

Secret Recipe offers more than 40 types of cakes and other baked desserts, a range of ice cream and beverages and a fusion-food menu of appetisers, pasta and more.

In Bangkok, the fruity special and chocolate banana cheesecakes rank as favourites alongside the marble cheesecake.

Chat about cake with Secret Recipe at (02) 693 3984.