But this has not stopped the young and resourceful man from baking melt-in-your-mouth almond chocolate cookies and moist chocolate cake using the little vision he has in his left eye.
Currently residing in Sungai Petani, Hemarruben, who speak fluent Mandarin, took a break from working on his next batch of orders, to chat with FMT about how he came to be a pastry chef and later, businessman despite his condition.
He says he was born without any vision in his right eye and just 70% vision in his left.
After completing his secondary education at SMK Aman Jaya, he joined the St Nicholas Home for the Blind in 2016 to learn pastry-making.
“In June 2017, I did my practical training in a hotel in George Town for three months. Then I was off to a hotel along Batu Ferringhi where I worked as a pastry commis,” Hemarruben says.
However, his career came to a standstill when he woke up one morning a year later, to find that he had lost the vision in his left eye as well. In other words, he was completely blind.
“I use eye drops every day now but doctors tell me I cannot have another operation on my left eye as it would only make the vision worse,” he explains, thankful all the same that the earlier operation gave him 40% of the vision in his left eye back.
After taking three months to recover from eye surgery, Hemarruben was eager to return to his baking. Until he was faced with yet another monumental setback – the Covid-19 pandemic.
As with many others who suffered the same fate, Hemarruben was retrenched in March 2020.
Although this too was a devastating blow, Hemarruben found the strength to pick himself up and start all over again.
Living with his 78-year-old grandmother, Hemarruben said he couldn’t spend too much time feeling sorry for himself. He decided to channel his pastry-making skills into an online baking business which he named Ruben Pastry.
“I started Ruben Pastry on June 9. Now Ruben Pastry is about to reach its one-year anniversary,” smiles the baker gratefully.
Donning a colourful apron, gloves and a pastry chef hat, Hemarruben bakes daily from 10am to 5pm.
According to him, on a good day, he is able to churn out 10 to 15 tubs of cookies. His grandmother is his second pair of eyes.
“I can pretty much gauge the colour of the cookies and cakes but she helps me confirm if everything is baked just right.”
Craving for some freshly baked cookies? Hemarruben bakes a long list of tea-time favourites from almond chocolate cookies to shortbread cookies to cornflake cookies, butter cookies, coconut crunch cookies, peanut cookies, and suji milk cherry cookies.
If you find yourself craving something more sinful, have a go at his cakes – chocolate cake, fruit cake, marble butter cake, coffee cake, lemon cake, carrot cake, and suji butter cake.
“Each box contains 50 cookies and my cakes weigh one kilo each. The best seller would have to be the almond chocolate cookies and the chocolate cake.
“During Deepavali, I sold 180 tubs of almond chocolate cookies,” a beaming Hemarruben says as he adds that all of his cookies and cakes are vegetarian and extremely tasty.
For those who prefer their treats less sweet, just inform Hemarruben and he will adjust the recipe accordingly.
Baking aside, he attends to the business side of things by spending Sundays touching base with loyal customers on Facebook.
Besides answering their queries, he also posts the coming week’s promotion and gives them a peek into his cookie- and cake-making process.
However, like most other businesspeople, the current situation with Covid-19 in the country is leaving Hemarruben feeling somewhat anxious.
“Business during the pandemic has been extremely challenging and I fear whenever stricter measures are announced,” he says, sounding dismayed.
But Covid or no Covid, Hemarruben is still dreaming big, hoping to be the proud owner of a bakery or at least a small cookie stall by 2025.
In the meantime, he hopes that others in the blind community will look to him as a role model, someone who is proof that you can make something of yourself no matter what life throws at you.
To see Hemarruben’s list of vegetarian cakes and cookies, visit his Facebook page. To place your orders, WhatsApp Reuben Pastry at 010 7871997 for nationwide delivery.