The last time I saw Florabel Co Yatco was three months ago when we both attended the Food Fair sponsored by the Department of Trade. We vowed to get-together soon for some long delayed catch-up.
Last week, we finally had lunch at Florabel’s in Estancia, a restaurant I don’t get to visit as often as I would like. The establishment is owned by Florabel, restaurateur and caterer to many showbiz stars and politicos. I was not really surprised that Florabel remembered all my favorites, because she has a photographic memory where her clients are concerned. And so, the gambas with chorizo, baby squid with olive oil and garlic, French onion soup, watermelon with goat cheese and almond salad were all there. For my main course, I had the spaghetti Bolognese I was craving, but left room for the famous pork barbecue, which happened to be the employees’ meal that day (with half a cup of rice on the side).
Florabel is also the owner of the Florabel Group of Restaurants, which employs 770 workers and operates 23 restaurants scattered in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Laguna. The list includes Florabel (1), Crisostomo (13), Corazon (1), El Corazon (1), Market on 5th Avenue (1), Lighthouse (1), Mr. Franks (2), Sisa’s Secret (2) and Love-A-Bowl (1).
Her success story is truly remarkable and worth-retelling. Florabel graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Her on-the-job training (OJT) was with Glenda Barretto’s Via Mare, while her practicum was at Le Soufflé with Chef Billy King and Chef Jessie Sincioco. After graduation, Florabel was hired by Chef Jessie and worked under her tutelage.
After two years, she resigned because she wanted to open her own restaurant. She scoured the metro for possible locations but was disappointed when she couldn’t find an ideal spot that was within her budget. It was then that she realized that she didn’t have enough capital to open her dream restaurant. And so, she prayed for discernment. After a month or so of being unemployed, she got a call from Chef Jessie asking her to come back. She then asked her, “Why do you want me back?” Chef Jessie’s reply was unforgettable. She told Florabel that she admired her strong work ethic and how she takes ownership of tasks assigned to her.
Florabel stayed another seven years before finding the courage to open the first Florabel restaurant in Podium in 2005. The dishes on the menu consisted of personal favorites from her travels abroad and recipes she learned under Chef Jessie which she tweaked and elevated. Before she opened Florabel’s, she also started food delivery of the South Beach diet in 2003 which was the fad back then. (To this day, though, she still has clients that rely on her for their diet food.)
She admits to being a foodie all her life and her happy place is the grocery store, where she enjoys buying ingredients for the next meal she will whip up. But her husband Chris and their four kids Adele, Manu, and twins Isaiah and Joseph will always be her priority. She accompanies her kids to their doctor’s appointments and attends all the PTA meetings. Weekends are sacred and reserved for cooking for the family and spending quality time together. When the kids are on break, they make it a point to travel as a family. In fact, Christmas 2024 will be spent in Finland so they can all experience a white Christmas!
While we were having coffee, Florabel casually mentioned that she was going to be the first nominee of the new party list NANAY. After I recovered from the surprise revelation, I asked her lots of questions: Why join the crazy, dirty world of politics? What will happen to her quiet family life? What do her husband and kids think? Does she have the stomach for it?
Seeing how worried I was for her, she calmly explained that their party list’s advocacy is to assist mothers in any way possible, be it with medical aid, employment, legal assistance, etc. She is thankful and grateful that her husband is very supportive and understands the demands of politics since he belongs to the influential Yatco political family of Laguna.
It then dawned on me that Florabel is ideally suited for this. Not only does her track record of nearly two decades in the restaurant industry speak volumes, but so do the testimonials of clients who only have the kindest words for her and the loyalty of the many employees who have stayed with her from the beginning. Florabel epitomizes the best traits of a nanay: maternal, nurturing, hardworking, generous and selfless.
Good luck in the elections, Florabel! As a nanay myself, I know that you will, if elected, make the country a kinder, better place for the many Filipino moms out there who need a helping hand.