Embracing the new normal
I have always been a person who welcomes challenges and always rolls with the punches. But what this pandemic has brought us was so much, much more than just being able to take on a super fastball from left field, or being able to quickly make lemonade out of lemons. This all has been truly difficult, perhaps the most challenging 14 months of our lives, both personally and professionally. An asymptomatic bout with the dreaded virus early on, last year in July, brought this crisis even closer to home.
This is my story of what is indeed our new normal.
Bringing our products home
During the initial lockdown, the quickest pivot was obviously to make our products available for takeaway and delivery, while maintaining the same standards we uphold with all our brands. We worked on improving the way our dishes and products traveled. We also worked hard on making it easy for our clients to enjoy their orders, as closely as possible to the way they would have enjoyed them at our restaurants or during our catered events.
The other part of the challenge was to give our front-of-house teams employment when we were not allowed to do any dine-in operations or cater any events. We created our own delivery teams, using our waiters who had motorcycles, or had them assist our own drivers with deliveries to make things more efficient. This was a good way to give our clients options between our own delivery service and third-party services.
Beefing up our online presence was also a must, to get our products more efficiently to our clientele. Expanding the reach of our websites and even setting up a single phone number ordering system for our biggest brand helped us, allowing our market to reach us with greater ease.
Celebrating homemade
This crisis has been a tough challenge but has also brought out some amazing eurekas and silver linings. Noteworthy new home cooks, innovative products and creative businesses born out of the home have mushroomed at an amazing pace and in great numbers. This phenomenon has brought on healthy competition and a new energy to our industry.
On a personal level, this reality brought me back to cooking at home, in front of my own stove, spending my stay-at-home days making my own repertoire of home-cooked specials — dishes I grew up eating, staples from my grandmothers’ and my mother’s kitchens, and sharing them with a very hungry and excited clientele.
My home cook, Ermie and I, have been cooking and baking up a storm, made up of hearty Italian and Spanish stews, Ilonggo favorites and unique baked things, not just for orders but for my restaurants, too.
The Zoom phenomenon
The Zoom wave is the new essential in this new normal. This is now how we connect, how we get our work done, how businesses move their brands and products forward and most especially how we connect socially, for both happy and even sad occasions. But of course, most people prefer to do this over some food and drink.
Corporate clients have had me do some cooking demonstrations, with us delivering all the cooking kits, complete with bottles of wine, and not just all over Metro Manila but even to the provinces, as far as Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga and Davao!
Clients have celebrated birthdays and anniversaries with a spread delivered to their doorsteps, with synchronized delivery times to all the participants celebrating the special events.
In the next few weeks, I will be doing an event with a female chef-friend from Italy for a business organization, and I am so looking forward not just to this event, but also to the countless more unique events we can do online, while sharing the fruits of our kitchens.
Catering Reinvented
Weddings and special family milestones have been the core of our catering business. But unfortunately, because of the obvious, large celebrations have been put on hold until the restrictions are lifted. But the current situation has not stopped our clients from celebrating their milestones. Perhaps the occasions have become even more special, since these events have been celebrated so intimately, with nearly just immediate families and a few friends, mostly in homes.
Because we are extremely conscious that we must offer a product that is most secure and safe, we have created an upgraded service that observes the ultimate in health and safety protocols. From regular testing for our staff, to a most thorough disinfecting and sanitizing system for our equipment, and a reduced contact service-style, with the required face shields and masks as a minimum, of course, plus gloves and cloches or food covers to protect every setup and dish being served.
Celebrating Al Fresco
We have always been so much more comfortable in airconditioned spaces for dining and socializing. But this became an absolute challenge with the government-imposed dine-in restrictions to keep the virus situation under control.
But then again, another silver lining: we creatively found new outdoor options, realizing how welcome outdoor settings became for our market, most especially in a tropical country like ours. It has been quite fulfilling to be given the chance to reinvent all our brands and reformat them to take advantage of al fresco options.
I was even more blessed to be given a chance to open a new, totally al fresco restaurant concept at a heritage space along Roxas Boulevard, with countless beautiful, unique spaces to do catering events and amazing ways to enjoy the iconic Manila Bay sunsets.
As the situation gets better, and hopefully, as we go back closer to the old normal, there is much promise with what we can do here.
Moving Forward
Although it has been over 14 months of a rollercoaster kind of existence for us in this vibrant food and service industry, we have survived. Although most of us are still struggling, we have bonded together, virtually with locked arms and hands, and have tried to find solutions to face this new, challenging time, together.
Yes, universe, whatever new challenges you may bring our way, we’ll keep dodging, keep reinventing, and just keep making lemonade out of all the lemons you send our way.
