Life is sweet, success even sweeter
It’s a tall order to make a name for oneself in a field where someone you are related to excels. Such is the case for Fina Formoso Quimson, sister-in-law of über chef Ed Quimson. With someone as huge and hefty as Ed, figuratively and literally speaking, stepping out of his massive shadow is a daunting task.
Fina is a super lady who wears many hats. She is operations manager of The Corporate Executive Orient Suites (CEO Suites), which her family owns, and used to substitute as a preschool teacher. Fina is the brains behind The QKitchen, a popular line of baked items with a loyal base of sweet-toothed patrons at her weekend stall in the Salcedo Market. Thanks to word of mouth, she was soon asked to join other food fairs. In 2007, she was invited to join The Baker’s Dozen at the Rockwell Powerplant Mall. Since then, she has been part of the mall’s Baker’s Dozen cake and pastry fair, held on Valentine’s and Mother’s Day, and during the holiday season. The fair is a much-awaited event, particularly by homemakers and women of leisure, and brings the best of the metro’s home-based bakers and their unique arrays of creative, trendsetting confections. Fina says she feels proud and humbled to be considered one of them.
When Fina was eight years old, she could already handle holding a hot baking pan with mittens and dreamed of becoming an accomplished baker. Her parents and grandparents were her biggest supporters. When school was out, they would let Fina take summer programs for children on baking, a couple times under the guidance of Leni Reynoso Araullo. But baking did not warm up to Fina right away. Her earliest experiments were unfortunate failures. Fina laughs as she recounts baking asado siopao for her family, which later gave them stomachaches. On another occasion, when was commissioned by her father to bake a chocolate fudge cake, the finished item ended up with a runny icing for frosting, but her father nevertheless paid for his order. Despite several kitchen booboos, Fina remained motivated by a whole cheering team behind her.
Her first successful attempt at selling her products was when she was very active in her daughter’s school where she got to mingle and exchange recipes with mothers. Later on, while under the employ of an Israeli company developing pre-school software and programs, she had the pleasure of sharing and exchanging food tips and dishes with her fellow workers. To her surprise, this led to numerous orders for her food and cookies.
Her passion for baking had to take a backseat when she was asked by her mother to handle F&B operations of the popular boutique hotel The CEO Suites.
In 2004, she joined the Salcedo Market, which became a popular attraction during weekends. She rented a table for P220 and raked in P3,000 on the first day. Delighted by the prospects, she worked on developing her line of cookies, breads and pastries, which proved to be successful and has since been a consistent fixture in the weekend fair.
Operating from the kitchen in their house, Fina later came out with more bestsellers, such as her famous cinnamon crunch cookies and coconut crisps. In her stall, you can also find some of chef Ed’s creations, like the Iberian chicken and paellas.
A QKitchen hit — and my personal favorite — is Fina’s raisin bread. It delightfully melts in your mouth, the raisins are plump and tender, the balance of cinnamon and sugar is just right. And what’s more, it stays soft for five days just stored under normal room temperature. Fina is proud to say that all her products are preservative-free. Not one to scrimp on ingredients, she makes it a point to use only premium brands, Belgian for chocolate, Magnolia for butter, etc. In the course of her operations, Fina realized just how much packaging is vital to the business. Her raisin bread gained immediate recognition when she started boxing it in an attractive slim silver box. The day she first did that, only 120 boxes were left out of 2,000.
Despite her different roles in life, she realizes that it is baking that fulfills her the most. She considers it therapy for her soul. It is in the kitchen where she is happiest. And despite the current success of QKitchen, she has no desire to expand it any bigger than it already is because she does not want to lose her personal touch along the way. With a kitchen staff of five, she is blissfully content the way things are.
It’s never really about the money, she says, it’s about the satisfaction of sharing your craft with others and getting good reviews from people who enjoy the same passion and love for cooking and eating. There is a bright future for QKitchen, but right now Fina is enjoying her simple life and sweet dreams.
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