The fry guy
You’ve no doubt tried Bonchon chicken. Whether you’ve had it abroad, in its New York locations, or at its 14 branches here in the Philippines, it’s a different chicken experience altogether.
They call it “paper-skin” chicken because the Korean double-frying method removes most of the fat, resulting in chicken that’s crispy, crunchy and slides easily from the bone — which is what you’ll be gnawing on at the end of every wing.
It’s also healthier. No, really: Bonchon uses non-saturated soy oil to cook their parts, and the fat is literally melted off in the two-stage frying process.
And now meet the man who brought it to the Philippines: Scott Tan, a 29-year-old entrepreneur who fell in love (lust?) with the Bonchon brand when he first had it years ago in New York City. “When I first tried it, it was heaven,” he says. “I ate it almost every day.”
The business economics major was living in San Francisco at the time, and tried doing his own version in his home kitchen. “It wasn’t too successful,” he admits.
Fast forward to 2010, and Tan decided he had to take Bonchon to the Philippines. Perhaps his mantra was: If you double-fry it, they will come.
Getting the attention of the Korean-based brand wasn’t so easy. “I checked out a lot of the other Korean chicken places, but ultimately to me, Bonchon was the best tasting of all,” he says. He tried e-mailing the owner, Mr. Suh, “but I got little response, so I decided just to fly to Korea and set up an appointment on my own.”
It worked; he got a meet with Suh.
“I got a franchise because I showed up at his doorstep,” Tan now recalls with a smile. “He told me I got it because I was the only one who actually flew to Korea.”
Bonchon is actually one of many Korean-style chicken joints that have taken off in the States in recent years: the New York Times has profiled the phenomenon, and magazine writers have hailed Bonchon as “the perfect food to eat while watching Monday Night Football.” (Sounds good to us, even though people don’t watch football here.) The New York version even offers karaoke and beer, making it a more party- and sports-oriented haven where you can catch a basketball game while gnoshing on crispy wings, though Tan had more of a family-style haven in mind for Manila: “I decided to make it a quick-service restaurant, because if I made it a bar, I’d limit it to certain age groups, and families and kids couldn’t come here.” Bonchon does serve beer — or at least the Shangri-La Plaza branch does — but “we don’t really market it, it’s just there.”
Tan used his savings from San Francisco and, with additional help and guidance from his father who runs a local garment manufacturing business, brought the brand here in November 2010. The verdict was pretty swift: Filipinos fell hard for Bonchon, with many employing that overused adjective — “addictive” — to describe their attachment to the taste. “I still eat it every other day,” notes Tan, which is pretty unusual for someone in the food business. And considering his healthy rivals in the local chicken marketplace (Bonchon is surrounded on all sides by Max’s, Jollibee and KFC at the Shangri-La branch), it’s doing rather well. Now there are 14 locations and Tan has started to franchise (at P9 to P12 million per branch; the first will be in Davao).
Tan, a bachelor who’s into golf, basketball and river rafting, says he got into cooking out of necessity: “It was really living on my own in San Francisco that pushed me to feed myself better and create my own food, and it became a passion for me.” He describes an adobo turkey he once cooked for friends on Thanksgiving: a big bird stuffed with basil and garlic, then marinated in a tub of soy sauce. He says it came out “pretty delicious.”
Though Bonchon’s trademark crispy wings are still the best sellers, the brand gave Tan leeway to come up with his own menu items, “so when I brought it here, I tweaked it a little,” he says. “We try to innovate Korean fused with Filipino ingredients. It started with Bulgogi Rice then the Chopchae, the Korean glass noodle. So I wanted a noodle-type food but tailored to the Filipino taste — but not pancit. So the noodle is very Korean, but the sauce is a little bit more Filipino, a little sweeter.” Bonchon also serves a fish taco wrap, crispy squid and the FLT (fish, lettuce and tomato) “for Lent season.” One less thing to feel guilty over, we suppose.
It may be a quick-service restaurant, but Bonchon is not like other fast-food places: cooking does take 15 minutes, but every bite is bound to be worth it. “It does take longer than others. We cook it fresh, unlike competitors where it’s already prepared,” he says.
Still, was it hard to get Filipinos to wait for their chicken gratification?
“At first, it was crazy, people waiting, but we quickly developed a system,” explains the young entrepreneur. “We did a time study. While people are waiting, we seat them, we take their other orders, drinks, etc. So they don’t feel the wait.”
Tan had a rare opportunity to learn a lot directly from Mr. Suh, who we imagine to be the Mr. Miyagi of double-fried chicken: “He was a kind, easy person to talk to, language barrier aside. When I first went there he told me a little history of Bonchon (the word means ‘original village’), how it started.
“He was always in the food industry, but this was a family business he never expected to grow so big,” Tan continues. “It’s a family recipe he started and created. His wife was also into culinary, so they were able to team up to create this unique and well-loved sauce that Bonchon uses today.”
So, young Mr. Tan, why not tell our readers what’s in the sauce right now?
“Actually, honestly, I don’t know! We buy the sauce straight from Korea,” claims Tan.
Oh, come, now. You’ve not taken it down to the lab to find out?
“No, I respect him too much to copy it and do that,” he laughs. “A lot have tried to copy it, and honestly, none has really found that secret ingredient.”
So what’s your guess?
“There’s definitely ginseng in it.”
Ginseng. Not much to go on. But it’s a hint, at least, at what makes Bonchon chicken so freaking yummy.
