The world celebrates International Women’s Month in March in recognition of women’s contribution to society. Female entrepreneurs, visionaries, influencers, community leaders and mothers have played extraordinary roles in the the advancement of women in the community and around the world.
In the restaurant industry that used to be dominated by men, for example, women restaurant owners and chefs have made their own mark.
Food delivery platform foodpanda, which teams up with thousands of restaurants around the world to deliver food to homes or offices, took note of the success of some of its female chefs and restaurant owners across the market.
Kat Asanza, owner of Juju Eats; Milka Romero, owner of Sushi Nori; and Arianne Valinton, marketing director of the Foodie Global Group, shared their thoughts about the restaurant industry.
Asanza said creativity, perseverance and guts are the key ingredients to become successful in the business.
For Romero, passion is the most important factor. “If you care so much for your product, you aim to create the best one out there for your target market’s needs. A product is an extension of yourself, it represents who you are. You want to give it your all to the best of your abilities,” she said.
Valinton said there are three things in the business that drive her daily—to explore, excite and engage.
“Explore. I never grow tired of chasing after my dreams. Build it brick by brick even if I don’t see it coming together, or even if I’m discouraged, even if no-one believes in the dream but me. Excite and be excited. Doing the things that I love and let this overflow. I’m passionate with the things that I do combined with a lot of prayer and faith. Do things to honor God and surrender to his will. He alone has the power to give us success, so I try my best to put him first in life,” she said.
Valinton said she engages with family, friends and other people. “Making each connection worth the time and effort. I invest in relationships whether professional and more so personally. Be a team player, know when to take the lead and when to take a back-seat. Moreover, I take advantage of the tools and technology to cultivate relationships,specifically the ones far from me,” she said.
Asanza said, however, that it is not easy to be successful in the business, as there is a lot of risks going with the position. “There is a common perception of the good industry as being easy – but there is nothing farther from the truth, if you want to do it right,” she said.
Romero agreed, saying with the rapid development in the food and beverage industry, competition is now steep. “Customers nowadays have many restaurants to choose from and options on even where to eat. However, once you understand your market and provide to their needs, that risk becomes a calculated risk. The more you focus and aim to do better on your craft, the smaller the risk becomes,” she said.
Valinton said that as a marketing practitioner, working in the food industry with daily engagements serves as an opportunity to improve her craft and better understand the consumers and improve their daily experience with the brand/restaurant. “For the same reason, our brand can be relevant by truly understanding and finding a way to reduce the white space between consumers and the product/brand,” she said.
Asanza said that if there was one dish she could live for the rest of her life, it would be pasta. “It’s relatively quick to make, plus it’s easy to get creative with it and one can make it as healthy or as decadent as you like,” she said.
Romero said she prefers sushi, while Valinton would go for fruit salad, because “I can eat all of my favorite fruits in one bowl.”
Asanza said 2017 turned out to be an inspiring year for her business. Romero described it as “oishi”, while Valinton said it was “game-changing…for continuous improvement.”
Foodpanda, which provides on-demand food delivery service, has grown to more than 27,000 partner restaurants in more than 190 cities across 12 Asian and Central Europe countries globally. It s active in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Brunei, India, Romania and Bulgaria. It belongs to Delivery Hero, worldwide leader of the food delivery industry.