After being duped by a partner in early 2020 after the first lockdown was imposed, Gail Sun decided to make the best of what was left in their business–an inventory of unsold food ingredients.
Sun says she refused to be jaded by her first taste of “commercial betrayal”. The only way to salvage what was left of their venture was to literally cook the remaining ingredients and peddle her products online.
“It was really difficult at first. I only have a storage of uncooked ingredients and a helper to assist me. But we managed. Probably because we are determined to make this venture work,” she said, refusing to let the business mishap get the better of her.
That was the start of her commissary kitchen. MNL Food Co. opened new doors of opportunities Sun may not realize if she sulked over and allowed her misfortune to shape her future. Instead, she got her hands dirtied and worked incessantly to rebuild her business.
Before MNL Food, Sun was an importer and distributor of frozen seafoods while her partner imports and sells frozen meat products. She also worked in a hotel after finishing her culinary arts degree from a notable culinary school.
Like any other cloud kitchens during the pandemic, MNL Food accepts orders for delivery to gatherings, parties, and events. The food enterprise is a popular choice by the celebrity community and some political clients because of signature food choices that only MNL Food delivers, whether cooked or prepped for cooking.
“We’re like a restaurant without dining. We supply to restaurants ready to cook food preparations. But as the government slowly opens up the food business industry, we started to adapt and have our own brand of food offerings. So from our small commissary kitchen, we have set out to disrupt the food space,” Sun said.
She remembered her first food prep, the now famous MLA Food lechon belly, cooked in renowned Cebuano way of making savory lechon. This signature piece is one of the best-selling dishes in the menu and one of the best-tasting, if not the best, in the local food scene.
From there, MNL Food kept on adding more food choices with product offerings enough to set up a full-blown indoor diner. The enterprise offers the whole gamut of Chinese cuisine paired with popular Western food choices.
The commissary boasts of having all kinds of dimsums from siomai to hakaw, all Chinese and Chinese-inspired noodles, seafoods like the jumbo Hokkaido oysters and giant Hokkaido scallops, to a wide range of meat-based cuisine like Peking duck, fried pigeon, soy chicken, pork char siu, porchetta and cochinillo, among others. The kitchen also serves sumptuous signature dishes like roast goose, Angus roast beef, and prawn and lobster hot salad.
Apart from food deliveries, MNL Food is also serving packed foods curated specifically for discerning clients. While the food enterprise is yet to launch a full-catering business, it is open to small crowd catering.
The business is currently serving food preps for 4 upscale restaurants and expect to attract more restaurant clients as it goes full speed ahead on its new ventures.
Sun hailed from the Queen City of the South, from a long line of pure-blooded Chinese family.
Despite being a graduate of culinary arts, and with a master’s degree in business management at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Sun is reluctant to be called a chef.
To her, a chef is somebody who does not only posses massive knowledge in culinary arts but somebody who is skilled in cooking and is not afraid to get her hands dirty.
“These times, people are quick to claim credit when there is none, or label themselves as such. I have nothing against them. I just thought, well, it will be nice to get real. As for me, I prefer to work in the background,’ she said.
She calls herself an “accidental” chef, for if not for the intervention of her aunt, she will not be where she is right now. Her aunt supported her studies and helped her become self-sustaining, offering her the chance to become her own person instead of working for other people.
She draws inspiration from her family. Her dad, who is the cook of the family, gave her the primal knowledge she needs to become a culinary expert.
Sun manages not from her desk but optimizes her time from her office to her kitchen and gets easily absorbed in the daily routine except when there are complaints.
Complaints, she said, are her pet peeve. She finds its unacceptable to see people unhappy from unsatisfactory food. What she does is she attends to the complaints quite promptly and replaces the menu or food, asap. She cannot allow the clients’ dissatisfaction to tarnish the pristine image she built for MNL Food.
And as orders pile and thousands have been served, her crew of chefs have also expanded from only 1 helper to a crew of 10 chefs and a handful of office people managing daily affairs like orders, purchases and other administrative matters.
With enough people to back her, Sun is finally branching into a full-restaurant dining experience and will launch her first restaurant brand “Papa Yu’s Sugba” in Pampanga by end-January 2023.
Before the dine-in restaurant, Sun has tried retailing her products under the Butcher’s Lab brand, starting with an outlet in Cebu.The brand is still a popular ingredients and food prep store and may expand soon.
The third brand under MNL Food is “Sugba”, a take-out counter of freshly-cooked barbecue with a branch in JC Mall in Kamuning, Quezon City.
What is admirable about Sun is her unbridled optimism. She has likened her brand to, and vowed to be the next Jollibee of the Philippines.
“I love the fact that Jollibee is a homegrown mega-enterprise and with so many brands under it. That’s the path I wanted to carve for MNL Food. That’s the future I want to achieve,” Sun said, adding that she never take day-offs and works every single day from Monday to Sunday.
Seeing her efforts pay off and her business expand is more than enough reward for all her sacrifices. By yearend, she hopes to have MNL Food brand established as a major player in the food space with plans to expand to 20 more multi-brand branches nationwide.
“I believe in the power of franchising. The expansion I envisioned for MNL Food is to expand through partnership and franchises. This year, I am hoping to see at least half of our planned 20 outlet expansion to be franchises,” she said.
In the next 5 or so years, Sun is actually looking forward to having a hundred outlets of combined Sugba, Papa Yu’s Sugba and Butcher’s Lab branches, mostly as franchises.
As Sun moves on with expanding her Manila Food enterprise, she calls on the government to carry out measures that will truly serve the interest of small enterprises.
“I would love to see a more responsive government. One that can easily attend to our permitting needs. We’re having a difficult time with the local government units (LGUs) for renewing permits. We need a government that can offer relief to food entrepreneurs particularly at this time when the price of onions are higher than the price of main ingredients. And a government that is attuned to the evolving needs of us, entrepreneurs, and the people, in general,” she said.