Not ice cream but full meals

By Joseph L. Garcia, Reporter

SINCE THE pandemic has effectively frozen our lives, we might as well freeze the treats it took away from us, and enjoy them at home. BusinessWorld talked to two institutions (one of a considerable age; the other of a considerable size) that have offered their usual fare on ice.

OLD SWISS INN
One of Manila’s seasoned European favorites, Old Swiss Inn is no stranger to disaster. Built by a Swiss chef Emil Landert right after the Second World War, it enjoyed several decades as a society hotspot where one could have real corned beef and excellent steak. The original Dewey Boulevard branch closed down (and the name of the extensive street changed to Roxas), and operations moved to Paco. That burnt down in the 1980s, but was resurrected in the ‘90s after an acquisition by entrepreneur Felix Limcaoco. A Makati branch, at the ground floor of the Somerset Olympia Building, opened in 1994, bringing the restaurant’s number of units to two. By any metric, Old Swiss Inn’s longevity is a success, but we wondered how a global pandemic could affect its fate.

“Our Makati branch has been open ever since the start of ECQ [enhanced community quarantine, the strictest quarantine level]. We never closed because we were committed to serving breakfast to the guests of the hotel [the Somerset Olympia has serviced apartments]. We asked whom in our kitchen staff can stay in the hotel and they formed our skeletal team. We were able to use some of our waiters as dispatchers and delivery — those who had bikes,’ said Old Swiss Inn’s Managing Director, Katrina Limcaoco, and daughter of the man who made Old Swiss Inn (literally) rise from the ashes.

“Other staff like admin and sales all worked from home, taking orders for delivery and take out and manning our social media. Thankfully some of my Makati staff are able to work. Unfortunately the Paco branch has remained closed because that was where all the catering came from and right now, functions or parties are not allowed. My staff there have remained on furlough,” she said. But things are looking a bit brighter now with the relaxation of the quarantine. “Right now our Makati branch’s dining area is open and we’re thankful that we have a few diners coming in, so we were able to ask a few more employees to come in. Recently, we’ve also had requests for small caterings like fondue parties — for small gatherings only — so that also gives a few opportunities to my staff who have been on furlough,” said Ms. Limcaoco.

Of course the steaks are still on the menu, and they’re also available for delivery. Kits that allow one to prepare its famous fondue at home are also available, as are some a la carte options and even essentials like broth and pizza dough. For their frozen meals, Old Swiss Inn offers its goulash soup and rich, comforting favorites like Beef Mechado, Corned Beef Caldereta, and Chicken Pastel.

“We have a commercial vacuum packer for our deli products. We didn’t invest in any freezing equipment because we’re not sure how the market will respond to freezer meals,” she said in an e-mail. “We’ve chosen specific food that we are sure freezes well, and tastes as good, and sometimes even better, after it’s defrosted. We’ve chosen food like stews and slow-cooked food mostly, because those freeze best and improve in taste as it ages. We don’t freeze vegetables or fried or cream-based food because structurally these deteriorate with freezing.”

Ms. Limcaoco also talks about the safety measures they’ve taken to ensure that the food arrives safely. “Our big advantage is that we were able to provide lodging to our staff, so from the beginning they have remained safe with minimal exposure to many people. We also adopt all the safety practices stipulated by the DoT (Department of Tourism), on TOP (emphasis hers) of all the checks that our building, Somerset Olympia goes through, so all employees and guests go through checks twice: possibly overkill, but better over than under. Like all other restaurants, we’ve given our staff full protective gear and protocols for social distancing and round the clock sanitizing and disinfecting, on top of the measures of Somerset Olympia.”

A lot of what the restaurant is relies on memory: whether it was the memory of the first Inn that burnt down, which spurred the Limcaoco family to revive it, or the memories of the people it fed, and are missing it now. The physical element of the restaurant, which would remind one of a ski lodge in Switzerland, also has a hand in creating the memory. How would these translate in a frozen container which one now thaws and eats at home?

“That was the big dilemma: eating in a restaurant is a whole experience, and we’ve had to think fast on how we were going to survive the pandemic. Dining in Old Swiss Inn is an experience, and some of our signature dishes — fondues, raclette — can NOT (emphasis hers) be delivered. We’ve had to rethink our whole strategy and just go back to the premise of ‘People want to eat delicious food.’ We actually had a frozen food and deli line long before this year and we were already packaging and freezing food and we just extended our line up,” she explained.

“Reputation came into play because thankfully, people trusted our food because of our many years in the business and our reputation for quality food. We also engineered our fondues and raclettes to come out with kits, so that our diners who craved for these dishes could have them fresh in their homes. But the overall umbrella is the prompt and sincere customer service. I’m proud to say that we had no downtime at all and were able to execute online orders, processing, and delivery immediately. We’ve been able to find new customers because we were one of the few who were able to remain open and deliver food,” she continued.

“Plus, we’ve had fantastic feedback on how easy it is to order from us, and how prompt our service is.”

The experience of the Old Swiss Inn has been one of celebration through generations: we’ve heard of stories of people coming in for dates, then coming back to the restaurant now with their children in tow, and then their children’s children.

“When we first opened, we hired Swiss Executive Chefs to make sure the authenticity of the Swiss signature dishes was maintained. Since then our kitchen is run by local talent who have learned to make these signature dishes with their eyes closed. Old Swiss Inn has very low turnover — we have chefs and waiters that have been with us for over 20 years,” said Ms. Limcaoco, speaking about their longevity. “I think it’s that delicious food never goes out of style. Combine that with sincere and caring service and I think that’s a recipe for a long-lasting restaurant. We can never be called ‘trendy’ or ‘hip’ or the latest hotspot, but I’m happy to say that I’ve met a lot of diners who say that they go to us for consistency, and when they crave for one of their favorite dishes, or that they remember coming to us with their grandfather and that Old Swiss Inn holds such happy memories for them. We do introduce new dishes often, especially now that we have a sister farm (Pinkie’s Farm) so we have access to fresh farm produce. It keeps the menu fresh and interesting and again, there is no substitute to good ingredients for delicious food. But our menu will always have our signature dishes of fondues, corned beef, pork knuckles because these are the dishes that people crave and look for.”

Continuing on the theme of celebration, Ms. Limcaoco thinks of how the world has changed the way we celebrate, and its role as one of Manila’s staples in continuing to do so. “There are still occasions to celebrate. One can argue that we should celebrate even more now, because there is a need for more good times. We’ve noticed that our carvings and roasts are very popular now, mid-year. Traditionally they usually only move during Christmas or big occasions, but now, families have ordered from us just for the Sunday lunches. I think a lot of people are celebrating the simple fact that they are together, since socializing now is few and far between.”

KITCHEN CITY
The pandemic has frozen operations at offices and that was a major problem for Kitchen City partners Peejay Yambao and Jun Abelardo. At the time that ECQ was imposed metro wide, Kitchen City had been operating as concessionaires for 100 cafeterias spread throughout the city, employing about 1,000 people.

“As early as January, when the China epidemic broke out, we were watching closely and discussing repercussions already. We saw in China that the only businesses that thrived were logistics, pharmacies, and food deliveries,” said Mr. Yambao, President and CEO of Kitchen City in an e-mail. “We had to pivot our business to food deliveries to remain relevant. We chose frozen meals so that people can stock up on food on a lockdown. To save our employees, we had to assign them different roles from what they were accustomed to. Servers, dishwashers, cashiers, and busboys were assigned to packaging, stickering, delivery, hub operations, and customer service.”

The pivot saw the creation of frozen packed meals, with sizing options for a family with an imagined size of four to five members. The menu includes once-familiar favorites like Beef Lengua with Creamy Mushroom Sauce, and even Filipino cuisine’s underrated chicken soup contender, Tinola. They also offer desserts packaged in fashionable rose gold tins, at P350 for either a frozen chocolate cake, or a frozen leche flan. A menu, accessible through www.kcfrozenmeals.com, has over 60 options, including Kare Kare, Roast Beef, and Salpicao.

A press release sent to BusinessWorld discussed the various safety measures they have in place: “The Food Kitchen commissary is ideally situated in Food Terminal, Inc., Taguig, with about 4,000 square meters, broken down to a warehouse, fixed asset warehouse, freezer storage, butchering area, cooking area, packing area and the administration office. The facility is compliant to Food Safety protocols, HACCP and GMP. Safety starts with raw materials, where they only use NMIS certified meats. They also always have Safety Officers on site who undergo rigorous Food Safety training. To further ensure that their frozen offerings are safe, they do their own deliveries.”

Mr. Yambao elaborated on the methods they use to preserve the food. “We use a brand called Irinox, the world’s leading brand in blast freezing technology. It brings the food from 32 celsius to -20 Celsius in 2.5 hours,” he said in an e-mail. “Blast-freezing blocks food aging, avoids oxidation and reduces bacterial proliferation, making food last longer and safer.”

Discussing the differences between operating cafeterias and a frozen food enterprise, Mr. Yambao said “We serviced hospitals, schools, industrial parks, corporate offices, and call centers. Servicing institutions is very different from servicing direct-to-consumer delivery service. The amount of operational excellence that is required when you do direct consumer service is so high. For corporates, the priority is no food safety incidents, varied offerings and affordable pricing. For consumers, it is an end to end process from ordering, delivery at the right time, portioning, taste and customer service interaction.

“In short, people are more demanding than corporations. We had to retrain our staff to change their mindset to ‘every customer must be pleased,’” he said.

When the pandemic slows down, does the company see itself going back to canteens — in the same way we hope to go back to our normal lives? The answer is bittersweet. “After the pandemic, we see our canteens playing a bigger role in feeding the employees of our clients for several reasons. One, people have changed their perspective on eating out. Two, a lot of the restaurants will close down when their landlords start charging rent,” said Mr. Yambao.

“Our delivery service will continue as we continue expanding our market for families. I think that the convenience factor is finally being internalized by the Filipino people,” he said. The focus is on the Filipino, and we noticed this even in the menus. Mr. Yambao said, “Although we have a lot of dishes to choose from, we focused on Filipino comfort food because we want to be relevant to our market. Lutong bahay (home cooking) is a concept that appeals to Filipinos when you want them to eat your food every day. Our pricing and our offerings are for every Filipino, every day.”

To order from Old Swiss Inn, contact them through Facebook (@oldwissinnrestaurant), Instagram (@oldswissinn), or e-mail oldswissinn@gmail.com. One can also visit https://oldswissinn.com/, or call, text, Viber, or WhatsApp at 0918-9999-555.

Order Kitchen City Frozen Meals via their website at www.kcfrozenmeals.com, via messaging through the official Facebook page (@kitchencityfrozenmeals), calling 02-8692-4601; 0977-477-4990 or through e-mail at kitchencity.marketing@gmail.com.

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