It was an idea floating in my head for years, a business proposition that I intended for myself. Two years ago, when I updated my profile on Instagram I made a bulleted outline of my businesses, namely, Teacup Ideas, Chicken Studio, and lastly Garnet 403 (even if it was nonexistent then). Even back then, I knew I was gonna make Garnet 403 happen, it was all a matter of time. Garnet 403 is the term used by our friends to refer to our home. Throughout the years we've hosted a myriad of guests and parties, and because of that, I've associated our unit as a brand that I knew I wanted to develop eventually. It sounded just right with two syllables for the gemstone the building was named after plus the three numbers easily rolled out anyone's tongue. It had a good ring to it. It felt right. It fitted my vision. If anything, I visualized Garnet 403 to be a label for whatever product I would come up with, and ultimately I want to build it into a cafe or Airbnb or hostel in some far future. As of the moment, it seems far-fetched considering the situation, but something my sister-in-law told me gave me the confidence to use the name now, much sooner than I had initially planned. She said, "You know, your brand and your business will be right where you are." And that statement settled well in my gut as it is true, where I am will be where my brand is, and if I plan to settle someplace else in the future, that is where Garnet 403 will be.
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This is my kitchen in Garnet 403. This is a Negrense's kitchen.
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What took the longest that delayed the launching of my home business, besides my nerves, is the logo. As someone who has studied branding and designs logos professionally, this is one of the most personal ones I had to make, and it had to feel just right. It took me days to decide on whether I should go with a symbol (initially a blue door) or just plain text. In the end, after going back and forth thinking of the kind of door I wanted on my brand, I accepted the fact that somehow it just didn't fit in. I decided on a simple yet elegant script instead. One that will look good on the labels that I too will be designing. I also wanted to mix the brand with a tagline, one that can be part of the logo itself. The short yet precise line that I ended up using is one of the first that I had initially thought of, but I played around with more terms and words, asked friends, letting the statement steep in, before finally realizing that what Garnet 403 is as simple as claiming it as my home kitchen, a Negrense's kitchen. I wanted to use the term "heirloom recipes" so badly as well since the products I decided to sell are those usually found at our family gatherings. Those special homemade dishes passed down to the matrons of each family's household, and often those that we look forward to in potluck dinners. The color of the logo is as simple as admitting that teal is my favorite color, and I knew that is going to be the color of my logo years ago. My other business Teacup Ideas also uses a shade of teal for our logo.
I was born and raised in two cities in Negros Occidental, Bacolod City, and La Carlota City. I lived in Bacolod on weekdays for school, and on weekends in La Carlota to stay in our old house and be closer to our farm. It was in La Carlota city where I first learned to cook under the influence and mentorship of my very first yaya. I called her Mama Lisa. She grew up with the family as her father also served my great grandfather as a cook. She had requested my mom that she'd be the one to take care of me even before I was born. Her father, as what my older relatives would describe, was a great cook who was trained to hone his skills for the family. Thus, in turn, he trained his kids, but it was my mama Lis who became passionate about cooking...and thankfully she served our family her whole life.
I was under her wing until 1998, I was only ten years old then when I lost the one that I would consider as my proper cooking teacher. But those initial years were crucial to the formation of what eventually lead me to continue to learn on my own. She taught me the basics, starting with knife skills, how to maintain the fire in the stove with the wood we were using, down to how to properly slaughter a chicken. She worked in our old kitchen, and that's where I spent most of my childhood days, either helping out with the preparation or waiting for my meal. We used the traditional clay stove in that kitchen and it always smelled of burning wood, the unpainted wall had turned black from the smoke billowing up the exhaust from years of cooking. After her passing, the timely surge of celebrity chefs and various cooking shows on The Lifestyle Network allowed me to continue learning about food through television. Outside of following the recipes from cookbooks, I also learned from an array of relatives who I'd ask to teach me how to do certain dishes they make for our neverending family reunions. Often I would go to their homes for a day of cooking workshop...of those, I've forgotten 90% of the recipes. Those that stood out the most are etched pretty well in my memories, and these are the products I'm excited to present.
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Rustic Apple Pie inspired by my Lola Adela
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I decided not to push through though. Only for very special orders.
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Like a whole lot of home businesses, this was brought about after having to go through months in quarantine. Garnet 403 had three major factors why it started: the need for an alternative income source, boredom, and timing. A few months ago, at the start of the ECQ, a couple of my friends and I did this series of food challenges wherein we'd have a themed dish and we'd have to present it via video call before posting it online. Those challenges amused us and upped our game, starting with a basic mug cake down to more intricate dishes. There were three teams: a Laguna group that was the first to monetize our cooking challenges by starting their Tongue's Delight; a Muntinlupa group who took it seriously the most and started Brother's Plate; and our Taguig group that turned into this, Garnet 403. The ultimate reason for starting? I was bored with so much time on my hands after realizing that we'd be permanently closing down the store that I was managing, Chicken Studio Bayan branch.
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Buttered Prawns and Eggplant Lasagna
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I was still on the brand development stage when the first order was made. I wanted to sell apple pies at first when a friend requested if I could cook some buttered prawns and eggplant lasagna for her because she had some serious craving back then. I said prawns are quite expensive, and she said, "Don't worry about the price. I'll pay! Just tell me how much after the delivery." And that's how I ended up with selling buttered prawns and eggplant lasagna for Garnet 403, as my debut products. Unfortunately, I'm not selling them officially. Eggplant lasagna is just too much of a hassle to make for what it's worth, considering that there's a lot of competition out there. I'm just sharing this as part of Garnet 403's history. I remember I got inquiries after I made the post, and I had the same reply, "I'm not selling yet because I don't have the prices for my products. I hate doing math. I'll let you know when I'm ready." That was over a month ago and I haven't gotten back on those people yet. Talk about my enthusiasm to sell.
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| Another version of my Rustic Apple Pie, this one with roasted mixed nuts. |
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Eggplant Lasagna taken by my friend Peter Paul before he devoured everything.
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I had seriously thought of selling just apple pies as my hero product for Garnet 403. After all it was what I've been practicing the most, to perfect apple pies, as it was what I used to bake a lot as a teen because me and my family loved them so much. I used to order often from my grandma...a distant relative though. Her apple pies, the taste, and the memory gave me joy. My parents would usually take me to her house to pick up the order. I remember how she'd frailly walk towards me holding a big white box with a light blue ribbon, and would give a sweet-warm smile as she handed over her baked-with-love apple pie. I must've made so many batches of apple pies when I was younger, but then I stopped baking for years and years until I found myself baking again during the ECQ. It was after several batches of almost-perfect-pies when I realized that there were a lot of steps involved, and the time required to make it was more than I was willing to sell (if I were to sell it at an affordable price.) So I dropped the product altogether, but that was much later after we had taken a whole lot of beautiful photos. So I'm just posting those here to share what it could have looked like if I had decided to push through with it. I must have loved watching the faces of the people eating my apple pie that I didn't realize it takes a lot of energy to make one. But who knows? Maybe one day I'll wake up with enough willingness to sell them for a time.
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Chorizo de Negrense best with eggs, suka, tomatoes, and kimchi on the side
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Chorizo de Ajo and Chorizo de Negrense topped on steamed adlai.
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I manually do the slicing of the pork and chopping of the fresh garlic.
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| My first batch of chorizo. Lacked pork fats then. |
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| Comes in 250g for Php200 and 500g for Php380 tubs. |
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Comes in 250g for Php200 and 500g for Php380 tubs.
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| Comes in 250g for Php200 and 500g for Php380 tubs. |
It was after some reflecting and asking myself if what is it that I am able to repeatedly and proudly sell that I went back to my roots and realized that it has been one of my greatest dreams to learn how to make chorizo. Then a cousin of mine from Bacolod came to mind, one of those I dearly loved but was gone too soon, made the best chorizos. Forget those expensive imported ones, his was the artisan kind made in really small batches. His Spanish chorizo was the one chorizo I was truly fond of that I would buy kilos of it whenever I had to fly back to Manila. For years he promised to teach me how to make it, but it never really happened...except that he would on random occasions, one by one, tell me the ingredients of his chorizo. It wasn't until last month when I decided to learn how to do the craft of charcuterie. I experimented with the collective ingredients he had told me, and that's how I managed to come up with Chorizo de España as an ode to my late cousin Bill.
The Chorizo de Negrense is a recipe that I came up in my head as inspired by the taste of a particular chorizo I bought from K-Mart years ago. That, plus combining it with the recipe of my mother's adobo, and that's how I came about with the taste of Chorizo de Negrense. As someone from Negros, two major ingredients come to mind that reminds me so much of home, sugar, and annatto. There's always that hint of sweetness in almost every Ilonggo dish, plus an orange hue from the annatto that gives it that smokey look and taste i.e. inasal and kansi.
The Chorizo de Ajo was a no brainer as of course, the garlic longganisa is truly one of the country's favorites, and to come up with a version from Vigan but with a twist of using some Negrense ingredients, it's something that is truly addicting. I love it as it is garlicky, peppery, and spicy pork goodness.
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My Food for the Gods using dark raw sugar. I've adjusted the recipe for a lighter one.
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Food for the Gods is Php280 for a box that contains 12 nuggets of goodies.
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The other product I decided to produce and sell is the Food for the Gods. One of the more popular pasalubong items for Ilonggos. It is this sweet-delectable dessert/sweet snack that is indulgent with its sticky dates, brown sugar, and walnut combination. In our family, my tita Suzette used to make these as a truly special treat for the family. By special, it meant having it only once a year during our family reunion for Christmas. She called them Date Bars, a little different from Food for the Gods due to the texture of the final product. The recipe she used for her date bars had been a heirloom recipe from her family, but she perfected it into her version from the original recipe. As an ode to my aunt, I made a recipe based off my memory of her date bars, but this is leaning more on Food for the Gods kind of taste. If anything, my friends would describe my recipe as having multiple layers of texture and flavors. This is a recipe I can call my own, and I'm quite proud of the flavor that I managed to produce.
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Gogosi tossed in pure honey and topped with melted chocolate. Still perfecting the shape and size though.
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A portion of our time during the ECQ was spent with a Romanian friend named Andreea. She wasn't much into food, but her mom certainly was...and she realized how much my brother and I loved sweets that one day she wanted to do something special for us. She asked her mom to teach her how to make gogosi, a Romanian style doughnut for us to try one morning. It was amazing at how many doughnuts I ate in one sitting. After that, I wasn't that interested in any Krispy Kreme, Tim Hortons, Dunkin' Donuts, J.Co. or even those artisan doughnuts for that matter. Gogosi is my new favorite doughnut, and the only way I was gonna have them is that if I make them from scratch. It's light, airy, fluffy, and chewy at the same time. Traditionally they'd toss it in honey or sprinkle powdered sugar on top. But I had it with melted chocolate truffle and Nutella, and the array of flavors I could play around with from the recipe I got it something really exciting. The gogosi will be available sometime soon. Not sure when...
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Baked cheesecake with fresh strawberry compote. Not yet available though.
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I have a whole lot of recipes up my sleeve, but it's all a matter of when and if I'm willing to do them over and over again will be the determining factor if whether or not you'll find them available someday.
For now, this is it. And until I am able to finally have that coffee shop of my dreams, Garnet 403 remains a small kitchen of a Negrense, selling whatever food that comes to mind in moments of boredom.
Follow Garnet 403 on Instagram:
Just message our IG page for orders.
Deliveries will have to be arranged and shouldered by the customer.
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