House of Eden
23 years of good taste Š 2011 by John Tan & Romy Tan All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of John Tan, Roosevelt Bakeshop and House of Eden.
To the people who called this house their home
Home is where the heart is.
House of Eden 23 years of good taste
“Nakapulot ako ng Purity Flour Mill na libro sa basurahan tapos sinunod ko ‘yung mga recipes. Dito na nagsimula ang lahat.” - Encarnacion “Eden” Jao Tan
From the trash can to the kitchen The story is like a fairy tale, a lady cleaning up the house suddenly finds a book in the trash can. Purity Flour Mill was the title of the recipe book she found. Making use of the book, she started to follow the recipes inside. Chocolate cupcake was her first creation. Soon after, a butter cupcake followed, then empanadas came next. The trash she found became her bible for her new found hobby.
“Huwag mo sundin yung recipe, mali ‘yon kadalasan.” This was the first thing she learned from the recipe book. “Never trust the recipe”, she says. Try to follow it first, after doing so, you will realize that something is wrong or missing. Make the recipe yours, add or subtract ingredients to make it perfect for your taste.
At the corner It was in the early 1980s when a small sari-sari store started business at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and de Vera Street. The avoidance to compete with a nearby variety store pressured Mr. Kasio and Mrs. Eden Tan to think of a different business concept that will utilize the potential of the location. Since ample parking is available, the place was frequented by cabdrivers looking for quick snacks during their short breaks. The location is also a few hundred meters away from a maritime institute. This enticed students to have some snacks away from the ambience of the school. Drivers and students alike converge at almost the same time of the day with a common interest; make or break their day with very affordable snacks.
Taking it slowly With Mrs. Eden’s new hobby, she bought a table size oven and started baking for the family. Later on, she and her husband, Mr. Kasio took the opportunity of selling these items in their sari-sari store at the corner of their house. Mrs. Eden’s passion for cooking brought her to experimenting on the different ways of cooking and preparing empanada. Mr. Kasio got interested in hopia making and acquired a simple equipment in making this round Chinese pastry filled with ground “monggo”. This is one of the longest running item and one of the most popular snack items in that corner store.
“Ako yung taga-bake, si Roda yung mag-ooven.�
Equipment acquisition was not easy specially for a small variety store. A second-hand “hot pandesal oven� was the very first serious equipment bought by the store.
Upgrades The quality of empanada greatly improved with the latest upgrade. This very first “oven” opened a box of more baked goodies on the list of snack items. Although lacking in equipments and tools, it did not hamper the development of other baked items. A squeezer was modified from a simple stool in order to squeeze the cassava juice. This paved the way to cassava cake production. The improvised stool was immediately replaced by a more efficient squeezer a few weeks after the new item was accepted in the market. Other “kakanin” was tried to add variety to the very limited number of snack items. The display cabinet that started as a tabletop had to be replaced with a full-glass display cabinet. Soon, loyal buyers had to squeeze themselves during peak hours just to get hold of these “indigenous” snack items. Serious decisions had to be made in order to keep buyers more comfortable anytime they enter that corner store.
“Hindi ko
kaya ito.�
Taking a step further Noticing that the small bread business is getting a lot of reception from the community, Mr. John Khu, Mr. Kasio’s cousin, encouraged Mrs. Eden to push the small business further to being a full-time bakeshop. At first, the couple hesitated because making a bakeshop from a small hobby is difficult. A few more persuasions from Mr. John Khu lead the couple into making it a full-time bakeshop. The rest is history.
8.8.
88
Rooseve
elt Bakeshop
Start it with some luck It was in the year 1988 when the family decided to venture into a full-time baking business. Early-to- bed and early- to- rise was soon adopted by the family. With a minimal start-up capital, Roosevelt Bakeshop was officially born on August 8, 1988. Inquiring loyal clients were soon ushered to a more comfortable snack corner located at the furthest end of the establishment. Living up to its name as a bakeshop, Mrs. Eden had to venture into baking the traditional pinoy bread, the pandesal, sliced bread and buns.
Ups and downs With the increasing demand of bread, Mrs. Eden had to take in Mang Domeng, a baker from Naga City, just to bring the floppy white slice of bread into what is now branded as “White Bread�. Mang Domeng also advised Mrs. Eden to increase the number of products made a day. For him, to keep a large business alive, the number of goods produced must also increase. The solution for this was to expand their market, so they went to the palengkes and sold their bread to the small stores. Buns were the most sellable because these stores also sell burgers. The market expanded to the point that the bakeshop needed to buy a car to deliver goods to many places. Although this venture looks promising, it still didn’t last long. The small stores that she was selling to quickly close after a few months of operation. The payments stop as soon as the business ceases operation.
The more the merrier Along with Mang Jesus, and his baker brother named Mang Domeng joined the team and brought the recipe for the ube cake. Eddie replaced Mang Doemng and Mang Jesus, but after a few years of service, he transferred to Julie’s bakeshop, a rival bakeshop. The funny part is, Eddie went back to Roosevelt Bakeshop along with new techniques from Julie’s. Mrs. Eden then learned how to make the chiffon cake, through her bestfriend “kumare” Mrs. Rosario Lao. She then acquired a few more tricks from a certain baker named Joy. Adding a little sweetness to the cake, her sister-in-law, Rosita Ponti, taught her how to make a marshmallow icing. To fur-
ther improve the cake, Mrs. Eden’s daughter, Amab, took a seminar on cake decoration. This added the cake’s flowers, icing and aesthetics. Improvements and new recipes were discovered in time through the help of seminars and through her family and friends.
In addition
The original snack items still continued to dominate the market as development of new baked product emerged. Other new products like “chee-boom”, a pretzel-like stick biscuits was a sure hit to all overnight occasions. A star for all seasons is the sculpted bread called “litson bread”, a bread formed and baked to look exactly like a roasted piglet. The sticky rice baked into a “tikoy” can also be found as a standard item in bright red boxes during the Chinese New Year. Season or not, one can request any of these special items whenever necessary.
Health is wealth
Yet again, Mr. John Khu encouraged Mrs. Eden to use whole wheat grains on bread and rolled oats for cookies. More health conscious buyers and weight watchers were given special attention after numerous inquiries about healthy baked foods. Dietetic baked product soon came out of the shelves. “Health is wealth” found its print on some packages of these items. The “diet fruit cake” was requested by a nurse. Oat meat cookies were also crafted to suit the taste of the health conscious weight watchers. Wheat bread was not so popular those days when it was introduced in the vicinity. “Oaties”, cookies made from Kooka oatmeal, hit the health-conscious market.
For the people who believe that food should not only taste good — it should also be good for your health.
Selflessness Roosevelt Bakeshop is always open to those people who are willing to learn. Some of the people in the community took a short basic baking techniques in the bakery itself. Most of the people who study there are from abroad, since they miss Filipino style bread, they just bake it themselves. There are no secrets for Mrs. Eden, she willingly shares her knowledge so that the tradition of good taste lives on.
Limitations Since Roosevelt Bakeshop is positioned in a barangay community, the products that they sell are only for those people around it. Most of these people can’t afford much luxury on food. Besides, the residents, the nearby maritime academy, cab line and many other commercial establishments are the primary customers of the bakeshop. These people want cheap and fast yet delicious food.
This marketing boundary — if you may call it —, limits the bakery’s potential of making premium baked products. Special recipes for empanadas, banana cake and ensaymada were forced to stop, because of Mrs. Eden’s fear that no one will buy expensive food from them. Her specialty cakes were never made, cute and decorative cupcakes were only made for the family’s consumption. Only the family can taste the premium yet rare bread and cakes that Mrs. Eden makes.
“Sina Ian at Christian, ayaw kumain ng ibang doughnut, gusto lang nila yung dito gawa.�
Solution These limitations only lead to one thing, push the business further. The whole family knows that the premium bread and cakes that Mrs. Eden makes, quality to be sold outside. The simple solution to the problem is to expand the market, create sub-markets for different line of bread and cakes. Bread which requires expensive ingredients will only be sold to those who can afford. While the regular bread will still remain and accomodate the masses. House of Eden will unlock the bakeshop’s potential. This new line of bread will surely give the Roosevelt Bakeshop a new light.
Conceptualizing Brainstorming for this new brand was not that hard, since Roosevelt Bakeshop is the main brand. House of Eden just needs to be modern and classy at the same time maintain the tradition of Roosevelt Bakeshop. “House of Eden” came from the idea that Mrs. Eden should be the focal point of this brand, since this brand will unlock all her creative, dlicious and premium recipes. This new brand is not solely for the customers but rather focuses on Mrs. Eden’s potential.
The children just love these.
Home sweet home “House of Eden� not only focuses on Mrs. Eden’s talents but also on the idea of family, home or house. The establishment where the bakeshop is situated is actually the home for the Tan family. Mr. Kasio and Mrs. Eden has eight children that grew up and lived in Roosevelt. Now, all these children have their own families and houses. Even though these children live independently, they all still converge in Roosevelt Bakeshop. Clinics and businesses in the Roosevelt residence are owned by them. Most of the families often go there just to have lunch or go buy bread from the bakeshop. I guess home is where the heart is.