How to be a successful restaurateur

Restaurant business can extremely be fun, exhausting and at the same time fulfilling, especially if the owner can get all the right people to do the work needed. Of course, running a restaurant entails much more than having a set of perfectly cooked dishes, it takes a lot of know how and experience. 

So how one can be a successful restaurateur? Well let's all learn from the experts, Philippines top Master Chefs. Here's a great article courtesy of Entrepreneur Magazine

Some say chefs are the cruelest people. Why? They whip cream, beat eggs, and pinch salt. But somewhere along the line, these four hardcore chefs also found the time to set-up their own food businesses. Meet the people who do more than just sautĂ© and fry; they manage inventories and apply for permits. Now that’s cruel.

This month, Entrepreneur Philippines features some of the country’s culinary talents who have managed to take their role in the kitchen out onto the managerial floor. These chef-entrepreneurs have not only mastered the fine art of cooking, but also managed to learn how to run a food business well.

With the challenge of feeding more than 90 million hungry and potential customers, learn how chefs Sau del Rosario of Le Bistro Vert, Museum Café, and Chelsea; Giney Villar of Adarna Food and Culture; Him Uy de Baron of Chef Cuisine; and Reagan Tan of Bubble Tea went above and beyond their calling to simply cook; they created their own businesses.

Chef Sau del Rosario

With his skinny jeans, side-swept faux hawk, and goatee, it’s easier to imagine Chef Sau del Rosario, 46, standing behind an electric guitar rather than a stainless steel kitchen counter. “I’ve always been the artist type,” he admits. “I don’t think about how much money I get from the business.”


However, for the celebrity chef with an ice cream flavor to his name and an equally impressive list of restaurants under his belt, the transition into restaurateur was just part of the whole business. “But now I’m made aware that the business [side] is equally important as cooking. For me, food is like fashion. It keeps on changing and it follows a trend. But to become a very good fashionista or a very good chef, you have to think ahead of time and people will follow you. I have to be experimental, self evolving; that’s how I do it with my food education.”

Chef Giney Villar

More than just a chef, in a way, one can perhaps call Chef Giney Villar, 45, a culinary anthropologist, if there is such a term. Otherwise, nostalgic would also be appropriate; and she isn’t afraid to admit it. “It’s my thing, heritage conservation,” she says. “I like old stuff.” Which would explain the collection she and her partner, Beth Angsioco, have managed to accumulate over the years: antique wooden chairs, vintage newspapers, photos, news clippings, and intricate carved windows. But rotary phones and carnival queen posters aside, it’s food that they consider their best find. Known for her authentic Filipino dishes, Villar has been attempting to bring back the flavors of the past through her cooking and her restaurant, Adarna Food and Culture.

Chef Him Uy de Baron

“The truth is, there are thousands and thousands of [culinary students] graduating each year, and there’s not enough restaurants. So what do you do?” asks Chef Him Uy de Baron, head of Chef Cuisine, a catering and chef consultancy company. “You have to look for a niche; you have to study that niche and you have to mold yourself to fit into that niche. If it means that you have to be a businessperson, then you supplement your culinary studies with business. If it means to do something else, then you supplement it.” And that’s exactly what Chef Him did, and more.

Chef Reagan Tan

And while most chefs find their way into restaurants, many also choose to go the more commercial route and go more fast food. Enter Chef Reagan Tan, 27, chef and owner of Bubble Tea Restaurant, the newest and perhaps best reincarnation of the sweet drink yet. “People were telling us that the whole bubble tea concept was dead already,” he says. “Admittedly, there was some hesitation [on my part] in the beginning. But because of my love for the drink and the desire to put up a bubble tea place, I took the risk and motored on with determination.” The result is the coolest bubble tea place in town.

Want to whip up some . Get some tricks up your sleeves with secrets gathered from your favorite restaurants? Discover the amazing cookbook here!

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