Plate bloomer

Maricar Maniego Owner Maniego’s Plate

“Everything I do, siguro, is because of love. Love for cooking, love for serving, love for hearing admiration and appreciation. That’s what keeps me going.”

SHE passed around cookies, brownies and macaroons in canisters to her friends and classmates in school. As she journeys toward willing retirement, irrepressible food lover Maricar Maniego still finds her business on the growth path.

The three streams of her cooking — canteen, catering and food bazaars — take the daily scolding: from her, herself the boss on a discipline check, from kind constructive comments from clients keeping her on her toes. Everything, for Maniego, is noted with good will. The details do not hide and everything is run on plain sight.

Which explains her schedule, a daily food service romp running well into evenings.

Food straddles self-expression and love language for this owner of a growing catering business.

“Everything I do, siguro, is because of love,” Maniego sums up. “Love for cooking, love for serving, love for hearing admiration and appreciation. That’s what keeps me going.” This emotional investment also orders her business’ history. She can look at it with optimism, despite the real roller coaster it has been.

In the catering and food business, longevity has become something of a badge. If not for the bottom lines, repeat orders and client loyalty erase the small missteps and some unrewarded risks.

Maniego is proud that most of her clients have become her friends over a decade of collaborating spreads for events both big and intimate.

She is present and engaged in most of the accounts. “Mahirap na kasi ‘yung business na hindi nakakausap ‘yung owner.” While she does not shy away from the hundred-seater bonanzas, she is as accessible as her own staff, ready to plate and serve if necessary. From feeding the board of trustees to the general assembly, she curates even the most intimate events with an increasingly informed taste. Her events could rack up about 800 attendees, which could easily induce panic in the tight ships of independents.

Not Maniego. Her hands-on approach soothes both client anxieties and her own, and she can run through her assets on prompt: “Good food, nice set up, professional waiters, communication or after-sales.” These were probably rote from a graduate of Hotel and Restaurant Management of the University of Santo Tomas.

Sometimes, taking away the spotlight from the food is the human resource serving it. This she considers one of the tricky terrains of the catering business.

She recounts an incident when a trusted client complained about the chatter of staff as they were preparing for the event. She acknowledged the oversight, apologized and vowed to improve. Since then, she has served the same client’s important business meetings in the next decade.

Food straddles self-expression and love language for this owner of a growing catering business.

Self-doubt still creeps in, even lingers. Maniego’s Plate, though full, can only be assessed as much as the founder’s confidence.

“What is the definition of success, even?” she asked, role reversing the interviewer. “I think we have individual definitions, not just monetary.”

Maniego might be finding it hard to detach from those instances where she considers “failures” the more apt adjective. It’s her perfectionist’s doom. There’s a chance she is conflating these with perceived weaknesses, the ups and downs, and the unwieldiness of destiny. She is still hoping to crack the lottery, despite the many engagements she books. But she considers these “failures” as “reasons to go on.” She has skidded to bankruptcy before daring again. And it has become her measure of success that she never gave up.

Cooking the plate

Maniego’s Plate serves up a succession story. Maniego attributes her love for food to her grandmother. But the food represents so much struggle, an industry that relied as much on diskarte and business know-how than what the food meant.

She grew up watching her parents churn merienda, from palabok to rice cakes to ice candy, for sale. Her lola, who later would be known as the iconic Seseng of Seseng’s Place in Antonio Rivera in the 1980s, would be the backstop of her parents’ entrepreneurial attempts. “Tinuturuan n’ya ‘yung parents ko ng mga diskarte,” Maniego observed.

This groomed her mother to become, in turn, the famed Tita Tess of the restaurant Lutong Kapampangan in Tayuman in the 1990s. Maniego proudly bills herself as the third generation in this line of food business namemakers.

“Sobrang eagerness ko noon magkaroon ng food business, in any way. Kaya ang dami kong naiisip, kaya nagpaparegister ako ng name ko dati sa DTI (Department of Trade and Industry), kahit hindi naman agad natutuloy,” Maniego recalled of the early days.

Then, as always, the great interruption to an otherwise lurching career — personal life. Maniego got married at 21 years old, which replaced her food business fantasies with flirtations with jewelry and RTW sales. “Pero pag fiesta sa amin, ako parati ang aligaga,” she said of the moments she would be recalled to the kitchen, willingly absorbed and up to her ears in work.

The fiesta and other family gatherings whip her into action. These events are her element and comprise something like muscle memory. This was exactly the training that led her to ventures of her own. In 1998, she forayed into catering at her measured pace — “2008 nung nag full blast ako.”

Food straddles self-expression and love language for this owner of a growing catering business.

Then she started serving her offerings in school and company canteens from 2010. “Kasagsagan noon ng mga call centers,” Maniego recalled. This was the golden decade where Maniego really came into her own, even dipping her fingers in frequent participations at the bazaars of the famed outdoor market, Mercato.

It’s in her imprint. “Sa family namin, ako ang pinakamahilig mag-ayos. And then si Papa, kahit banker pa sya, nakikita ko tinutulungan niya ‘yung mama ko [magluto at maghanda ng mga paninda] pag-uwi niya sa trabaho.”

Her step slows to the rhythm of her acquired expertise as showrunner, then picks up at new concepts and challenges. She innovates here and there, drying previously used flowers to minimize waste for the next events. Then she envisions the next spread with a wolfish hunger. Her entire clan and family already runs Casa Maniego in Zambales, a beach respite boasting the aesthetics and attention to detail of their service-oriented family credentials.

But Maniego looks far, beyond her buffet tables and their trimmings. A restaurant, a café in the next 10 years.

“‘Yung dream ko, art café,” she said. “Gusto ko parin kasing i-push ang Filipino food, pero level up.” She cited as a model a restaurant that has claimed fame from its sophisticated menu of inventive Filipino dishes, then laughed at the bar she has set.

With her record of getting things done, Maniego might be laughing all the way to the bank.

Quick Questions

What really makes you angry?

I’m angry at work whenever a crew member will not report unannounced.

It usually results in a domino effect.

What motivates you to work hard?

I get more motivated, enthusiastic whenever our clients commend our food, set up and service.

What makes you laugh the most?

When my crew members are so nervous to face me whenever they’re late. Alam kasi nila galit talaga ako, pero minsan naggagalit-galitan lang naman. Then magso-sorry sila, matatawa na ako.

What do you want to be when you’re small?

During my younger years, I really wanted to be an interior designer.

I dreamt of studying at PSID (Philippine School for Interior Design), then working in

a prestigious company.

What would you do if you won the lotto?

If I win the lotto, I will buy all my siblings houses and lots in Australia, will give 200K each sa mga pamangkin, will establish a foundation for elders and the less fortunate,

will adopt stray dogs and cats, and give whatever my children want.

If you could share a meal with an individual,

living or dead, who would they be?

I love sharing food. Madalas kapag me humihingi ng limos kahit barya lang, ang ibibigay ko food. Lalo na kapag mga matatanda. Sa mga pet aso man o pusa, gusto ko masarap kinakain nila.

Also noon pa, I wanted to have a gratitude meal, para sa mga clients ko na patuloy nagtitiwala.

What is the most daring thing you have ever done?

Daring and sexy? I think during my younger years — still fit and glamorous haha —

since hands-on ako sa business ko, side-eye, nakikita ko pano ako tingnan ng mga male client and even waiters ko

habang nag-a-arrange ako ng flowers, backdrop, etc., haha napapahanga.

What was the last book you read?

“Ang Alamat ng Ampalaya.”

Which celebrity would you like to meet for a cup of coffee?

Brad Pitt.

What is the one thing that you will never do again?

Starting a business nang hindi financially ready. Nang walang buffer fund.

Kasi sugal talaga. It will really take time, effort, money… kasi madali ka mauubos.

Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?

I’m 52 now, sabi ko sa sarili ko dapat at 55 nagawa ko na gusto ko noon pa. ‘Yun magkaroon ng café o resto na may show kitchen. Then dapat at 55 established na ito at na i-transfer ko na sa anak ko. At 62 dapat relax na ko nun, ini-enjoy na lang quality time with my anak and maybe apo na din. And not to forget sana buhay pa din

si Koko (her French bulldog) and Alas.