Chowtime Cuisine:

How did the Chowtime came about?

Established 9 years ago (2006), started as a common Carinderia

Because of the owners passion, he was able to commercialized his business
(to develop into pro commercialized)
The owner finished the courses of Accounting and Management at AdZU
And because of his passion, he continued on by self-studying, attending
seminars, and attended crash courses.
The name Chowtime came about when Jonald (the owner) was having a
drinking session with a friend. As they were having it, and that friend asked
what would be the name of the restaurant. Jonald said Chowtime since
Chow means eat. (To eat and to Socialize)

The owner still does market training to go at par with the market/ the ever
changing taste and preferences of the market.
2.a. What benefit does the location give?
The owner believes that you should trust your product and the quality that you
serve and the market you just come to you. And although it is quite far, it gave
the owner the challenge to make more menus to catch the attention and with
the help of some media, they know that their restaurant will exist in the market.
Advantage in location: Far from city, far from the distractions, not a
commercialized sector (area), comfort setting, home setting ambiance (feels
like
home)
Positive side: In making specialty foods because food, create new foods/ viand
atleast that the people from afar will go to them.

Chowtime is a FOOD FUSION- because of its combination of various multi-cultural

dishes that suites to the taste and preferences of zamboangeneos.
Because of the owners past travels (Singapore) he was able to get ideas for his
restaurant. And at the same time he also realize that the market here is different
from other countries, he thought of creating dishes thats for us (zamboanga)
Zamboanga is considered as s multi-cultural city therefore, people in zamboanga
has different preferences for food, so he had to meet the halfway and thats
when he decided to make dishes that was not common which would capture the
market. (eg Special Bulalo)
Is the management very Hands-on?

The past hands on management of chowtime consist of the owner who does the
cooking, delivering and etc. But he saw that he cannot cope up with the market
if he became the Jack of all traits (doing all the work) Now, his terms of hands on
is he finds them, manages them (eg. What should the employees do and errors
in cooking) And if there are any errors he corrects it as soon as possible.
The owner knows how to designate his duties in the restaurant.
Who is the target market of the business?
The class B, C, and D. (A is not considered as a target market because they are
people who are wealthy and who is picky in terms of choosing what to eat. Also,
the class A doesnt really go mingle with the other classes)
The class B, C, D, are the average and lower class income earners who comes
home tired and doesnt have the time to make food at home, they come here to
eat.
Families are also considered as target markets because on saturadays and
Sundays, they come here to enjoy.
Given our prices, we have value meals which are affordable for the average and
lower class income earners to eat during any of the day.
What is the vision of the business?

Strengths of the business?

1. The food, the way how we present and cook the food. Jonald makes it
personally even though the materials are from Zamboanga . No one else has
it though the dishes can be homogeneous in name but they are different in
terms of its composition. They have specific products too that no one else
has..

Main Competition?
2 types (as said by Jonald):
1. Direct restaurants itself (Palmeras, Chinitos, Mano-mano ), Catering
(Astoria, and etc.)
2. Indirect -carinderia and fast food

He sees to it that he creates food that competitors dont have so that when
people me to Chowtime so that people come there for a reason. That is what
he looks at given that there is a healthy market .
Vision?
5 yrs ago he wanted, that considering it being multi-sectoral, let the people of
Zamboanga taste or experience Zamboanga foods like no other. That is why he
branches out to Cebu in Manila because he wants to bring the local dishes here over
there.
Challenges?
The food business is a challenge. Every operation time is a challenge. Everyday
they receive customers so he usually lets the customer evaluate them with a slip so
that he will know what to do, is times held back given there are a different
generation from before.
The struggle is to cope up with dynamic times. But he innovates the food, he makes
the new ones but still keep the all-time best sellers?
Are there still challenges then, now?
Its an everyday challenge. He has to know on what is the trend or in today.
Attention to advertising?
Jonald (the owner) knows how important advertising is, but we as a small enterprise
should consider the cost of it. You cannot spend millions on advertisements or on
media, but we have to consider what is cheaper, like through facebook, you just
have to create a facebook account.
Secondly, the service, if you are engaging in a service related business, you have to
consider that advertising here is purely Hands-on.
MAGTV
The owner had an cooking demo on magTV, it reached the people in Ayala
and on that particular day, they were sold out in all porducts by 7pm
Monetarily, we have to consider that the funds are limited
How would you maintain it?
Since madami na nang cliente binebase ko na ang mga pagkain, dun ko na tlga
niadvertise by making delicious foods, sila na mismo magaadvertise.
Innovations the business undergone

It comes with the infrastructure, before it was kubo-kubo, and way before it was
actually a tent, in the middle? So everytime the infrasture gets bigger/wider, I
change it, because the space is getting smaller. I I have to reconstruct it again to
make it more appealable like now.
If ever Ill be putting another branch, so it would look more beautiful and relaxing to
the clients.
Innovations when it comes to food and equipment
Before, they usually use Iron casts in making the dishes, but now we usually use
the Teflon. Like the equipment, before the iron cast so we have to use the
Teflon one. So just like the infrastructure, we have to CHANGE the equipment.

Usage of high-end equipment

Accuracy in prep

You still have to innovate to go about with the trend. Because the food business is
really a course of learning about the business. If you just rely on what resources that
you ALREADY have, thats where you will go down.
What made the management undergo catering services?
Since you already started catering, what do you do is you study the catering
business.
How would you do that?
So you join the Government, the Philippine govt. procurement, to be a member on
tourism establishments to widen your catering service, not like individual, we
already serve the government portion . You cannot join there catering if you arent a
member.
Comparing times before and todays present time
NOW is more favorable. Although you said that before is favorable because back
then there were less food establishments.
Now is more challenging than before. Me, I love a challenge, because challenges
make me create more that is more appealing, more palatable for the clients.
So now, there are a lot of food establishments, and with the challenges they face,
youll able to know wholl survive in that market.
Jonald said: Life is boring without challenges

How well the business adapted to modernization

Actually you really have to adapt with the trend. If you are stagnant in what you
have, then thats it. Ive seen many food establishments in different cities, they
have the money; they hire someone to cook for the,, they have their chefs, they
have everything, even a beautiful venue. But, the only problem is, they dont have
the passion. And without passion, youll surely fall and fail.
Without passion for your business, you wont accept challenges, you wont go with
the market, you wont upscale, you wont think of what is the trend today. Like I said,
you cannot expect for people to eat the same food for the past 10 years.
Customers:

Boyfriend and girlfriend, until they got married and have kids, they still eat at
chowtime
A friend in bygems, from married, until they got kids, until the kids were
grown up they still eat there.

-What you can see in ration, there is already a market.

The trends of my business change, because you cannot eat the same food. Thats
why starting next week I have the regular menus, but everyday, well be starting
serving 3 different menus on that particular day only.
Processing branches on Manila and at Cebu its already established.
Who manages these branches? Actually, my siblings. You know, in business, you
should know how to reward who are loyal to you. I had a staff before, he was a
dishwasher. I saw the potential, trained him myself and now hes a chef of
chowtime. So, you reward those who deserve it in the business.
Given this Menu, do you say that you are serving a Family Dining?
In identifying your menu, you should read some () foods, good for 3 to 4 servings.
For individual dining, we have our value meals. And in serving them food, you
should create something that isnt common.

The name CHOWTIME (referring to the sign outside near the road) has visible
products of San. Mig, and when people from other cities come across to the sign,
theyll think of the concept that Chowtime cuisine is a Beer house so I have to
remove it.
So really have to study the trends. Again, if you saw that sign would you bring your
kids here? No.
They have smoking signs in the area (They have an area for smokers)

You should do what you need to do, because that is what the law said
(ref: smoking)
The transition of non-smoking areas was about one week.
It became more appealing to the customers. WHY? The people who eat here
with their family and kids feel HEALHTY, because they can see that there are
no people smoking in the area.
WEAKNESSES:
When I make a decision, it should always be smart. It should be specific,
measurable, attainable, resource-bound and time-bound. Weaknesses is part of your
business even in our distributorship, restaurants, weaknesses are always present.

Newbies
If the owner is not around, how will the employees treat the customer?

You should really identify the weaknesses, if you say you dont have any
weaknesses, then you dont have any room for growth, and that is where it gets
hard, for you and your business.
FUTURE PLANS:
To make our won venue and hotel/inn (because we are far from the market)
Putting up his own convention
(let schools have events there instead of going to pasonanca, seeing that it is
the nearest that has one)
OPPORTUNITIES:
The TERMINAL that is soon to open
(That is why he is planning to establish a hotel or stay inn)
(Do you think they will go there [referring to other hotels and inns] when the
nearest on is here?)
The government offered him to open a branch at the terminal, but he refused.
Because why would people coming home to Zambo. from Cagayan, ipil and etc. will
eat at chowtime when they could just go home right away and eat there.
Guiwan incident (bombing)
When the bombing incident happened, the bus was transferred temporarily in
divisoria (new terminal), so for those people who waited for the bus came to us and
eat.
Others:
The owner studied marketing and the clients and its still at process.
Owner has trained in Manila with the sous chef of Vikings.

The owner is aware of the trends (Modernization) and does environmental/ market
scanning.