Last May, The Wall Street Journal trumpeted the launch of Chef Creations by Claude Tayag—microwaveable meal sets being marketed by 7-Eleven as “healthy” comfort food—in the article “7-Eleven Goes Gourmet.” Online news site Rappler also dubbed it “gourmet Filipino food on the go.”
“I find it kind of ironic,” says Tayag, indicating that 7-Eleven never used the word “gourmet,” instead calling it “restaurant-quality,” while he himself prefers “home-style cooking.”
Tayag created three ready-to-eat rice meals: pulled pork with adobo dip, P95; pakbet with bagnet, P85; and pork sinigang sa kamias, P75.
The commissary follows traditional slow cooking, with a bit of deviation (the adobo, for example, borrows from French and American cooking) “because you do this on a mass-production level,” explains Tayag. “It boiled down to a formula: the precision of the exact weight, the exact timing of cooking, the process.”
Five years ago, 7-Eleven was already considering chef-made meals at below-P100 prices, but deemed the Philippines “not yet ready” at the time. In 2012, Japanese konbini stores, 7-Eleven included, were already offering “healthy salads” and organic produce.
When FamilyMart entered the country in April 2013, it gave 7-Eleven a run for its money. “FamilyMart is a catalyst for the improvement of other convenience stores,” says Chef J Gamboa, chef-consultant for FamilyMart at the time. He forecasts more Filipino food being offered at accessible prices. “People want to eat that. Put that in a convenience store setting, mas magaganahan silang kumain.”
The trend of “upscale comfort food” is expected to continue, even beyond Asia, already listed among the “12 Hottest Food Trends for 2014” by Forbes magazine.
Locally, Tayag is already developing the next Filipino viands for 7-Eleven, quite happy to formulate healthier alternatives to junk food, and more hygienic options to carinderia food. “Ngayon, pareho na raw ang kinakain ng amo at ng mga driver,” Tayag says.
This article was a sidebar accompanying the "Win the Food Fight" composite feature and cover story published in the August 2014 issue of Entrepreneur Philippines.