A family affair

From a by-order home industry started 14 years ago, The Cravings Group has become one of the country’s most frequented gourmet cooking restaurants and bakery chains – and with a professional cooking school to boot.

Founded by the Guerrero family, Cravings is managed by Chef Susana Pascual-Guerrero and her daughter, Marinela Guerrero-Trinidad. Susana is the first Filipino to be granted the title of Certified Culinary Professional by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. A brother is also a chef, and another an architect who does gourmet cooking too.

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Cravings began as a single bakery counter along Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City, selling croissants and baked goods. Friends asked Susana to put up a restaurant where they could dine in amid the aromatic smell of baked goodies. The Guerrero family later complied, building a cozy coffee shop and expanded bakery while maintaining an at-home atmosphere. The building has since grown into the Cravings Center, housing the company’s administrative offices, the original Cravings Restaurant and Bakeshop, The Coffee Beanery, The Orange Place Hostel and the highly renowned Center for Culinary Arts (CCA) Manila.

CCA Manila is affiliated with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Canada. Under Chef Guerrero’s guidance, the school, which offers students a holistic culinary education, has since produced chefs, business managers and entrepreneurs.

The Guerreros’ love for cooking and for the business itself has spurred the company to other endeavors. Cravings affiliates now include a number of establishments: C2 Restaurant at the fifth level of ACEED Conference Center in Makati is now the official culinary restaurant of CCA Manila, showcasing the vast talents of its culinary students. The elegant Monsoon restaurant in Linden Suites, Ortigas, taps the surrounding business and residential community.

Two Antipolo-based establishments, theme restaurant Grilla Bar and Seven Suites Hotel-Observatory, take advantage of their location and offer patrons both good food and service and a great view.

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The business’ success is due to Ms. Trinidad’s hands-on management approach to the variety and quality of Cravings’ offerings and services.

Since November 1996, Cravings has been implementing the 5S Japanese Method of Good Housekeeping as part of its enterprise-wide quality and productivity program. With strong management commitment, 5S, a system for sorting, straightening, scrubbing, standardizing and sustaining principles that go beyond mere workplace orderliness, has been a way of life for the business group.

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Cravings’ waste and recycling programs make it a role model for other restaurants. Along with its 5S Productivity Program, the establishment has set up a Junk Fund from its recyclable materials that are used to support its productivity programs. Food refuse is collected daily and composted for the Cravings Herb Garden in a private lot in Loyola Grand Villas. The compost has helped Cravings produce its own selected herbs and vegetables to supply its Soup and Salad Bar and other recipes served in all Cravings outlets.

Cravings is also a leading supporter of the Greening of Katipunan Project and is a member of the Recycling Movement of the Philippines Foundation.

To rid the company of useless items, Cravings stages a grand bodega sale where unused items, appliances and equipment from outlets and offices are sold for a minimum price to employees. Ms. Trinidad says the proceeds go to the Junk Fund, "where we get funding for our 5S and productivity-related activities and programs such as composting and waste segregation." The waste segregation program and other sustained quality practices are hoped to lead the company to eventually gain ISO 14001 certification.

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Aside from Katipunan Avenue, Cravings restaurants are located in Shangri-la Mall, Robinson’s Place Ermita and Wilson St. in Greenhills. Cravings Café can be found in Festival mall, Robinson’s Galleria, Greenbelt Mall, Asturias St., and the newly opened restaurant on the 31st floor of Fraser Place Serviced Residences.

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NOW you have a fully-organic weekend market to go to. It’s the Podium-Organic Lifestyle Weekend Market at the corner of Julia Vargas and ADB avenue. (OPTA stands for Organic Producers and Traders Association.). The market will open for the first time this Saturday (and Sunday). The vegetables, fruits and herbs sold are certified organically-grown. Livestock products do not contain antibiotics and hormones. Even the cooked and processed foods have been prepared without synthetic ingredients and processing aids and vegetable oils, nor white refined sugar. Even artificial body and household ingredients not contain harmful substances.

According to Jaqueline Haessig Alleje, market facilitator, eventually customers will develop the habit of bringing their own bayong or containers so that the use of plastic bags will be minimized, as plastic is made of petroleum-based raw materials.

Weary of synthetically-aided food, vegetables, herbs? This weekend market is the answer to your dream of eating only organically grown products.