Restaurant chain to open first ‘clean,’ nutritionist-approved Chinese food destination
MANILA, Philippines — After a successful 15-year expansion, a Chinese restaurant chain is going back to its original concept: to open a one-branch-only restaurant serving “delicious” Chinese food with no monosodium glutamate (MSG) and other processed ingredients.
To eat an “authentic” Chinese food with no MSG or whatsoever seemed like only a dream — but not for Chinese restaurant chain King Chef, whose first branch in Banawe, Quezon City is being prepared to be converted into Juwei by King Chef, envisioned to prepare nutritionist-certified Chinese dishes that are “clean” to the core, said President and Chief Executive Officer Marites Ang.
“Actually, it’s bagong luma because this is the predecessor of King Chef. But it used to be named Cantonese Soup Asia. However, when we came up with the concept, it radically changed because we went after the market that likes healthy Chinese food,” Ang told Philstar.com about the concept behind Juwei, which the company targets to open by May.
“So, this is for the first time, a legitimately delicious Chinese food and at the same time, a healthy Chinese food that doesn’t use any MSG, processed sauces or any processed food.”
At the eighth branch opening of King Chef in Alphaland Makati Place recently, Ang explained why the new restaurant is taking over the first King Chef branch.
“So, we’re going to use the first store of King Chef in Banawe, which we did not reopen after the pandemic, because of our biggest branch, West Avenue. Ang lapit kasi nilang masyado… We’re excited because our chef is still the same chef who is supposed to open that concept. It’s just that the concept was taken over by the popularity of King Chef since we cannot take care of two brands while we were starting up. So medyo na-shelve s’ya.”
According to her, they revived their original concept after seeing a dire demand for it.
“Recently, I feel a strong need for the concept kasi especially after the pandemic, we have customers… nagkakaro’n na sila ng special dietary needs. We see special requests na like less oil, less salt, no MSG. So we kind of heard the need and we explored…”
While she has no special dietary needs, her son has because of his autoimmune disease.
“That’s why I have a strong push for this concept kasi ang anak ko walang makainan sa labas, ‘di ba? Everything has processed food, processed ingredients. But this one, it’s clean.”
The new restaurant will comply with health requirements like not double-using oil. Instead of processed sugar, they also use Muscovado and honey.
“Even canned mushrooms, we cannot use that. We use the fresh ones or the dry ones.”
All dishes are “nutritionist-certified,” said Ang, but the real challenge is to make these healthy dishes delicious as well.
“Actually, ‘yun ‘yung challenge, na dapat masarap s’ya,” she professed.
Serving healthy yet delicious authentic Chinese food is actually really challenging, said Ang, which is why it took them a year to develop their dishes and no other branches or expansion is planned yet for this concept.
“We only have a plan for only one branch. It would be a destination. Because we trained the chef, especially the Chinese cuisine chef, to cook without MSG, chicken powder, and then complying with all the requirements for the nutritionist, and they’re not that easy,” she admitted.
Despite the challenges, Ang has been able to prove something other than merely widen their restaurant chain’s portfolio — that serving authentic Chinese cuisine without the bad stuff is not impossible.
“So, kaya! Kasi kung iisipin mo, parang limited ang seasonings. But actually, we can use food to flavor our food, which is the traditional way. ‘Di ba, kung taong probinsya ka, wala ka namang processed ingredients, ‘di ba? So what can we use to flavor our food? We use food! Mayroon tayong aromatics, mayroon tayong carrots, celery to create flavors. So that’s how we’re able to still create delicious food without using the usual ingredients.”
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