Maritel Nievera’s Cabalen: Cooking up 30 years of delicious memories
Thirty years ago , a 2 0 - s ome - thing entrepremom dared to dream and put up a restaurant that would compete with the already established big Filipino restos at the time.
“I studied their menus and ate at their restaurants,” Maritel Nievera recalls. “I was scared as I thought, ‘How do I compete with all these big names?’ But they were all offering the same things, only under different names and descriptions. So, I said to myself that if I did what they were doing, I would just be one of them.”
Probably born with a silver ladle in her hand, she grew up in San Fernando, Pampanga amid the dazzling aroma of good food forever cooking in her Apong Julia’s kitchen. Fired by her burning passion for food, coupled with her business savvy (at 17, she was already running a small business in Pampanga called Bahay Pasalubong), Maritel got together some of Pampanga’s best cooks, the old kusineras, brought them to Manila and established her first Cabalen restaurant on West Avenue, Quezon City.
“My first Cabalen had the recipes of the cooks of Pampanga, which is reputedly the culinary capital of the Philippines,” says Maritel. “For instance, I had the asadong manok of Sta. Rita, Guagua; the kare-kare of San Fernando; the sisig of Angeles City, which is the honest-togoodness original recipe of the queen of sisig Aling Lucing who sold her now iconic sisig along the railroad tracks; and the tibok-tibok of Angeles City (the Kapampangan version of panna cotta made of pure carabao’s milk). I also had morcon, kaldereta (beef stew, slow-cooked the Kapampangan way), the authentic Kapampangan dinuguan (pork stew), and the real Kapampangan burong hito (catfish with fermented rice).”
It was a concept never before seen — or tasted — in Manila. Soon, Cabalen’s popularity spread by word of mouth — make that contented mouths. In 1992, Cabalen opened at SM Megamall, where it grew from a mom-and-pop store to today’s pioneering all-Filipino buffet concept, Cabalen Eat All You Can, Eat All You Want (which started as Ituro Mo, Iluto Ko).
Asked about the secret to the success of her enduring classic and true Pinoy dishes, Maritel is quick to reply, “One of our strengths is that we’re very consistent when it comes to the quality of food and to preserving our traditional Pinoy dishes, which we call Cabalen signature dishes.”
Cabalen is certainly proud of its melt-in-your-mouth, tenderlicious kare-kare (ox tripe stew) which romped off with the prize pot, literally speaking, at the kare-kare cook-off on the Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho show. It was Maritel herself who cooked the winning kare-kare, competing against cooks from Barrio Fiesta and Razon’s.
But of course, Maritel’s stirring victory did not come as a surprise. For these past three decades, she’s always cooked her time-cherished kare-kare the same old-fashioned way. “In the commissary, we prepare the galapong and peanuts from scratch and these are delivered to all the Cabalen branches,” Maritel shares. “We use only the freshest ingredients for our kare-kare.”
She adds, “We introduce new dishes quarterly. For instance, for Valentine, we have aphrodisiac dishes like balut a la pobre. Crispy kangkong a la Cabalen We also use whatever is in season, like if santol is in season, we have different santol dishes like santol salad, ginataang santol, sinigang na bangus sa santol.”
This year, Cabalen celebrates its 30th anniversary with a total of 41 — and counting — Cabalen-run concepts and restaurant branches: Soi, Mangan, Eat Pinoy, Cerveseria, and Salusalo. Today, Cabalen serves one of the most affordable buffets in town at P298++. The buffet has expanded to include a bit of Japanese, Thai and Chinese food in Cabalen’s Mall of Asia, Megamall, and Ermita branches, to cater to young customers.
“As the business grows, every day is a new day to face challenges, I don’t call them problems,” Maritel asserts. “I’m involved in the day-to-day operations. I am very strict, demanding only high performance and quality service centered on values from the dishwashers and bus boys to the chefs and department directors.”
For her pioneering work, sterling leadership, and unstinting service to the industry, Maritel is receiving the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award (APEA) 2016 under the hospitality, food service, and tourism industry next month. Organized by Enterprise Asia, APEA is awarded to leading entrepreneurs across the region as a powerful voice for entrepreneurs.
On top of all this sweet success, this benevolent entrepreneur never forgets to look back and give back. Because for Maritel, success is sweeter when it’s shared with others. This Christmas season, as we savor the good food on Cabalen’s holiday buffet (think various paella classics, callos, native choco, bibingka, suman bulagta), we can also bring good tidings to the less fortunate through Cabalen’s Eat and Help campaign. From Nov.15 to Dec. 31, for every amount you spend, a portion goes to the Cabalen Para sa Kabataan program. Through “Maagang Pamasko ng Cabalen” promo, diners in turn receive exciting items like appliances and gift certificates from Cabalen. So, what have you got to lose?
“Before I go to sleep, I dream of a new dish, a new solution to a problem, a new outlet. When I wake up, I already have a direction, ready to transform it to reality,” Maritel declares.
With our excited taste buds, we certainly look forward to what Maritel will dream of next.