Of sweets & men
When men are sweet, they spr e ad good vibes. When they create sweets, they can turn your world upside down.
My “brothers from other mothers,” Harvey Angsanto and Ryan Ros Calmante, found their respective passion in creating food products in the middle of the lockdown.
Harvey, who is into the steel fabrication business, started making frozen chocolate cakes for his family to ease the strict quarantine period in their home. His kids liked his cakes and word got around. Now, he has his own chocolate cake business called Chokokeki.
Ryan, a former houseboy who now owns his PR agency, collaborated with a family of businessmen from his hometown of Ligao, Albay, and together they make Mazapan de Ligao. He started selling his sweets in Metro Manila. They were a hit.
Here are their stories, laced with sweetness and garnished with inspiration. Take a bite and smile.
Chokokeki
“I’ve always been busy with the steel business but with the pandemic, things went in another direction. We stayed home most of the time. We couldn’t go out. We couldn’t travel. I’ve always liked cooking for family and friends when I’m at home,” begins Harvey.
Last April, Harvey was restless. He thought about his late father Robert a lot. An avowed Papa’s boy, Harvey allowed his thoughts to meander. In his mind’s eye, he saw his father eating ice cream and chocolates. As his homage to his dad, he made, for the first time, frozen chocolate cake.
“Luckily, my family loved it and slowly a few neighbors tried it and enjoyed it until I recently took a leap and started selling cakes,” he says.
He named his cake business Chokokeki, which means chocolate cake in Japan, the favorite country of father and son.
“I use premium chocolates for our frozen chocolate cake and I always have complete fun making the toppings. I mostly work with Ferrero Rocher to top each Chokokeki, but I also experiment with other ingredients such as raspberry,” Harvey says.
His frozen chocolate cake is fine and rich, velvety and smooth. The sweetness is not too strong. A hint of dark chocolate is present. Chokokeki is a labor and flavor of love.
(For inquiries, follow IG @chokokekiph.)
Mazapan de Ligao
Though his PR agency is now picking up, Ryan is quick to admit that he lost business during the lockdown. But strength of character is second nature to him. He was once a houseboy who also sold vegetables and ice candy on the streets of Ligao. Ryan, his family’s breadwinner, would not allow the health pandemic to bend his spirit.
“My late father, Pascual Calmante, was a cook. He used to serve an affluent family in our hometown. I remember him bringing me to work as his kitchen helper. I would help him in peeling pili nuts. I know by heart the steps to cooking mazapan, from A to Z.
“I treasure those moments with my father, not only because of all the time I spent with him, but also because seeing the family we served inspired me to dream of the lifestyle that I wanted my own family to have one day,” Ryan says.
“It turned out that in that kitchen, while my father was cooking his mazapan specialty, I was also preparing my vision of the future,” he adds.
In the middle of the lockdown, he proposed a co-venture to produce Mazapan de Ligao with the former bosses of his father: siblings Gerry and Chona Samson and their mother Mimi Samson. It was a business deal made in heaven for, quickly, the Samsons agreed to his proposal. And the mazapan — made in Ligao — that Ryan sells now to his friends and high society in Metro Manila are selling like the proverbial hotcakes.
“Today, God has blessed me with the life I prayed and worked hard for. Whenever I think of mazapan, I am taken back to the days when everything that I have now was nothing more than wishful thinking. Through God’s grace, all those ‘one day’ dreams have become my ‘today’ realities.”
For Ryan, Mazapan de Ligao is a testament that “if you cook your ingredients right, the sweet taste of success awaits.”