rius vernandes

A Continuous Learner

Rius Vernandes is best known as the founder of SecBowl, a rice bowl restaurant famous for its salted egg chicken. “It started not long after I graduated from a culinary school in Australia,” he begins. “I was really keen to have my own restaurant. But then I thought before opening my own, it would be better if I first learned about the business by working at Nomz in Grand Indonesia.” Later on, he discovered that salted egg chicken became increasingly popular in Singapore and decided to try his hand at building a restaurant centred around the dish. One thing led to another, and that very dish became a favourite comfort food for many people in Jakarta.

Establishing his own restaurant wasn’t Rius’ only major milestone, however. Another big one would be becoming a content creator, which took him out of his comfort zone. “To be honest, I don’t really like being in the public. It took me a long time to practice and even I left SecBowl for three to four months to learn videography, video editing, public speaking, and more,” he expresses. “My friends were quite surprised seeing me speak comfortably in front of a camera because, usually, I’m the observer in the group – not the chatty one or the one that jokes a lot.”

Having amassed around 787,000 subscribers on his vlog that focuses on travel, aviation and daily life, Rius has opened a lot of new opportunities for himself and his business. “There are so many things I can do today. Making digital content makes it easier for you to be recognised and it has a positive impact on SecBowl, too. It has also taught me to be wiser as we become the voice of people. There will always be pros and cons, along with risks, so it takes mindfulness to express our thoughts and ourself in a nicer way. As long we speak the truth, we don’t have to be afraid.”