Roni B Good
Words/ Lou Andrews, Roni B
Fresh food, family, friends and fun...Filipino style.
I’m pretty excited about my chat today with Roni from Roni B’s kitchen. I first saw her at the Surrey Hills Festival and I was drawn to her stall initially by the uniqueness of the product. I knew very little about Filipino foods (something I hope to cover off in this article) and I had certainly never tasted them, which is probably the same for many of you reading this. I mean, if I asked you to name a Filipino dish right now it’s likely many of you couldn’t. So, let’s dive together into this unknown world of fantastical flavours. These products are more than just branded sauces. They not only encapsulate something new, exciting and rich in heritage, but at the very heart they hold memories of traditional family recipes passed down through generations.
Roni B commented that ‘food is the central hub that brings family and friends together’ and that is what makes her and her products special. They are made with love. Don’t just take it from me, take it from Roni B...
Thanks for chatting with me today, firstly we’d like to know a little bit about you! Can you tell us about your background?
Cool. Um, background…I’m an only child born to a soldier and a housewife. My father and mother are both from the north of the Philippines, so I’m a northern girl. My father, being a soldier, we moved around a lot. I did live in the US for about a year, um, when my dad had training there. By education I am actually a marine zoologist! <laughs>.
I also went to med school for a year, didn’t like it and left. And basically, went into sales and marketing and here I am! I have been with my hubby for about 20 years, and we work together on Roni B’s kitchen.
What is your earliest memory of cooking at home when you were young?
At 12, my father bought me this great big cooking range, one of the biggest. So, I was there, waiting for the delivery <laughs>. I started baking in my family as my mom doesn’t bake, so I said to myself, ‘I will do what my mom doesn’t do’. I made all the pastries, all the cakes, the muffins. I would glaze hams for Christmas, you know, things my mom didn’t normally do. My mom does more traditional indigenous food.
So actually, you’ve been an outside of the box thinker since you were 12! You found gaps in the market even then! <laughs>. Clearly cooking’s always been a passion for you?
<laughs> Yeah. And in a Filipino household, cooking is one of those things that everybody does as a community, especially when you have fiesta and especially in the provinces. You would have big cauldrons outside of the house and they would be stirring in big pots <laughs>. A fiesta for us, especially in the provinces, it’s an open house, whether I know you or not, if you come to my house, you will get fed! And when I talk fiesta, you are looking at nothing less than 50 people coming into your house, so you have to cook loads from 7:00am until evening!
Wow. So, it’s constant food.
Yep, It’s constant food. <laughs>.
I read that you do your business full-time now, is that correct? And how did it all start?
That’s right, yeah. So, when I started this, I was reconnecting with my schoolmates from university, and we would meet once a month and all go out and have a meal. We couldn’t find too many, um, Filipino restaurants, so I thought okay, now there’s a gap <laughs>.
At that time supper clubs became fashion, so we started a business called Manila and we started doing supper clubs. We worked with Filipino chefs, as there’s a lot of Filipino chefs working in restaurants in London, and a few of them were in Michelin star restaurants so they’ve got the training. In December 2016, everybody was, like, doing supper clubs.
And at that point, I got an invite to go on Kirstie Allsopp’s tv show. They were doing a segment called, ‘alternative Christmas dish’. They invited four people who do supper clubs. I was doing Filipino food, one was doing French, one from Cameroon and one was Nigerian. We did a cook-off and I basically won that, and I said to myself, ‘okay, so that means Filipino food has legs in London’.
Because everybody else was doing supper clubs, you’re competing with a lot of people. So, I said to myself, ‘what would be the fastest way to spread the word, why don’t we just create products and make them ourselves?’.
So, me and my hubby, we started mixing ingredients in our kitchen <laughs>. We bottled and jarred everything ourselves and we would sell it to, you know, family, friends, colleagues… anybody who would listen to me talk about my product <laughs>!
We started doing markets with hot food and then gradually moved from hot food to the product business and then we named the business – Roni B’s kitchen.
I’ve seen that three of your products have won a Great Taste Award?
Its Four now! We got another one last year.
Wow, that’s really impressive and I think it’s the kind of stamp that people recognise when they see it on a product. But four…well done you! So, what products have got the four?
The first one was the Black Bean Chili Oil, which was One Star in 2019. The second was Kalamansi Marmalade which got Two Stars in 2020. The Garlic Chili Oil got One Star in 2021. And then my Black Bean Chili paste got Three Gold Stars in 2022. We were the first Filipino British brand to actually have it.
Nice. I bow down to you Roni <laughs>. That’s amazing. It really is. You must be so proud of that. I saw on your website that your products are all natural and vegan friendly. How important is that to you and your brand?
Well, you know what, I didn’t realise that my products were vegan friendly until my manufacturer said to me, ‘Roni, you are totally plant based, you are vegan!’.
So, I didn’t design it to be like that. It just happened to be like that, but it’s important for me to keep it that way. I mean, all natural has always been important to me. I don’t like anything artificial. I like the natural taste. I always say though that it might be vegan, but how you use it is up to you!
...you’ll have the biggest Adobo debate if you talk to any Filipino! The best thing I can say to you about Adobo is – there are 7,000 islands in the Philippines and there are 7,000 versions...
Why do you think Filipino food has been slow on the uptake in the UK? Because there seems to be no reason for it, yet I must admit I’ve never even tried it and I imagine many people reading this will be the same?
That’s the biggest debate! I think maybe because there’s no sort of cohesive campaign that the Philippine government can get behind. I remember probably about five or six years ago, Malaysia did a big push for Malaysian cuisine, and it was funded by the government, so that helps in creating a bigger noise. But when it’s like little noises here and there, that’s why I think it’s slow work.
For someone like me who’s never tried it, what foods would you recommend starting off with?
First thing you should try is Adobo. The reason I’m saying Adobo is because it is quintessentially the unofficial national dish of the Philippines. And you’ll have the biggest Adobo debate if you talk to any Filipino! The best thing I can say to you about Adobo is – there are 7,000 islands in the Philippines and there are 7,000 versions <laughs>. This one is mine. In the Philippines its always family based, passed on. So, it’s always my grandma makes the better one or my mom makes the better Adobo!
Your second should be Sinigang. It’s a sour soup with loads of vegetables and you can have it with meat, fish, or shellfish. And it is by one of the greatest Filipino food historians and her name is Doreen Fernandez. It is the best representation of Filipino cuisine, and it is my favourite dish in the entire world! <laughs>.
Wow. Okay. So, we need to try that one! <laughs>
Yeah. And then if you’re gonna try dessert, the quintessential Filipino dessert is called Halo-Halo which means mix. So, you get a tall glass of every sweetened fruit, sweetened beans with ice cream, milk, ice shavings, like a custard flan and you mix it up and you eat it when it’s hot.
Banana ketchup was developed in the 1930s, when the GIs were in the Philippines (pre-war time). They liked ketchup on their fries, but we had a shortage of tomatoes…and a lot of bananas!
The other product I wanted to ask you about is your Banana ketchup as I’ve never heard of it before, and it sounds amazing?
Banana ketchup was developed in the 1930s, when the GIs were in the Philippines (pre-war time). They liked ketchup on their fries, but we had a shortage of tomatoes…and a lot of bananas! So, this lady, Maria Orosa, (who is recognised as the one who created banana ketchup) created this condiment to basically service the US Army <laughs>. And slowly it became part of, you know, the Filipino condiments.
Unfortunately, because it’s Banana, back in the Philippines, they do use a lot of artificial colouring to make it red because ketchup must be red <laughs>. That’s why it took me a long time to produce Banana ketchup as a product and keep it natural. I use tomatoes. It’s not too much banana or too much tomato…It’s somewhere in between. So, when people see banana ketchup, they may think ‘Ooh, I don’t like bananas’…but try it first.
Yeah, for sure. I mean for me, I love bananas. Do you eat it like you would normal ketchup?
Yeah. And when you buy big buckets of banana ketchup, you can use it as a base for some of your sauces. So here we will use tinned or fresh tomatoes, in the Philippines we use banana ketchup!
The other product I wanted to ask about is this Tamarind jam. I saw on your website that it goes really well with cheese. Is that right, because we are a nation of cheese lovers?
Yeah, it does. Tamarind is one of those plants or fruit that was introduced into the Philippines. In Filipino cuisine, the major flavour is sour. The Filipino palette likes sour and salty flavours. We are the masters of cooking with vinegar as one of the sours. You ask any Asian-American chef and the first thing they’ll say is ‘if you wanna know how to cook with vinegar, ask a Filipino’ <laughs>!
Roni B, thanks so much for talking to me. It’s been a real pleasure and very educational too! I do hope people read this and check out your website or Instagram pages and try some of your products.
And there you have it…you are no longer a novice in Filipino food! It’s very clear that she is passionate about her product, and you don’t see that very often…product over mass production. Is there anyone else you would rather have making your marinades?! Plus, she is a big Marvel fan (so added coolness!). She may well be ‘a little noise’ now, but I have no doubt that Roni B’s Kitchen will be selling out stadiums very soon! One of the mottos for Roni Bs kitchen is ‘Born in Manila, made in the UK’…and it looks like she’s bringing it home.
Lou x