When my parents were in the bakery business decades ago, I practically grew up in a world of bread and pastries. Makita pod sa kahimsog sa lawas hihihi
True to the adage, I can live on bread alone and I can get creative too when they would ask me to prepare a sandwich for them and they end up blown away of how a simple bread can turn into some gourmet food. (You can check three of my sandwich recipes under the “Let’s Cook” category)
My secret is having a good loaf of bread or pastry pieces in the pantry. On top of my list are the ones which are creamy, and soft.
MAISON ICHIPAN
I thought I’ve already found the best ones until I tasted Maison Ichipan Bread at the media launch! They come in two variants: the soft and creamy white bread and the soft and tasty whole wheat bread. At the media launch, I lost count as to how many pieces I’ve devoured hahaha! Lami jud siya ui. I love how soft it is that you can simply roll it and it doesn’t end up flaky. It’s also tasty that you can eat it on its own – no need to add “palaman” (sandwich spread).
THE BIRTH OF MAISON ICHIPAN
Sugbu ACS Food Manufacturing Corporation is a pure Cebuano company that makes the first-ever Japanese-style bread in the Visayas. They named its bread, Maison Ichipan because Ichi in Japan means, number one and they want their bread to be the number one staple in every Filipino household.
Maison Ichipan started from the family’s vision of the company’s CEO John Oliver Yap. He recounts during the presscon that in one of their family travels in Japan, they were able to try several Japanese pieces of bread and they found it so good that they had this vision to come up with a piece of bread with the same quality that will be loved by Filipinos.
So when they put up their plant, all the pieces of machinery, equipment, formulation, and technology are all developed in Japan but they made sure that the taste is suited for the Filipino palates. “It’s using Japanese technology but the bread is suited for Filipino taste. So it’s basically the best of both worlds,” shares Yap.
The raw materials used are sourced from premium ingredients from Manila and some are imported. “It’s basically a combination of local and imported high-quality ingredients,” shares Plant Manager Joseph Ceniza.
The freshly-baked stocks are delivered from their Naga plant to the leading supermarkets, groceries, and convenience stores here in Cebu. They also deliver truckloads of bread to Bohol, Bacolod, and Dumaguete. On November 8 this year, they’re launching Maison Ichipan in Iloilo and by December in Tacloban.
Maison Ichipan is all available in all leading supermarkets, groceries, and convenience stores.
Now that the brand is barely five months old, plans are underway of expanding their products to a variety of bread and pastries that will be enjoyed by the Filipinos even more, and in the near future, they will venture to deliveries nationwide.
What started out as a family vision while traveling has now become a wonderful and fluffy surprise to Filipinos.
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