Karen Alparce-Villanueva attributes The Nutty Baker’s arrival into her life from all that pent-up energy and time she had during the long lockdown. She’s the first to admit that although she can cook, she wasn’t particularly fond of staying long hours in the kitchen in her previous life.
By Alex Y. Vergara
A passion for cooking and good food runs deep in Karen Alparce-Villanueva’s family. Both her mother Medy, a full-time homemaker, and mother-in-law Tessie were superb cooks. But decades of working in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors as a corporate communications and PR practitioner kept Karen, now a retired mother of four young professionals, from fully exploring and unleashing her talents in the kitchen.
But the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing disruption it has caused changed all that.
As the owner of The Nutty Baker, a fledgling online restaurant and bake shop of sorts, Karen and a staff of two people have been busy catering to customers’ orders soon after the lockdown was lifted in early June.
Its offerings are divided into two categories: savory specialities composed of such dishes as Slow-Baked Pork, Roast Beef with Mushroom Gravy, Baked Sole Fillet, Baked Stuffed Chicken, Creamy Tuscan Salmon and Salmon-Kani Sushi Bake; and sweet specialties such as Carrot Cake with Walnuts & Cream Cheese Frosting, Blitz Torte, Chocolate Cake with Custard Cream & Whipped Ganache Frosting, Canonigo and Smores Brownies.
“I started cooking dishes for sale mid-June or a week before Father’s Day,” says Karen, who’s married to Captain Joey Villanueva, a veteran commercial pilot for Philippine Airlines. “I’ve been baking and cooking on a regular basis since then. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself spending so many hours in the kitchen.”
Since everything is pre-order, Karen needs a day’s notice from interested clients. She and two other women composed of Manang Rosie, her long-time cook and household staff, and another helper cook almost everything from scratch, including the sourcing of ingredients.
Karen, despite her fears of catching the virus, personally does the marketing herself at various supermarkets in Metro Manila, including S&R. Finding the right ingredients can also be challenging these days, especially for her best-selling sushi bake.
“Of course, it’s scary to go out,” she says, “but I need to fulfill my commitments. Otherwise, my customers would be disappointed. Booking deliveries to customers can also be quite stressful and confusing.”
There was one Saturday, for instance, when Karen and her team had to double time in the kitchen. What Karen thought were orders for an early Sunday lunch turned out to be, gasps, Saturday! Instead of delivering the dishes two hours earlier, Karen was able to do so by 1 p.m. To make up for the tardy delivery, she gave the client a free carrot cake.
“It’s a good thing she’s a friend,” she says of the customer. “But my husband, after learning what happened, scolded me. He reminded me to always double check clients’ orders.”
When we kid her that Joey should know what he’s talking about since he’s a pilot, a supposed stickler to schedules, Karen reminds us that somebody else does the scheduling for them.
“Somebody fixes their schedules beforehand and then calls them to remind them of their flights,” she teases.
Despite going through all that trouble, Karen finds fulfillment in the positive and even constructive feedback she gets from customers. One of them, for instance, was bold enough to tell her that her fish was a tad salty. Apart from taking to heart his criticism, Karen went on a charm offensive by offering the customer a completely new fish dish.
“The development gave birth to my tuscan salmon,” she says. “And he loved it!”
A number of customers with sweet tooth are also raving about her desserts. Karen’s carrot cake, says a certain Carol, is quite moist and by far the best of its kind she’s ever tasted.
Looking back at her former life as a busy career woman, Karen, who spent years working with such pharmaceutical companies as Zuellig, Pfizer and MSD before doing pro-bono advocacy work as part of the Philippine Alliance of Patient Organizations, can only smile and be the first to admit that although she can cook, she wasn’t particularly fond of puttering around the kitchen back then.
“We always had Manang Rosie prepare our meals for us, as I was too busy with corporate work,” she says with a laugh. “However, I grew up with my mom, who was a fantastic cook. Much later, I was also exposed to my mother-in-law who also knew how to do wonders in the kitchen.”
Karen, who describes her food business as a micro enterprise, attributes The Nutty Baker’s arrival into her life from all that pent-up “energy and time” she had during the long lockdown. To while away the time and perhaps ease her fears, she started baking and cooking again. Since she and her family could only consume so much, she soon started giving away freshly cooked and baked food items to other family members and close friends.
“Then the Kythe Foundation’s shoutout for donations caught my attention,” she shares. “I asked myself, why not contribute to the cause through my baking?”
Which was what she eventually did. It turned out that such an act of kindness was what she needed all along to jumpstart her culinary career. Now, Karen has regular clients who live as far east as Antipolo and as far south as Alabang. Even if not all of them are vocal with their praises for Karen’s cooking, she’s pretty sure that majority of them are happy and satisfied customers.
“How do I know? Because 80 percent of them are repeat customers,” she says, sounding very pleased.
For inquiries, call The Nutty Baker at 0917-8427094 or message Karen and her staff through The Nutty Baker’s Facebook page.
