Masa Madre in Manila, Philippines

Kris Tan, Chef-Owner

Origins

Before I was in college, even when I was sleeping, I was doing some folding in my sleep. That’s why I love making bread. The business idea started back in college. My mentor Peter Yuen would teach me to make croissants. Every day after classes in college, I made bread. I love baking plain breads, especially the croissants. We did some competitions in France, which was kind of new for the Philippines.

Masa Madre (meaning mother dough) started as a pandemic baby. I wanted just a test kitchen, but some of my friends ordered every week, and that’s how it started. I was selling online at first. I had a small sheeter, a deck oven and a small, second-hand mixer.

Company Mission

We don’t use any preservatives in our bread. We use liquid (59-year-old) levain in our sourdough starter for all of our breads. The second thing is we incorporate Filipino flavors in our baking. We always do our baking the traditional way. I’m actually an ambassador du Pain. It’s an organization in France that believes it should all be done in a traditional way. No shortcuts. We show respect in how we bake the breads. We don’t use enzymes in our breads; just the sourdough starter. Our goal is to elevate Viennoiserie in the Philippines to the global market.

Signature Products

This Christmas, we had bibingka (baked rice cake, cooked in a terra cotta over and lined with banana leaves) smoked coconut, salted egg and cheese, because that’s a Filipino holiday favorite. You taste the smoked coconut and a little bit of pungent saltiness when it comes to the cheese.

My favorite product is the Mentaiko Croissant. We also like to infuse Japanese flavors in our bakery. The base is cream cheese and fish roe and topped with a crab fat mayonnaise and bonito flakes on top. It’s a bit savory, a bit sweet, very umami.

Our customers love our Pork Floss Croissant. In the Philippines, there are a lot of Chinese people and they love that. We also have our version of cheese puffs. We use three cheeses. We have also our pastel de nata, our egg tarts. Of course, we make ube cheese puffs, which have ube halaya and cheese. There’s the Croibby Patty, a double burger patty with cheese. We use a croloaf (croissant loaf) to make classic croque monsieur. Lastly there is turon, which is a sweetened banana rolled in a thin sheet of paper like phyllo dough and then deep fried.

We’ve had requests for Filipino spaghetti inside of a croissant. It sounds crazy, but it’s delicious. It’s like a beef ragu but on the sweet side. There’s tomato and meat on the inside; cheese, mayonnaise, and some caramelized sugar on the outside.

Equipment Must-Haves

The sheeter and the rolling pin. Yeah, the sheeter makes it easier to flatten. The rolling pin is more the work of your hands. Bakers love to work with their hands.

Production Tip

Consistency with your staff first and then your products. My head baker has been with me since before we started Masa Madre. He knows my techniques for baking bread. He knows how I work. He also trains others, so it’s like connecting the dots and having the same alignment, so I can be more focused on expanding the business.

Secrets of Success

You need to love what you’re doing. You won’t get tired because you love it. Be consistent and show up every day. In my commissary, my staff is 20. In the café / bakery it’s nine. I want my staff to be able join competitions. At the FHA competition in Singapore, we won best croissant, best in tasting. I give highlights to my bakers. I want them to shine. I want that for all of my staff.

Future Plans

I’ll be opening another store next year in the south of Manila. Masa Madre is a B2B. We’re supplying about 160 cafes and restaurants in Quezon City, in Manila.

I want to open a new place around April; it’s a bakery / café and a small commissary. It’s not far, but here in the Philippines there is so much traffic. Actually, it’s just about 20 kilometers away. But with traffic it will take two to three hours. This way I can supply other cafes and restaurants in the area.

By five years from now, I’m planning to open in other countries. My next target is Australia, in Melbourne and, God willing, in the U.S. in L.A. I have relatives there.

Photos Courtesy Masa Medre

For more info, visit www.instagram.com/masamadrebakehouse

(This article appeared in the Winter 30 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)