Before Chef Florabel Co-Yatco ever thought about opening a restaurant under her own name, she made a deliberate choice to stay in other people’s kitchens. For her, knowing how to cook was never enough. What mattered more was understanding how restaurants functioned as businesses—day after day, under pressure, and across roles.
While studying at the University of Santo Tomas, she spent a full year in practicum under Glenda Barretto of Via Mare, followed by another year working as her protégé. “Nung nasa college ako sa UST, nag practicum ako for one year with Glenda Barretto of Via Mare, tapos nag-work ako dun for one year as her protégé,” she says. The experience gave her early exposure to the realities of running a food operation beyond the kitchen.
After that, she joined Le Soufflé, working under Chef Jessie and Billy King for the next eight years. “After that, I worked with Chef Jessie and Billy King at Le Soufflé for eight years,” she recalls. During that time, she didn’t move upward quickly or narrowly. Instead, she experienced nearly every role the restaurant had to offer. “I rose from the ranks kumbaga, from regular na taga-balat ng gulay, to taga-sauté line to the head chef to the general manager,” she says, adding that she wanted to understand the business from every angle. “So I experienced everything in the restaurant.”
Despite her natural extroversion and wide network, Co-Yatco resisted pressure to strike out on her own too early. “I’m a very extroverted person and marami akong kaibigan at kakilala,” she says. People around her often questioned her decision to keep working for others. “Ang tanong nila sa akin parang, ‘Why are you still working?’” She recalls that expectations within her community added to that pressure. “Di ba, pag sa Chinese, bakit ka pa nagtatrabaho? Why don’t you have your own business?”
For Co-Yatco, the answer was straightforward. “Eh ako it’s not enough that you know how to cook,” she explains. “You have to learn the operations.” She understood that rushing into ownership without that knowledge carried real risk. “Hindi ganon kabilis,” she says. “Kasi I may not survive.”
Rather than learning on her own at the expense of mistakes, she chose a different approach. “So sabi ko, I have to gain experience,” she explains. “Imbes na mag-practice ako sa sarili ko, I have to practice sa iba, para matutunan ko.” For her, formal training and hands-on exposure mattered more than theory. “Kasi kahit mag-aral ka pa, iba ang experience,” she says. “Experience is the best teacher.”
That belief shaped the timing of her entrepreneurial journey. She didn’t view working under others as delay or limitation, but as preparation—an opportunity to absorb lessons without bearing the full risk of ownership. By the time she was ready to open her own restaurant, she wasn’t just confident in her cooking. She understood systems, people, costs, and the day-to-day realities that determine whether a restaurant survives.
Chef Florabel Co-Yatco’s path shows that restraint can be a strategic choice. In an industry where talent often pushes people to open their own place too early, she chose to stay, observe, and learn. By spending nearly a decade mastering operations before ownership, she treated experience not as a stepping stone, but as the foundation. Her story is a reminder that in entrepreneurship, timing matters—and sometimes the smartest move is to wait until you truly understand how the business works.
This article includes quotes from an interview originally published by Esquire Philippines, authored by Henry Ong.
