Perfect Ingredients

Celebrity chef Arnold Poernomo is building entrepreneurship in the country’s F&B industry.

- Ulisari Eslita

The food and beverage industry (F&B) is among the fastest-growing industries globally and certainly in Indonesia. The rising population, increasing disposable income, changing demographics, and technology adoption make the perfect ingredients for the robust growth. In Indonesia, the association of food and beverage entrepreneurs (GAPMMI) estimates the F&B will grow by 5-7% in 2021, higher than the country's GDP growth projection.

Seeing the F&B industry's vast potential, celebrity chef Arnold Poernomo, better known as Chef Arnold, helps develop the industry through diverse platforms. For the past few years, Chef Arnold has been busy. Besides being one of the judges of the cooking reality TV show Masterchef Indonesia, Chef Arnold set up an F&B accelerator called Digitarasa, started the rice bowl restaurant chain Mangkokku together with President Jokowi's first son Gibran Rakabuming. Yet, he still has the time to run his Youtube channel with more than two million subscribers.

In Arnold's perspective, the F&B industry is an everlasting business. However, the business model has changed over time and was recently disrupted by digitalization. Now, to win the market, Arnold says food entrepreneurs have to adopt technology whether they like it or not.

The products might be good, but they may not be able to run the business if they lack knowledge in this digital era, he adds.