Lessons From Mom

In 1978, my mom and her sister started baking cakes when they were both pregnant with me and my cousin.

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Heirloom recipes and great memories

by Trina Tiutan Cancio

Owner, Mama Empanada

They sold their baked goods in my lola’s stall—a small space in Timog where she offered her homemade puto and kutsinta. I can trace my earliest memories of our family food business to when I was around five years old; I remember watching my family work long hours during the holidays. Everything was done in my lola’s kitchen, and her driveway was lined with tables piled high with pastry boxes as they tied red ribbons around each one until well past midnight. Eventually, my playground—the commissary—was built across the street where my lola’s house is in Maria Clara, Quezon City. I would spend countless hours there, getting my hands dirty playing with dough and trying to ice cakes.

As I grew older, I became more immersed in decorating cakes, making empanadas, and packing boxes. I actually didn’t know what happened to the cakes after we assembled them; to me, it was just fun play. Being in the commissary also meant spending quality time with my mom. Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I saw the business grow from a small mom-and-pop operation to what later became Red Ribbon, the iconic family-run bakeshop chain. By the time we opened in the US, I was old enough to spend my summer breaks there selling pastries at the stores.