Bae's Biz

Alden Richards is a certified foodie. In his past interviews with YES! Magazine, he either talked passionately about food or always had a fill of foodstuff.

- Jocelyn T. Valle

In his “Pogi Series” feature (YES!, April 2013), the 25-year-old actor, TV host, recording and concert artist, and product endorser revealed some dishes he could cook: “Minsan, lechon paksiw, sinigang o adobo. Specialty ko ’yong adobo—halimbawa, gusto mo ’yong walang sabaw na adobo, ’yong may sabaw, ’yong matamis, o sakto lang.”

When we did a photo shoot of Alden and his house in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna, for our January 2017 issue, a famished Alden sneaked into the kitchen several times to take quick bites of his favorite chicken dish. He later brought out a big bag of salted-egg potato chips and multiple packets of nori seaweed, all of which he shared with the YES! photo-shoot team.

Not surprisingly, Alden chose a food business for his first entrepreneurial venture: Concha’s Garden Café.

He co-owns the restaurant’s branches in Tagaytay City and Quezon City, in partnership with the restaurant’s founder, Gemma Escueta-Sembrano, and her husband Joseph Raymond Sembrano. Gemma put up the original Concha’s Garden Café in March 2014 in Silang town, Cavite.

One Saturday afternoon, Alden welcomes the YES! team into the Quezon City branch—known as Concha’s Morato, since it’s near the corner of Tomas Morato Avenue—to share stories of how he became a business owner and how he’s faring so far. He does so as he serves up some of the restaurant’s specialties and bestsellers, such as homemade okoy, U.S. Angus rib eye steak, Concha’s laoya, baby squid in olive oil, crispy pata, and Concha’s kamoteng turon.