Today we’d like to introduce you to Janelle Digdigan.
Hi Janelle, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Growing up, I spent most of my childhood watching my mom swiftly move around the kitchen, creating humble dishes to feed our family of five every day. While I had many food allergies that restricted my diet as a kid, I always had a passion and love for food. As I got older, I outgrew almost all of my allergies and began experimenting in the kitchen around the age of 12. Using the knowledge I picked up on from closely observing my mom over the years, I started off cooking easy dishes (many of which turned out unpleasant to say the least haha). Losing my food allergies opened up a whole new world for me as I began trying and eating everything I possible could get my hands on. Seeing the beauty in all the flavors from various cuisines inspired me to start cooking more, while teaching myself new techniques and recipes, and expanding my food knowledge. By the age of 15, I had become a fairly well-rounded “home cook,” creating dishes for my family that drew inspiration from Japanese, Filipino, Italian, Hawaiian, Chinese, Mexican, and French cuisines. I became absolutely obsessed with being in the kitchen.
In my junior year of high school in March of 2017, upon hearing that I had a hobby of cooking, a couple of my classmates/friends asked me to make them 100 lumpia in exchange for $20. I agreed, but I had clearly lacked knowledge in food pricing, and paid no mind to what my ingredient expenses would add up to at the time. To sum it up, I obviously profited nothing from this exchange. Since I had never made lumpia before, I asked my mom to teach me her recipe. Unfortunately, like all ethnic moms who are great cooks, she had no exact measurements for her recipes; It was all, “Well, just add about this much” as she threw in random amounts of vegetables, spices, etc. I took notes, and decided to take a day in the kitchen to perfect the recipe with more accurate measurements. After hours of experimenting, the first batch I made came out pretty decent, and my first “customers” aka my classmates absolutely loved my lumpia. My sister, being the entrepreneur that she is, recommended that I try to sell and create a business out of my new skill. I immediately brushed off the idea of turning this into something more, let alone creating an actual business out of it as I didn’t feel it would do well. So, to prove me wrong, my sister contacted some close friends to ask them if they were interested in buying some of my lumpia, in which many immediately said yes. Over the span of the next three weeks, I sold over 400 pieces to friends, family, and classmates, and received plenty of positive feedback. You could say she definitely proved me wrong haha. I created an Instagram account and Facebook page, named my business Chub Chub Cuisine, and kept it as strictly a side hustle. I spent many days after school rolling lumpia in between homework assignments and extra curricular activities. I never took the business too seriously, but I tried my best to keep at it.
After spending months selling humble lumpia trays, I signed up to vend at a tiny craft fair in September 2017. Being my very first pop up event, I had no idea what I was doing; But with the help of my mom and sister, I made it through the day and learned so much. Everyone loved my food, which encouraged me even more. In fact, I have unbelievably loyal customers who still order from me to this day that I picked up from that event so many years ago. Over the next several years, I would go on to expand my menu, change my business name three times, establish a solid clientele of repeat/new customers, perfect my recipe, techniques and packaging, pop up at many events around San Diego, and roll thousands and thousands of lumpia by hand.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has most definitely not been a smooth road. I have always struggled with my self esteem as a person, and battled with major anxiety for most of my life like many people. It is always a mental battle trying to get past the thoughts of not being good enough to achieve certain goals. Despite the constant and consistent compliments that I receive from customers, family, etc., I still catch myself doubting my ability to cook great food, let alone run a business that I can truly be proud of. One of the main reasons why I have kept my business as more of a side hustle all these years versus expanding it into a full time operation, is due to the fact that I tend to allow my doubts and fears to hold me back. Holding the full responsibility of tending to every little detail that goes into a business (i.e. managing finances, replying to inquiries, cooking, marketing and advertising, restocking supplies, etc.) can be extremely overwhelming. Many people tend to overlook the amount of hours you spend working for yourself versus a normal 9-5 job. With a business, you are on the clock 24/7, and there is always more work to be done. Another issue that has caused some struggle in my business is the lack of space. From the beginning, I have and still am operating out of my home kitchen, and that in turn limits the amount of orders I am able to make and properly store.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Starting off under a completely different name, my lumpia catering business has evolved into what is now known as B2B Lumpia. For seven years, I have ran and operated it alone, offering trays of traditional Filipino lumpia for every occasion. My main catering menu consists of your normal Pork Lumpia (lumpiang shanghai), a specialty Shrimp & Pork Lumpia, a sweet Banana Lumpia (turon), and the usual accompaniment to lumpia, stir-fried pancit noodles. I like to keep the menu short and sweet in order to really focus on keeping the quality of my current items high and consistent. B2B Lumpia is by no means authentic Filipino food that your lola cooks. I like to categorize what I make as simply good food, made with all the love and care in the world, that draws inspiration from Filipino/Islander/Asian flavors. I do take a lot of pride in the flavors of my lumpia as I have spent many days in the kitchen adjusting the recipe over and over again till I arrived at what I now use for every batch. I operate from my home kitchen, but every now and then, you can catch me at a pop up somewhere around San Diego, frying up fresh and crispy lumpia. For pop ups, I do like to offer different things that are not usually on my catering menu like my homemade and freshly squeezed calamansi juice and Hawaiian style spam musubis.
On a separate note, I do want to shed some light on the meaning of my business name. “B2B Lumpia” came from an answered prayer during a slightly conflicting season of my life. Before changing the name, I felt I was becoming too consumed with the idea of needing to make a profit, and in turn, I found myself feeling more greedy, and not necessarily trusting God enough with my finances. I had also been unsatisfied with my previous business name and design as I felt it no longer matched the vision I had for my business. So, after praying about my situation, my pastor preached a sermon the next Sunday in which he dropped the saying, “We are blessed in order to bless or be a blessing to others.” I felt a full tug on my heart in that moment and automatically knew that God had revealed to me the path I was to walk on for this next season of life. When God speaks that loudly to you, you can’t help but listen.
So, I changed my name to B2B Catering (B2B standing for blessed to bless, and the “Catering” part later to be changed to “Lumpia”) and started allocating a portion of my profits to donate to various nonprofit organizations. The different organizations help fight against and provide aid to homelessness, sex trafficking victims, homeless veterans, etc. Since this slight rebrand, I have witnessed God show up and bless me and others around me in so many ways through my business that it has increased my faith exponentially. To be able to operate this business with the mindset of “whatever money I make does not belong to me, but is for the Lord to use as He sees fit to help others” has been truly humbling. To this day, I can wholeheartedly say that my business is stable and flourishing despite not pocketing every dollar I make.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
For order inquiries, questions, or collaborations, you can message me on Instagram or Facebook @b2blumpia. For a faster response, you can find my phone number on my Instagram page. If you order from me, snap a picture and tag my page! Any form of support is greatly appreciated 🙂
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/b2blumpia/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/B2Blumpia
