Jollibee Is on a Quest to Conquer American Palates

Can crispy Chickenjoy and sweet spaghetti win over consumers in the US?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jolly b takes on Colonel Sanders and a Battle for
American Palates by Tiffany app read by Mark Lee. It's
said that the first three words of Filipino child learns
are mom, dad, and Jabi, short for the wide grinning
mascot of the country's beloved fast food chain, jolly Be.
Famous for its crunchy fried chicken Joy and smoky sweet spaghetti,

(00:23):
jolly Be is essential to the Filipino identity as McDonald's
and Coca Cola are to Americans. Now, the chain is
intent on making its mark on the US and plans
to more than triple its presence to three hundred fifty
locations across North America in the next few years, largely
through its franchise program. The scale up will be a
litmus test for Filipino flavors in the country's former colonizer.

(00:47):
While almost two hundred years of British control of large
parts of India and subsequent waves of immigration made dishes
like chicken tika Maasala mainstays of the UK diet, America's
half century rule of the Philippines has had little impact
on US palets. Filipino classics such as ponceat noodles or
kare kare a meetzoo featuring a savory peanut sauce, lag

(01:09):
behind the popularity of Thailand's pad Time and Vietnam's bond Me.
Even though four point six million Filipino Americans out number
of Vietnamese Americans almost two to one and far exceed
the three hundred and forty thousand Thai Americans. Jollybe's challenge
is to push beyond the Filipino diaspora to tempt mainstream
American taste buds while competing in a crowded fast food market.

(01:32):
The chain opened its first US franchise in the Queensborough
of New York City in August. Coming locations include East
Midtown near Grand Central Station in Manhattan, the Bronx Long Island,
as well as downtown San Francisco, and several in Washington State.
We no longer are just looking at the Filipino population,
says Marabetha Dela Cruz, president of jollyb Group North America.

(01:55):
We are positioning jolly Be as a major contender in
the mainstream quick service restaurants space. Jollyby opened its first
US location in nineteen ninety eight in Daily City, California,
pitching itself almost exclusively to Filipino Americans as a taste
of home. Today, around sixty percent of jolly Be customers
in the US are non Filipino, Dela Cruz says on

(02:18):
a recent visit to an outlet in New York's Times Square,
one of Jollyb's seventy six US stores. Before launched the
franchise program, the split of customers was closer to even
smack dab in the middle of Torres Central. That joint
was bustling and warmer than the summer day outside, as
kitchen staff grilled up paddies and pineapples for a Loha
burgers and scooped out sides of adobo rice. Many the

(02:41):
customers had ended up there by chance, such as the
Irish mother and her preteen son, fresh off the plane
too early to check into their hotel. They'd first tried
raising canes, a buzzy Louisiana chain across the street. Unable
to find a table, they wound up the Jolly Bee.
But Alexis Quenka, a twenty eight year old from Mexico City,
had come across Jolly B while traveling through Vietnam and

(03:04):
Hong Kong and was relishing his first taste of a
specialty chicken. I am a foodie, he said. I saw
a lot of jolly bees and I heard it was
very famous. I thought I must try it, and it's
an amazing experience. Filipino Americans are their third largest Asian
origin group in the US, behind Chinese and Indians. Nevertheless,

(03:25):
the country's cuisine is working from a low base of awareness,
according to Alex Orkiza, author of Taste of Control Food
and the Filipino colonial mentality under American rule, that's in
large part a legacy of imperialism. After winning the Spanish
American War, the US took control of the Philippines in
eighteen ninety eight, ignoring its earlier declaration of independence, and

(03:48):
governed the nation apart from Japan's three year occupation during
World War Two until nineteen forty six. There's a legacy
of saying that your food is inferior, which was reinforced
in textbooks and menus in advertisements, says Orkiza, a history
professor at Providence College and Rhode Island. The messaging was
so effective, he notes, than in the nineteen twenties, California's

(04:10):
Del Monte Foods successfully sold Filipinos canncherries and pineapples in
a tropical country brimming with fresh fruit. US rule also
saw American staples such as burgers, spam, and hot dogs popularized.
It's totally understandable that we're still fighting off this legacy
that we're not good enough or our food isn't good
enough to be profiled to non Filipinos, or Quisa says.

(04:33):
Another reason it's challenging to promote Filipino food is because
it's quite hard to define. The cuisine combines Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Spanish,
and American influences and varies markedly by region. The regional
identities of the Philippines are so strong and have always
been super strong because it's a country of seven thousand islands,
or Quisa, says. Nicole Ponseca, a Filipino American chef and

(04:58):
co founder of the International Manila Food Food Festival, says
she's pondered America's slow uptake of Filipino cuisine for years,
not just as a restratur but as someone who's watched
Filipino food evolve from being overlooked to finally being claimed.
She said, on paper, we should be where Thai or
Korean cuisine is today, says Ponseca. We're the third largest

(05:19):
Asian American group with deep US ties through immigration, military service,
and shared culture. She notes that wall authorities in Thailand
and South Korea have both actively promoted their national cuisines.
The Philippines has had no such strategy. While our food
is soul full, rich and layered, it defies easy classification.

(05:40):
Ponseca says, at semigung sour, bago ung FUNKI let you
on fatty, crispy all at once. That complexity is a strength,
but it can also be a hurdle in a system
that rewards simplification and sound bites. Two shifts could finally
usher in a change. Filipino Americans, now often two or
three generations in are shrugging off the weight of colonialism

(06:02):
and are prouder than ever of their food heritage, and
Americans of all ethnic backgrounds are exploring Asian flavors with
new fervor. A craze for the prized green tea powder
macha has strained global supply, for instance, and Ube, the vibrant,
purple hued yam that features in Jollybe's dessert pies. Is
also seeing a big uptick in popularity. Last year, Ti Hasegawa,

(06:25):
a global flavor and fragrance developer, named Ube the top
rising flavor for the US. There's an unquenchable desire for
Asian cuisines, says Andrew Zimmern, a James Beard Award winning
chef and food critic. He points out that the restaurant
chain with the highest average revenue by location in the
US is Taiwan's Din Tai Fung, known for its soup dumplings.

(06:47):
Jollybe has about seventeen hundred restaurants across the nineteen countries.
Its biggest market outside the Philippines is Vietnam with two
hundred eighteen stores. The US, Canada, and United Arab Emirates
are among other top locations. The expansion is part of
a plan by JOLLYB Foods Corp. Which oversees about ten
thousand eateries globally across brands including Smash Burger, The Coffee

(07:11):
Bean and Tea Leaf, Dim Sun Chang, Tim Holwan, and
Chinese fast food outlet Yunghu King, to become one of
the top five restaurant companies in the world by market capitalization.
The US as the largest fast food market is a
pivotal piece of the puzzle. That said, JOLLYB Food's market
capitalization sits at around four point two billion dollars, a

(07:32):
fraction of KFC owner Young Brands, Inc. Which is valued
at about forty one billion dollars, and McDonald's Corp. The
largest at about two hundred and sixteen billion dollars. Jolly
b has its work cut out even just to shift
the picking order of established chicken focused fast food chains.
Should it reach three hundred and fifty North American locations,

(07:53):
it will still be dwarfed by KFC, Popey's, Louisiana Chicken,
and Chick fil A, each of which has about three
thousand or more locations across the US. Other chicken chains,
such as Bojangles, Churches Chicken, and Raising Canes Restaurants have
about eight hundred to one thousand spots each. Meanwhile, disruptions
and the cattle supply chain have pushed up beef prices,

(08:15):
prompting companies such as Wendy's, Jack in the Box and
Taco Bell to add more chicken items to the menu.
Dela Cruz is undeterred, pointing to the exceptional performance of
individual jolly b locations its eateies boast average sales of
four point two million dollars a year, or more than
eleven thousand dollars per day, double the typical volume of

(08:36):
other leading outlets. She says the company expects to maintain
that level even as it expands. Then there's a confidence
in the chicken itself. This summer, Jollyb was named by
USA Today as the best fast food fried chicken for
the second year in a row. It was also named
eater dot COM's favorite fried chicken and America in twenty
twenty two. Known for its crispiness, the crunch of a

(08:59):
piece of chicken joy lends it a premium and almost
as m R like quality, Jollyby has also localized its
menu with sides such as mac and cheese and coalslaw,
which are not the menu in the Philippines, a nod
to expectation set by KFC and Chick fil A. Southern
roots