Since the Coronavirus invaded our lives, things have been pretty grim. For me personally, it’s been an extremely scary and depressing time. I haven’t really been inspired to blog much, and I’ve cut way back on all my social media interactions. Until now. I found something (someone actually), who uplifted my spirits.
I recently learned about a man here in the SF Bay Area, who is spreading joy through baking! His name is Francis Sibal. He’s a chef at Google. He’s been baking all kinds of scrumptious Filipino treats, and selling them to first responders, here in the San Francisco Bay Area. His Ube cookies have been a huge hit! (UBE is a purple yam, & it’s a staple dessert ingredient in the Philippines, where it’s often boiled and mashed, and commonly used for jams, puddings or to color sweet treats and breads.) He also bakes Ube muffins, and Pandesal. (Pandesal or pan de sal, is a common bread roll in the Philippines. It is made of flour, eggs, yeast, sugar and salt.)
I recently had a chance to meet him, and want to share his story with you.
Mixed Blessings: Francis, how did this all begin?
Francis Sibal: During the first couple of weeks of shelter-in-place, my days consisted of Netflix, and that got old real quick. I started to research recipes for dishes that were not my strengths, low and behold, baking was one of them! Learning how to bake has been an eye opening experience. I was ready to tackle Pandesal, the humble Filipino bread that I grew up with in the Philippines.
This all began because here I am on the couch all day, while my sister (who works in the medical field), would go to work at 6:30am & come home at 11:30pm, and I’d still be on the couch! I decided to learn how to bake Filipino Pandesal, so she could share some with her coworkers. Every day I’d bake a batch for her to take. One day I posted it on my Instagram, and the word spread like wildfire. I thought to myself, these front line workers are out there risking their lives, in order for us, who are sheltered in place, to be safe. That’s when I told myself this is a perfect way to bring a little comfort to those capeless heroes, fighting this war for all of us.
As word spread about the Filipino Pandesal for the Front Liners, hospitals across the Bay Area reached out. I heard from Stanford, Kaiser, Valley Medical, Palo Alto Medical, Sutter Health, and O’Conner Hospital, just to name a few. I also received requests from hospitals in Colorado, Brooklyn NY, Los Angeles, San Diego, New Jersey, Seattle & more!
Mixed Blessings: That’s amazing! You’re just one person, how are you able to fulfill so many orders? Do you have help?
Francis Sibal: Yes, I have a few angels who are helping me. The help I’m getting from others comes in many forms. The majority is people coming over and dropping off baking goods such as flour, sugar, eggs, milk etc. My family from Los Angeles, who are far away, showed their support by sending me money so I can go out and buy the things that I need. As far as baking and all the manual work (that goes into answering messages, preparing boxes to ship out, coordinating pick up schedules), that is all done by me. At times I felt overwhelmed with the numbers of orders that I’ve received. As hard as it is for me to admit I need help, I just couldn’t risk the opperation being contaminated if I were to ask for others to physically help me. Not knowing who they’ve come in contact with, is a risk I don’t want to take. In order to protect my customers, I just had to buckle down and work a little harder each day. I do ALL the baking.
Mixed Blessings: What do your days look like?
Francis Sibal: The day starts with early morning pickups, as front liners get off their night shifts. Pickups start at 7am and are scheduled throughout the day. I begin making dough around 8am. One batch (from beginning to end), takes about 3 hours to make. That yields 60 pieces of pandesal. As of June 4, 2020, I’ve baked over 365 batches which is 21,900 pieces of pandesal and managed to do so with my home oven and my mom’s stand up mixer!
I break up my days into two shifts: morning and night. I remember going to sleep every night at 3am and waking up at 7am to begin my day. Those days were challenging to say the least, but as pictures and videos of gratitude started pouring in from all the front line workers, it made me realize that goal I’d set, to bring comfort through food was coming to fruition. Seeing people smile, and enjoy the hard work I put into baking, took all the aches and pains away. It energized me to push on.
I’ve made treats for front line workers in hospitals, clinics, police, fire fighters, National Guard, and both the Army & Air Force.
Mixed Blessings: Francis, you are truly a beacon of light in these dark Covid 19 times. I tasted your Brown Butter White Chocolate, Chocolate Chip UBE cookies, and your Brown Butter UBE Banana Nut Muffins, and they were outta this world. I could eat those muffins every day! I know you have a couple more things on your menu. I still need to sample the Pandesal and the Brown Butter White Chocolate Macadamia Buko (coconut) Pandan Cookies! I’ll be putting in my order real soon! Thank you for sharing your story with me, and for making so many people smile.
(Francis is now accepting orders from folks who aren’t front liners, too! He’s back to work as a Sous Chef at Google, so he’s not baking quite as much as he was. But the public is still asking him to continue baking, and he’s still spreading his joy!)
