Chandra is also addicted to cooking and working in restaurants. According to him, there were many factors at that time, from pleasure to necessity. Chandra is paying for his own studies, needs a job to survive, and is always found from kitchens to restaurant kitchens.
From England, he moved to Holland where he lived for nine years. He also had time to make a catering business for Indonesian dishes such as curry and rawon.
“Well, living in Europe, I’m a person who has to eat rice. So from there, I continued to learn how to make Indonesian dishes. You can just buy ready-made seasonings, but I prefer to mix them myself, and the basics of cooking from Thai restaurants are really used and become the basis of my cooking style,” continued Chandra.
Chandra finally returned to Jakarta in 2012. At that time, he did not immediately enter the kitchen again, but had tried out the position of copywriter at an advertising agency.
Only in 2015, did he return to cooking as head chef at Gwen Winarno’s restaurant. After a year, he decided to create a catering business under the name FFONZ & SONS in 2016.
The daily catering, which is called semi-premium, is running well and smoothly with the largest market for office people. Until finally, decided to temporarily close during the pandemic.
“During the pandemic, offices were closed and people were working from home. Parno people also eat out and suddenly there is a lot of competition selling pre-order food. It was very strugling and difficult at the time, until we decided to temporarily close and finally we were offered this place (Pak Chandra’s Warung),” explained the man with a mustache who is identical to his apron and shorts.
