Press Kit

The Whole Hog

By Patricia M. Romualdez
People Asia
September 2005

This young entrepreneur couple didn’t only come up with a new dish. With "pritchon™" (deep-fried suckling pig usually served Peking Duck-style), Charlie and Dina Esguerra have also added a new word to everyday Filipino language. The couple reveals to PATRICIA M. ROMUALDEZ why business, so far, has been crisp.

It’s been three years since Charlie Esguerra thought about reinventing the traditional Filipino roasted lechon by asking himself, "Why not fry the whole thing instead?" What initially seemed to be what his wife Dina calls "another one of Charlie’s crazy ideas" turned into a wildly successful catering service, Charlie’s Pritchon™.

"Pritchon™," or pritong lechon, is a deep-fried suckling pig. The piglets are sent to Manila from Sow and Reap, Charlie’s brother Oscar’s piggery in Bulacan. Each biik is fried whole in one of six bathtub-sized deep fryers and then left to stand to drain the excess oil. Though the process sounds simple enough, it took about a year to fully develop the cookware, cooking method and banig bag packaging.

But what makes pritchon™ truly stand out is the way that it is served. Charlie says, "Two weeks after tasting our first pritchon™, we didn’t know how to place ourselves." The idea that gave the Esguerras an edge over the competition came to them in a dream. Dina says that one night, she dreamt of her deceased mother, who told her to serve the pritchon™ with pita bread, Peking Duck-style. With the help of supportive family members, the Esguerras came up with special recipes for pita bread, using spinach and tomatoes to add color.

Charlie’s sister Atel helped make seven secret sauces: honey mustard, hoisin, spicy Tagalog, garlic, Indonesian sate, honey lemon and traditional liver lechon sauce. (Charlie adds, "We also have wasabi sauce, but it’s quite expensive." It’s available upon request.) After numerous taste tests, the pritchon™ catering service was finally ready for commercial operations.

"In the beginning, we had to do everything," recalls Dina. "Charlie delivered. We did all the purchasing, all the marketing, all the accounting. All the administrative work was just between the two of us." Although the Esguerras never advertised their product, word of mouth spread quickly and the business had to expand. "We were forced to get additional staff. Now we have about 10 service teams. Some of them are working students. They go on a part-time basis. We have regular staff also."

Almost everyone on the staff (including the Esguerras younger relatives) knows how to chop and serve the dish. The crisp skin of the deep-fried piglet is cut into slices and wrapped in pita bread with chopped meat and green onions. There are about 60 serving pieces for each pritchon™. Any of the seven sauces can be added according to one’s preference. "The clients themselves are teaching us which sauces to combine," says Charlie. As an example, he claims that white garlic and honey mustard work surprisingly well together. First-time clients are offered all six sauces, while repeat clients can just choose the ones they like best. Those who serve the pritchon explain the process and suggest sauce combinations.

Pritchon™ has been served on the buffets of a wide range - from groups of six to parties of 900. It is now one of the most sought after delicacies in the country. According to Dina, "If you really have good food, people will go to you no matter where you are. Even if you're at the far end of the Philippines, they’ll still go to you. We’ve had calls from as far as Mindanao or Davao, but we can’t bring it there because you have to take the plane first, so it’s not as good. It’s best if it’s hot. The farthest we've delivered to is Batangas City. We had one client who had it chopped, then she brought it to Hong Kong. We put in the sauce. I think that’s the farthest the pritchon™ has traveled." The success of the catering service is even more impressive considering that the Esguerras were never really chefs before this venture. "Actually we just love to eat," says Dina. "You have to know the product well. I’m an accountant, I graduated from a business course in UP. My husband was planning to take up medicine, BS Psych, but he ended up in business also."

Pritchon™ was coined from pritong (fried) echon (roast pig). Charlie and Dina Esguerra then serve it nestled in pita bread, with a variety of sauces to choose from.

Although many larger companies have been more than eager to buy them out, the Esguerras choose to run the business themselves to ensure the quality of their product. Charlie says, "We don’t keep the pigs for more than three days. We have to have a freshly slaughtered pig." Dina adds, "We don’t use artificial coloring. We won’t cook what we can’t eat. I’m allergic to MSG, so we don’t use that."

This philosophy holds true for the newer additions to the catering line the Esguerras are developing. "We have pritchon salad™ for those who want to be vegetarian, but they eat pritchon™," Dina laughs. The salad is served with crabstick, fried noodles and, of course, pieces of crisp pritchon™ skin in lieu of bacon bits. There is also pritchon pabo™, or deep-fried turkey, for those who have foregone pork entirely. Dina says, "We started selling the turkeys a few months ago. Sometimes, when we’d go to parties, people would ask us if we had fowl because they don’t eat pork. So we thought of frying a turkey. Chicken is too small for us. The turkeys here in the Philippines are very tough, so we use imported ones." Pritchon pabo™ is served on whole-wheay pita with mushroom, cranberry, Mexican and salsa sauces.

The Esguerras have also tried deep-frying goats and lambs. but they feel the Filipino market isn’t quite ready for these dishes yet. Charlie wants to use ostrich meat one day, while Dina says that their next product will probably have something to do with beef. In any case, they know that pritchon™ will likely remain the most popular dish. It may well be on its way to becoming an icon, as the enterprising Esguerras have already begun producing small pritchon-shaped candles that they give away for special occasions. So what have the Esguerras learned from the pritchon™ business? Charlie pauses for a moment before he says, "If you have something - a dream, a crazy thought, a crazy idea in your mind - no matter how absurd it is, if youre really sure that it’s good... go for it."

Read Articles About Charlie’s Pritchon™

• It's A Wrap for Charlie's Pritchon
  Philippine Daily Inquirer
  Eric S. Caruncho
• The Whole Hog
  People Asia
  Patricia M. Romualdez
• A Tale of Turkey and the Deep Fried Pig
  Food Magazine
  Lori B. Baltazar
• Reinventing the Native Lechon
  Weekender -Business World
  Cherry C. Bobadilla
• Pritchon™... The lechon reinvented!
  Manila Bulletin - Sunday Leisure
  Lai Suarez-Reyes
• Pritchon™: The " Pritong Biik" Deep Fried in Stainless Steel Tub
  Philippine Star
  Millie Reyes

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