If there’s anything life has taught us, it’s that nothing is set in stone. Plans change, goals evolve, and what you’re doing today could be different from what you’re doing tomorrow—or even years from now.
A career shift means more than walking away from what you know. It can mean leaving behind years of experience in an entirely different industry to pursue something else. From the food and beverage lens, that could take the shape of wanting to do something new, reignite a long-forgotten passion, or simply build something you can call your own.
A media-professional-turned-matcha-connoisseur. A seafarer-turned-chef. A veterinarian-turned-chef. These are the stories of people who traded the familiar for the unpredictable, demanding rigors of the F&B industry—and found both reward and purpose along the way.
Jacque de Borja-Medestomas of Jacque & Matcha and Hometown Cafe
A lot can happen during the pandemic and for Jacque de Borja-Medestomas, it meant a career shift into something unexpected: matcha. She spent years working in publishing, retail, and advertising before working with her husband RG as a producer and occasional food and product stylist.
“The pivot was not intentional at all,” de Borja-Medestomas says. “I say this over and over: I just took a deep dive during the pandemic. My husband and I were holed up in our home, and we started making our own beverages—he focused on coffee, and I focused on matcha. Since then, it’s been a journey.”
Eventually, de Borja-Medestomas started chatting with suppliers and tea enthusiasts in 2021 and 2022—the same time her husband and his siblings started a passion project of their own: a cafe in Subic called Hometown Cafe.
The year 2023 culminated into travels to Japan to meet suppliers and farmers, but even then, it didn’t sprout into a business just yet. “I guess that’s the media person in me; everything needs to be checked, and it needs to be credible when published or shared to the public,” she admits.
But with the help of friends in the coffee and food industry, de Borja-Medestomas began doing pop-ups, bar takeovers, consultation work, and eventually workshops where much of her knowledge came from meeting farmers, tea people, and learning “chado” (the Japanese way of tea).
“It sounds so cliché, but anything is indeed possible. You just need to have the right mindset—be ready and willing to start again from the very beginning and learn from there”
Always curious, always learning, and always searching for new things. This became the foundation of her skillset in an industry still at its formative stages—at least during her time. But de Borja-Medestomas credits her media career for teaching her to research thoroughly and to approach each project with intention.
Just as important? Grit. Or in her words, “exhausting all possibilities before saying ‘it can’t be done.’”
For those who want to turn their hobbies into a business, de Borja-Medestomas advises: “It sounds so cliché, but anything is indeed possible. You just need to have the right mindset—be ready and willing to start again from the very beginning and learn from there.”
“F&B is a wild ride,” she adds. “It is helpful to have people to talk to, people to ask for feedback and advice, and so on. Find your people!”
Francis Lacson of Digamo
Traumatic experiences can change people, and for Francis Lacson, it rewired his entire mindset. Having started as a seafarer at a young age (first boarding an international vessel at 17), he was held hostage and robbed in Colombia—a scary chapter in his life where he realized “seafaring wasn’t my path and that I needed to chart a new course elsewhere.”
Thus, returning home to heal, he eventually opened a restaurant together with his friends in Roxas City, Capiz. But with zero culinary background, Lacson turned to books, self-study, and food research. “Early on, I felt I lacked the formal knowledge, skills, and background to call myself a chef,” he says. “Being naturally competitive, I doubled down: I buried myself in cookbooks, focused heavily on culinary R&D, and entered every cooking competition I could find. Looking back, that audacity paid off.”
“Early on, I felt I lacked the formal knowledge, skills, and background to call myself a chef,” Francis Lacson says
More than building up on culinary skills, imposter syndrome was another hurdle he had to overcome. But he credits values and skills he picked up as a seafarer, which is an intensely demanding profession in itself. “I was accustomed to a strict hierarchy and an ‘always-on-call’ mindset. That physical endurance and mental resilience turned out to be invaluable in a commercial kitchen,” he says.
Armed with experiences from “the sheer toughness required at sea,” Lacson found himself fully prepared for the realities of running a business—specifically his own restaurant, the Marikina-based degustation spot, Digamo. “Kitchens and restaurants are high-pressure environments, and I approach leadership the same way a captain commands a ship: with absolute clarity, discipline, and grit,” he says.
But the learning doesn’t stop. If anything, Lacson needed to understand that strength could also mean softness. “On the flip side, the biggest new skill I had to learn from scratch was softness: practicing patience, empathy, and grace—especially when interacting with guests,” he intimates.
“Make sure your commitment is even bigger than your passion. Passion is great, but when hard times hit, it’s often the first thing to fly out the window”
His advice for those who want to make the career switch? “Make sure your commitment is even bigger than your passion. Passion is great, but when hard times hit, it’s often the first thing to fly out the window,” Lacson says simply. “What keeps you standing day in and day out—good days and bad—is discipline and grit.”
“Prepare yourself mentally for the toughest days so you can truly earn and enjoy the absolute best days of this beautiful industry.”
Luis Martinez of Brasa Martinez, Terraza Martinez, Alma, Sala Martinez, La Taperia, and Bistrot Le Coucou
The story of Luis Martinez’s career shift goes to show that all roads lead back to what you love. Martinez wanted to be a chef ever since, but his parents did not allow him to study culinary arts—coming from a traditional family and all—because his father “wanted for me a better life.”
His initial career path of choice? Veterinary medicine.
“My plan was never to open a restaurant. I promised that to my friends, but now, I have almost eight,” he admits. So what changed? Necessity
It may sound counterintuitive—healing animals on one hand, and cooking them in another—but in his home country Spain, or at least in Europe, being a veterinarian equips you with skills not just to work with small animals like dogs and cats but also the know-how to work with different kinds of animals. “You can work in a farm [that deals with] large animals—animals [that] are going to be consumed by humans—or you can work in the food safety industry,” Martinez explains.
His shift into the F&B industry, however, was not instantaneous. With a clinic in Spain, Martinez was also working in the meat industry—developing new food items and working on food safety practices. There, he applied his knowledge on meat, certain ingredients, and how they react with different components.
“My plan was never to open a restaurant. I promised that to my friends, but now, I have almost eight,” he admits. So what changed? Necessity.
Having initially built a hotel—a two-and-a-half year endeavor—the pandemic put this to a grinding halt and he found himself without any money.
Eventually, he returned to his first love: cooking—a skill he picked up growing up. “My mom [taught me how] to be the best housewife. We clean. We cook. We do whatever is needed to do,” he explains. Coupled with an entrepreneurial mindset honed at an early age, he sold paellas and did small caterings back in Spain. He then had to start again in Siargao, replicating his childhood side hustle on a larger (yet still modest) scale.
“People started enjoying my food, my concept, and the things that I was doing, and they were pushing me to continue it”
“People started enjoying my food, my concept, and the things that I was doing, and they were pushing me to continue it,” he shares. And after meeting restaurateur couple Carlo and Jackie Lorenzana, who encouraged him to grow his business and mindset, the rest is history.
Transitioning from home cook to chef, however, had its fair share of challenges. “I know how to cook, but I didn’t know how to organize a kitchen. I didn’t know how to train a team. I didn’t know about the ingredients in the Philippines. Everything was a challenge for me,” Martinez reveals.
But it is in this trial and error mindset that he was able to learn, as he turned to culinary books and his travels as reference. “Committing a lot of mistakes and learning from my mistakes—that’s the only way to learn. [But] because I travel a lot, I was able to try so many cuisines from around the world that that made me think: ‘Okay. I want to do this. I want to do this. How can I do this?’”
Ask Martinez if he would still pursue a career in veterinary medicine if he could turn back time, and his answer would still be yes. “Being a veterinarian and studying as a veterinarian is not easy. It made me a more professional person because it pushed me to be more disciplined, to have proper knowledge, and to have a big vision,” he says.
“Love the food industry. If you don’t love the food industry, don’t even try because it’s going to require a lot of time, a lot of effort. If you are not ready for that, don’t even try”
And these skills have helped him tremendously as a restaurateur and chef. For those who plan to do the same, his advice is as simple and straightforward as he is: “Love the food industry. If you don’t love the food industry, don’t even try because it’s going to require a lot of time, a lot of effort. If you are not ready for that, don’t even try.”
“Don’t listen to anyone if you really feel like you want to go to that industry. Don’t follow anyone else’s advice. If you feel it in your heart, follow your dreams.”
