Since she was small, Karla Reyes has always had this special fascination for cheeses, inspired by her grandfather, whom she grew up with. She loved cheese and would have some after every meal. She enjoyed both imported cheeses and local ones such as kesong puti.
“I used to play with his tete de moine girole, which was displayed in his office. I called it the ‘wind wind’ cheese,” says Karla, the brains behind La Petite Fromagerie, a business that has everything to do with cheeses.
No wonder that when she grew up, Karla would put up a cheese business that would allow her to get creative with her cheeses. This, despite already being busy with the family business that was nurtured with love by her mom, The Plaza Inc., which is most famous for its hams and catering services.
The truth is that it was her mom, Millie Reyes, who “started” it all for her in La Petite Fromagerie. It was her mom’s birthday in 2016, and Karla just came home from culinary school in New York. Her mom wanted a big buffet of cheese on her birthday, and Karla cheerfully arranged it for her, complete with a half wheel raclette station. It turned out to be a hit and two of her mom’s friends booked her for the following weekend, so it became an instant business for her.
La Petite Fromagerie started as a cheese catering company offering assorted cheese buffets, raclette stations and fondue bars for events and small gatherings. But when the pandemic hit, Karla was forced to shift business directions, leaning more on the retail and B2B (business to business) side.
Her first product for the retail business was Truffle Cream Cheese Spread, which she first served as an appetizer when she launched the brand to media in January 2017. At the end of the day, she received feedback that she should bottle and sell the spread. Well, she did, and made it available just a week later.
“It was quickly picked up by MasarapBa, and it blew from there,” explains Karla. “But truffles were still very new to Manila and hard to come by at that time, so I had to track down a steady supply to be able to keep up with the demand for the spread.”
Other La Petite Fromagerie signature items quickly followed. These include Kesovore (pesto with a blend of three kinds of cheeses), TnT or Taba ng Talangka Cheese Spread, Smoked Salmon Cheese Spread (with a garlicky flavor), Trufflata (locally made burrata stuffed with the brand’s Truffle Cream Cheese Spread), frozen Mozzarella Sticks, Brie Fritters, Camembert Pull Aparts and her newest, Marinated Kesong Puti.
The TnT Cheese Spread, for one, has an interesting story behind it. Karla “discovered” it by accident when a friend of hers gifted her with a bottle of pure taba ng talangka (crab fat).
“I don’t know what came over me, but I figured it would taste great as a spread for an appetizer. That afternoon, my mom was entertaining some friends and I let them try it. I instantly received orders for which I was not prepared for. So I immediately went home to do my costings and scale the recipe and immediately ordered more taba ng talangka to accommodate more orders,” says Karla.
Sales of the retail products have been consistently good and now that the pandemic is long over, La Petite Fromagerie has also gone back to doing a lot of Cheese on Wheels caterings for gatherings of 30 to 50 persons and more. Karla also accepts smaller gatherings, putting together cheese platters specifically for such purposes.
Karla has likewise extended the brand’s offerings, doing guided private cheese tastings for bachelorette parties, corporate events and even simple reunions. Retail and B2B customers can also source from her a wide assortment of imported cheeses from Europe, the US and other parts of the world, as well as locally made cheeses that can compete with the best in the world.
All these under an online store, www.lapetitefromagerie.ph, which can arrange both deliveries and pick-ups, as transportation within Metro Manila is already included in the packages available.