The breadwinner’s rise from the ashes
Everyone loves a success story and a good loaf of bread, and Johnlu Koa is both. The secret to his success is the passion he pours into his craft. So much so that it is his hobby, his pastime, and ultimately, his everything.
A rags to riches story
Koa’s mother, Christina, was a portrait of resilience. To keep the family afloat, she turned to cooking and selling food. Once the country’s largest makers of T-shirts, the Koa family lived in comfort—until a fire reduced their home and factory to ashes.
Koa vividly recalls how, in an instant, everything his father built disappeared. From riding in a Cadillac, he suddenly found himself hitching rides to Xavier School and living like a refugee in his uncle’s house. In that moment, he made a vow: never again would he allow his family to endure such hardship.
At the height of the blaze, Mrs. Koa managed to save her children’s school bags. The morning after the fire, the Koa siblings were in school. “We may have lost everything, but you must go to school,” were their mother’s words.
Between nine to 12 years old, Koa devoted himself to being his mother’s assistant. He carried bags of vegetables, helped clean them, and mastered how to cut them perfectly for Chinese lumpia. The young man opted not to party, nor to waste time on what he perceived as trivial.
In 1972, Mrs. Koa established House of Yum. Lumpia, luglug, shanghai, turon, barbecue, halo-halo, sago’t gulaman… name it, they made it. As House of Yum grew to 12 branches, so did Koa’s know-how. After school, he would go directly to the restaurant to observe how it was managed. He also learned to cook every dish on the menu. He was 15 then.
All throughout, he continued to work at House of Yum, moving up the ranks. “I needed the P200 a week,” he confesses with a chuckle.
As a working student, Koa breezed through college. He pursued a master’s degree and later became a graduate school professor.
Baking a name for himself
Koa always believed that owning a bakery was the dream. Bread can be eaten all day, every day. Eventually, his bakeshop, Honey Bread, rose in EDSA Central. Shortly after, another branch followed.
His luckiest break came when his classmate, Herbert Sy, asked if he could supply SM Supermarket with bread. Koa said yes immediately. With careful planning, he delivered, literally. And as the SM Supermarket chain expanded, so did his production.
Johnlu holds SM North Edsa close to his heart—it was where it all began.
When Herbert Sy once again invited him to open Honey Bread, Johnlu declined. At the time, as a professor of strategic marketing, he understood that malls were not just about selling food—they were about selling a lifestyle.
With that in mind, The French Baker was conceived: its name chosen by his students from a long list of tongue-twisting French options.
Today, the gentleman with the Midas touch presides over a growing empire of French Baker branches, Lartizan Boulangerie Française outlets, Salon de Thé cafés, and a wide network of Chatime stores.
Not bad at all for a man who shaped his dreams from ashes—transforming crisis into opportunity.
Johnlu shared his best-selling sourdough recipe:
Home-style French sourdough bread (one 500g loaf)
Ingredients:
- 2g instant dry or active dry yeast
- 235g unbleached bread flour
- 165g distilled water
- 6g salt
- 94g starter (stiff levain)*
Procedure:
- In a bowl, combine yeast, water, and the starter. Mix it by hand.
- Add flour and salt and continue to mix by hand until the dough comes together.
- Cover the bowl to prevent the dough from drying up. Set it aside for one to one and a half hours to allow the starter to activate.
- After resting, transfer it to a slightly oiled surface, and knead the mixture by hand or in a mixer with a dough hook.
- Knead for 20 minutes, or until dough is soft and elastic. Transfer to a large oiled bowl, cover and rest for one and a half to two hours and set it aside.
- Shape dough into a log and transfer to baking tray. Let it proof in a warm place for another one and a half to two hours.
- Preheat the oven to 230°C and warm the baking stone inside the oven.
- When ready, score three diagonal lines on the dough from side to side.
- Remove the hot baking stone and transfer to the kitchen table top. Put the dough on the baking stone. Spray the surface of the dough and sides of the oven with water before returning it to the oven.
- Bake for 45 minutes to one hour, or until evenly brown. You’ll know that the bread is baked when the bottom sounds hollow when lightly tapped.
*How to feed the frozen starter
Ingredients:
- 190g bread flour
- 10g rye
- 10g whole wheat flour
- 100g water
- 50g stiff starter (bring to room temperature)
Procedure:
- In a bowl, mix the water and starter by hand. Add in all ingredients. The total amount of starter mix dough should be 350g.
- Cover and let it rise in room temperature (around 21 to 27°C) for 24 hours.
- The next day, take 50g from the starter. Keep the remaining 300g for next use.
- Feed that 50g starter with the same quantity of ingredients you did the day before and let it rest overnight.When the starter is ready, there should be 350g of stiff starter.
- Only 94g is needed for this recipe. Keep the rest or make five more loaves with it.
- Set aside 50g of leftover starter in the chiller at 5°C for two days or freeze at -15°C for months.
Tip: You can buy levain firsthand from Lartizan by emailing them at levain@lartizan.com or messaging them at +639175634863.
