Aktor Tindahan, a virtual food park of Filipino actors’ own dishes, is now open

Actors always find joy in telling stories. But amid the current pandemic, their passion for it has gone far beyond films and TV shows.

Just recently, Aktor Tindahan was launched—a virtual food park where some members of Aktor PH (League of Filipino Actors) are selling goods and dishes that they make themselves. 

It’s veteran actress Mylene Dizon’s baby project, which she started after an online catch-up with the other members of the organization during quarantine. The driving force? “It’s really our creators and their creations,” she told PhilSTAR L!fe. “During this whole time—the whole world was paused and put into this lockdown—as artists, there’s always a need for us to create and do something with our hands. Hindi puwedeng nakaupo lang talaga.”

And so, a lot of them decided to spend time in the kitchen and visit old recipes that bring them back to a certain moment in time. “These recipes have been part of the family or mga family favorites—things that we really, really enjoyed. We perfected it and later decided to sell it to our friends,” she said.

The idea of putting everything under one brand was birthed from there. “It’s a brand that will represent perfection, soul, and love,” explained Dizon, “kasi masasarap yung mga pagkain so we wanted to showcase everybody’s magical creations.”

Aside from the fact that each food product is delectable, they also carry a myriad of meanings and stories. This is mainly because the artists make it a point to do something with “hilig, gigil, and feelings,” as Dizon put it. “So syempre, yung mga pagkain na binebenta namin, gusto namin, nagrerepresent nang nabuti ng aming organization,” she added, hence the good quality of their food items that make every customer feel sure of their purchase. “Kumbaga, ika nga ng mga magulang namin, hindi ka mapapahiya,” she adds with a laugh. 

Among its current sellers are Ces Quesada (chicken wings), VJ Mendoza (laing and sinantolan), Frances Makil-Ignacio (ramen kit), Anthony Falcon (coffee drip bags), Mikoy Morales (banana cinnamon rolls), Sunshine Teodoro (spicy bacon-wrapped embutido), Neil Sese (sweet chili crabs and shrimps), Brian Sy (classic apple crumble), Dylan Talon (frozen smoked pork longganisa), Bart Guingona (keto strawberry cheesecake), and Elora Españo (puto).

Each offering is on Aktor Tindahan's Instagram account, which is being managed by Marlon Rivera as the head of its communications team alongside Jojit Lorenzo as its photographer and the rest of the Tindahan Team as its food stylists. To order, just click the seller’s IG username on the page and message them via their own accounts. It’s important to note that they are sticking to a pre-order basis at the moment. “Iniiwasan namin yung gagawa ng maramihan kasi we feel like the quality is going to suffer if it’s that way,” continued Dizon. “So we encourage our sellers to just make enough para hindi sila napapagod at hindi naooverwhelm kasi aside from this naman, umaarte pa rin naman kami and there are other things that we do.”

While it has been no easy feat holding meetings via Zoom, it has been extremely rewarding for all of them. “When the orders started coming, we posted it on our chat group,” she mused. “Nakakatuwa na may fruition na yung work at nakakabenta yung sellers namin. It’s just nice na nae-excite din sila. We like that part.” 

With the continued growth not only of the brand but also the number of actors who have expressed their interest to be a part of this initiative, Dizon and the rest of the team have thought of big plans ahead. “We are going to have our own landing page,” she declared, “mas maraming produkto from our members at magkakaroon din kami ng mga non-food items for sale.”

Article thumbnails taken from Aktor Tindahan's Instagram account