[ad_1]
Mainayau Local Cuisine and Catering, located in Suva’s FNPF Plaza, has been open for six years and has become a popular destination for authentic Fijian cuisine.
Sepesa Mainayau and his wife Volau are the owners of the restaurant which is famous for serving a variety of authentic iTaukei dishes to its customers.
The couple, both in their late sixties, have lived on the island of Chicobia in Lau for most of their lives, surviving on the bounty of nature and growing food to generate income for them.
As parents of four children, Mr and Mrs Mainayau decided to move from their village to the capital and use their life savings to start their dream business.
The restaurant was originally located in Grantham Square in Suva.
“We started our business in Raiwaqa in 2019,” Mr Mainayau said.
“We have been talking about entrepreneurship and we realised that iTaukei cuisine is under-represented in the food industry.”
“Like all businesses, we faced difficulties in the beginning, especially in promoting the business and raising funds. I paid for all this out of my own pocket.”
Mr Mainayau said as the number of customers grew, the space they rented in Raiwaqa became too small to continue operating.
It wasn’t until this year that the couple decided it was time to change the store’s location to cater to their large customer base.
“We started out as a very small restaurant in Raiwaqa. Business was slow at first, but a year later we found more and more people were coming because the word was spreading and the space was very small because there were so many people.
“We have to hold on for a while until we find a new place to house our small shop to meet the demand,” he said.
Mr Mainayau was also asked about the challenges he faced while trying to grow his restaurant business.
He said one of the biggest challenges was trying to break the typical stereotype that iTaukei-owned businesses were doomed to fail due to poor money management.
“Our businesses are destined to fail, but when you are passionate about what you do and work hard for it, you can succeed.
“So we started promoting iTaukei authentic cuisine because I think it is us iTaukei that fill up restaurants in Fiji,” he added
When asked how he maintains the supply of ingredients in the restaurant, he said there is no problem with the supply of ingredients and that is why they can always satisfy the needs of customers at reasonable prices.
“Most of the ingredients for our restaurant come from the village and we don’t buy from anywhere else except home.
“So, our menu is everything we eat every day on the island – we haven’t changed anything.”
Mr Mainayau said they were not brought up in a business environment.
“We had no experience at all in running a business because we had lived in the village our whole lives.
“Whenever there was small business training, I would attend it, and from then on I had the idea of starting a business.
“My wife used to work in a restaurant and with our knowledge we have been in the industry for six years,” he said.
For the Mainayau people, restaurants are not only a major source of income to support their families, but also a way to promote iTaukei culture, and as society changes, food is a way to preserve culture.
“Our specialty is fish in coconut milk, which can be boiled or fried, served with roti (taro leaves), mutton, pork, corned beef and more, among other dishes we make.
“We also have desserts, which we always recommend customers try, but most people come just to try the fish in coconut milk,” Mr Mainayau said.
The couple plans to offer authentic iTaukei cuisine to tourists in the near future.
[ad_2]
Source link
