Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Candice Tzeng. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Candice, appreciate you joining us today. undefined

I believe the most innovative thing we’ve ever done was create our schoolie food bus, Olive. It was back in 2020 when the world was at a standstill and we were at a crossroads of where to take our business. At that time, we had been running our food pop-up for 2 years in a 10’x10′ tent, popping up at markets, festivals and breweries, but we were at a place where we had to get clear on the direction we wanted to head in. A brick and mortar felt heavy and daunting while the idea of being mobile in a food truck caught our eye, but we both agreed that we didn’t love how food trucks looked and felt. We both knew we wanted to create something unique and we decided to dream big. If anything was possible, what would our dream food truck look like? Then the idea struck — a school bus food truck. We’ve never seen one before but we knew it had to be possible if people can convert buses to full-on homes. The idea felt like a full-body Yes to the both of us and that’s how we knew we had a winning idea. That moment sparked the beginning of our journey of creating what Olive is today: our beautifully hand-painted schoolie food bus.

Candice, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Candice, one of the co-founders of MANEATINGPLANT and I started this business in 2018 with my partner in life and business, Phil. We had just returned back from a five month backpacking trip to Southeast Asia where we dove into meditation and mindfulness and grew a closer relationship to living in harmony with the earth. We returned home inspired and wanted to create something that would positively impact our community while also working for ourselves. I had been working in office and social media management at the time while Phil spent the previous 8 years working in multiple restaurants around LA. We decided to put our learned skills and knowledge together to start a food pop-up and we began serving our community monthly at a small brewery in Torrance. We created our first menu inspired by our Chinese and Taiwanese roots that had Salt N Pepper Shrooms and Peking Mushroom Bao Buns and our concept caught on quick. What started out as a once a month gig quickly turned weekly and before we knew it, we were serving communities from North Hollywood to San Diego.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Our story is a bit different since my partner, Phil, was my boyfriend for 7 years prior to starting MANEATINGPLANT. So the story of us meeting actually took place in 2010 when we were both at a mutual friend’s party. We met for the first time and slowly formed a friendship for about a year till we made it official. In those 7 years prior to starting the business, we both finished up school, entered the workforce, worked in Alaska together and backpacked Southeast Asia. We had no idea back in 2010 that our story would unfold with a business being born but here we are and we couldn’t be more grateful to be in this together.

Any advice for managing a team?

Cultivating a safe and harmonious work environment for our team is one of our highest priorities as business owners. We both have experienced what hostile and uninspiring work environments have felt like and it was always a drag getting ready to go to a workplace that felt that way. This was actually a big reason why we wanted to start working for ourselves in the first place and create a business that was aligned with our values and vision from the inside out. Although managing a team can be one of the hardest parts of running a business, it is definitely the most important because we are nothing without our team. They are the building blocks of the foundation we’ve built and continuing to nourish and nurture the relationships with them is of utmost importance. We believe in making sure each team member is seen and heard and that means taking the time to check in and listen to what they have to say. If they have feedback or suggestions, we make sure that feedback is integrated to better the team as a whole. If there happens to be any conflict, we are there to talk through any issues so that we all reach a point of clarity, understanding and mutual respect. We also believe that creating time for connection outside of the work environment helps in strengthening the bonds within the workplace. We are lucky to have events like Coachella that almost feel like summer camp for our team where we’re able to work hard and also have fun as a team. These experiences have allowed us to create memories and friendships with our team that have only positively impacted our team morale.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.maneatingplantla.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/maneatingplantla

Image Credits

Berangere Altier