The story of Rafael Tan’s success in the Seblak business, starting with a lonely job and making Bakso Aci

2023-07-16 16:48:18

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The name Rafael Tan has recently become popular again because of his binge-eating content. Photo/Instagram Rafael Tan

JAKARTA – The name Rafael Tan has recently become popular again due to his binge eating content. In fact, Rafael’s name in the country’s music industry had sunk with the dimming popularity of the boy band SMASH.

So popular because of his eating seblak content, Rafael is now nicknamed the Seblak Ambassador by netizens. However, according to him, the popularity was accidental.

This was revealed by Rafael in the recent Denny Sumargo podcast. The artist from Garut said that before going viral as a Seblak Ambassador, he had run the Bakso Aci business.

This effort was made considering that during the Covid-19 pandemic, Rafael did not have a job at all. This also coincided with the increasingly quiet job gig at SMASH.

“Opened a business because I didn’t have a job at that time, at all. Make the Aci meatballs first. You say it’s crowded, yes it’s crowded, but how crowded do you want it to be,” said Rafael Tan, quoted from the YouTube channel Curhat Bang Denny Sumargo, Sunday (16/7/2023).

Rafael Tan admits that he runs a business selling authentic meatballs alone, alias without a team at all. Starting from concocting and making the dough, cooking, being an admin, to the delivery department when there is an order.

“I mean I do it myself, I can’t make quite a lot either. I’m really like making my own dough, cooking my own seasonings, taking care of shipping myself, basically doing everything myself. So the admin too, be careful,” he said.

Rafael then began to have the idea to try a concoction of his own. He also casually uploads the seblak mukbang to several social media platforms. His fad turned out to end up going viral. Even now, Rafael’s seblak business is also quite developed. He is known to have his own seblak brand, namely Seblak Mamang Rafael.

Rafael said that even though he still gets a lot of negative comments with his content, he doesn’t care. After all, he doesn’t think he’s hurting anyone.

“Many also say that this is really too bad, Rafael, as clear as Rafael, as clear as Rafael, this is as old as old times. Some say that it was because of Rafael’s father that my wife was hospitalized. It’s not me who cooks, right,” he said.

Moreover, according to Rafael, his viral seblak content has had a positive impact on boosting the business of MSME players who sell various materials for making seblak, one of which is crackers.

“Negative comments are very close to the comments from the cracker seller. They said thank you very much, because previously it was very difficult to sell crackers. He said how many days at most,” said Rafael.

“Right now, with the existence of Seblak Rafael, it is difficult to accept requests from markets. Also, there are lots of people who say that my sales are selling well, he said. There are lots of people looking for crackers, the black rose cracker, right?” he continued.

(tsa)