Filipinos were spoiled for choice when it came to dining in 2014. Popular foreign restaurant chains opened one after the other, brought in by local restaurant business groups.
New local restaurants also opened, spurred on by new malls. Diners willing to pay the price, meanwhile, booked tables at the high-end F&B outlets found at the integrated casino resorts in Pasay and Paranaque.
Foodies have the Moment Group, Food Link, Relish Group, Standard Hospitality Group, and businessman Ben Chan to thank for bringing in a slew of restaurants, coffee shops, ramen joints and tea houses last year.
Remember those never-ending lines at Tim Ho Wan and Ippudo at the Mega Fashion Hall? They were brought in by Food Link’s Rikki Dee and Standard Hospitality Group’s John Concepcion, respectively.
Meanwhile, Moment Group has been quietly and steadily building up a stable of popular restaurants including Manam, ‘Cue and 8Cuts Burger Blends. Moment is also behind Phat Pho, Linguini Fini and Mecha Uma. This year, it is reportedly bringing in Taiwan’s Michelin-starred Din Tai Fung.
Columnist Clinton Palanca heralds the return of high-end dining (see his column in this section) with the opening of the Tasting Room at the Crown Hotel at City of Dreams late last month.
The restaurant is geared toward high-rollers with money to spend.
Nobu Manila, in the same complex, has opened a few days earlier. It caters to the same crowd although a recent visit saw groups of families and friends enjoying the Japanese fare with a Latin American twist.
We were given the chance to sample signature dishes such as the Black Cod in miso, perfectly cooked bone-in steak, and a plate of assorted sushi, among others. Each course was then paired with sake with varying alcohol contents. The price for this gastronomic meal? Around P8,000 per person.
Almost anyone with some savings and the desire to explore did just that this year. They booked seats on budget carriers that took them to their dream destinations such as Japan, Thailand, Korea, the Middle East and Australia.
Aside from literally broadening their horizons, the trips afforded them the chance to sample different types of cuisine. Fans of Japanese, Thai or Korean fare can now tell whether a local restaurant is better than another because they’ve tasted the cuisine right at its origin.
It turns out that there’s more to Japanese food than sushi, sashimi and tempura.
Filipinos make it to World Pastry Cup
For the first time, Filipino chefs passed the qualifying round to enter the prestigious World Pastry Cup in Lyon, France, touted as the Olympics of pastry professionals.
The unprecedented feat came after the team of Rizalino Mañas and Bryan Dimayuga, with coach chef Romain Renard—all from Makati Shangri-La—and all chef members of Pastry Alliance of the Philippines—won in the Asian Pastry Cup (APC) in Singapore last April.
APC functions as the official contest to preselect Asian teams to compete at Coupe du Monde de Patisserie (World Pastry Cup).
Of the eight competing teams, five were chosen to compete in Lyon this January— Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, China and the Philippines.
Mañas and Dimayuga impressed the judges with their four pastry preparations, all done in eight hours and in front of a live audience: two classic chocolate cake desserts, 18 plated desserts, a chocolate showpiece and a sugar showpiece.
Local delicacies grab international spotlight
From dried mangoes to coco sugar, Philippine food products were a big hit at the Salon International de l’Agroalimentaire or Sial Paris, one of the biggest food trade shows in the world, held last October in Paris, France.
Deliciously presented in various forms, flavors, colors and purposes, the local produce brought a steady stream of foreign buyers and potential long-term trade partners to the elegantly designed Philippine pavilion. Traders and guests bunched up around the pavilion to sample a merry mix of dried mangoes, banana chips, virgin coconut oil, glazed pili nuts, coconut water and coconut sugar, super frozen yellow fin tuna products, ice pops and jellies, concentrates and instant mixes, to name some.
The mix of products was designed to position the Philippines as an important global source of specialty, gourmet and artisanal food and terroir (environmental) food products.
The Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (Citem) has been doing its best to boost the Philippines’ image as a top sourcing destination of premium specialty food products.
This year, the 15 participating Philippine exhibitors garnered $24.4 million in sales over the five days of the food expo, with frozen tuna as the best-selling item.
More and more restaurants to choose from in 2014
Restaurants come and go and those that have opened last year created quite a stir on the food scene, both for international franchises and home-grown restaurants.
Here are some of them:
Todd English Food Hall (SkyPark, SM Aura Premier, Taguig) has a New York ambience that features live cooking stations for pasta, flatbread pizzas, a sushi bar, a dessert and bread bar, to name some.
St. Marc Café (SM Megamall Fashion Hall) offers Japan’s to-die-for chococro, a croissant-like pastry with melted chocolate bar inside.
Chef Colin Mackay’s aviation-themed Blackbird (Nielson Tower, Ayala Triangle, Makati City) serves extensive gastronomic fare from continental and Southeast Asian dishes to premium burgers, pizza and pies.
Purple Yam (Bocobo and Nakpil Streets, Malate), the Manila branch of Romy Dorotan and Amy Besa’s main site in Brooklyn, New York, pays tribute to local, sustainable and organic Philippine food.
Bianca Araneta-Elizalde’s The Wholesome Table (30th St. Bonifacio High Street Central, BGC, Taguig) promotes healthy eating by serving all-organic food such as free-range chicken and eggs, grass-fed beef and wild-caught seafood.
Johnlu Koa’s Lartizan (Serendra, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig) does not only bring in the best of French cuisine, but also the experience of dining in a real Parisian restaurant.