Go Pacquiao go! As the entire nation prays and cheers for our beloved boxer, we band collectively in support for our modern-day hero.

 

Amid the excitement, I am gearing up for a fantastic month of May as we celebrate Mother’s Day next week as well as our youngest Athena’s 10th birthday.

 

This milestone marks the end of my miraculous hope of being a mother again. With our eldest Bryan turning 30 and Tyrone going on 20, I was wishing having a baby this year to complete another decade. But Dennis and I are actually content with our four children.

 

Motherhood is truly a blessing and it should be celebrated. For Mother’s Day on May 10, many hotels and restaurants are preparing wonderful packages to honor our mothers.

 

Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila master chefs team up with celebrity chefs to honor mom and dad for May and June, respectively. Six featured chefs of families from rich culinary traditions share heirloom recipes.

 

Featuring dishes borne by generations of refinement and evolving culinary trends, chefs Nina Daza-Puyat, Mia Manuel, Suzette Montinola and Judy Ann Santos present a tradition of taste for Mother’s Day.

 

Chef Mia’s delectable recipes are inspired by family vacations spent in France and dishes passed on by her mother, Dr. Maria Lim-Ayuyao, youngest daughter of World War II hero General Vicente Lim. For Mother’s Day, chef Mia shares dishes that tickle the palate like Stewed Lamb Leg with Dried Mangoes.

 

Chef Suzette’s grandmother Doña Ramona “Tita Moning” Hernandez-Legarda influenced her passion for cooking. Among the age-old dishes that she will be sharing are Whole-baked Lapu-Lapu and Tita Moning’s Beef Osso Buco Gremalota.

 

The Daza family has been a household name in the culinary world with heavy influences from Nina Daza-Puyat’s mother, Nora Daza, who helped shape Filipino cuisine. Her French Onion Tartelettes and Chicken Relleno with Giblet Gravy are among the featured fare for this special weekend.

 

And staying true to Filipino roots, Judy Ann Santos highlights Filipino comfort food that her children enjoy with her own flavorful rendition of Chicken Binakol, Beef Kaldereta and Ginataang Mais.

 

Experience culinary greatness and meet celebrity chefs Mia Manuel, Nina Daza-Puyat and Judy Ann Santos as they celebrate Mother’s Day at Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila on May 10, Sunday Brunch at Spiral.

 

Tel. 5515555 local 6988.

 

For intimate affairs

 

For more intimate Mother’s Day celebrations, check out Le Jardin Restaurant at W Tower, Bonifacio Global City. This French cuisine restaurant has been the favored venue for recent affairs like the launch of Renuzit, America’s No. 1 adjustable solid gel air freshener and Happy Skin, the hottest makeup brand.

 

The exclusive media launch introduced Renuzit’s four new fragrance collections including Simply Refreshed (lavender and vanilla scents), Super Odor Killer (citrus and original scents), Fresh Picked (raspberry scent) and Serenity (relaxing spa and sapphire waters scents). Set in stylish, recyclable and adjustable packaging, Renuzit fresheners are also biodegradable and made of 97 percent natural ingredients.

 

The wonderful affair titled “Renew Your Home” dispensed decorating tips from noted interior designer Kat Villanueva. She gave pointers on how to choose the perfect scent to set the desired mood in any room or space. Guests enjoyed Yellow Tail wines while sampling the delicious food of Le Jardin.

 

Merrick Sua, managing director of Unisell Corp., the exclusive Philippine distributor of Renuzit, described the products’ wide range of scents to satisfy any preference, for any room and any season or occasion.

 

The adjustable cones provide continuous air freshening benefits in a convenient, easy-to-use and eco-friendly format.

 

‘Beauty in Bloom’

 

A week later, I was back at Le Jardin for the launch of the limited-edition summer collection of Happy Skin with blooming co-founders Rissa Mananquil-Trillo and Jacqe Yuengtian-Gutierrez welcoming their guests.

 

For their 2015 limited-edition summer collection, Beauty in Bloom, Rissa and Jacqe were inspired to channel the natural radiance of flowers, leading them to create new products and shades that would make women blossom into their most beautiful.

 

With interiors reminiscent of lush, elegant gardens in Paris, the award-winning French restaurant Le Jardin served as the perfect place to launch Beauty in Bloom. Guests were welcomed into a sophisticated garden with flowers and crisp white wooden benches.

 

While the waiters served duck rillette canapés, ratatouille, macarons and tarts, guests explored the different boudoirs displayed in the restaurant, where Happy Skin’s latest products were on display.

 

Top celebrity makeup artists Lourd Ramos and Jigs Mayuga chatted with guests about Happy Skin’s highly-anticipated Eye Am the One Holy Grail Mascara and the innovative InstaBeauty Blur Cream; they demonstrated each product’s one-of-a-kind features.

 

Guests were wowed with the mascara’s eye-opening prowess and the blur cream’s instant skin-perfecting effect.

 

Ramos and Mayuga finished off every look with a touch of petal-pretty color from the new lippies, mousses, and blush.

 

Several fresh treats rounded up the afternoon affair; some guests filled their Instagram accounts with gorgeous photos of themselves sporting flower crowns, while others had a blast creating their own bouquets.

 

Specialty shop Print Café’s pop-up printing booth was also a huge hit. After being asked to choose between four flower-inspired notecard designs, guests were gifted by Print Café with a box of personalized notecards.

 

Guests also got to take home an exclusive Happy Skin x Print Café notebook together with their new Happy Skin makeup loot.

 

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