Special collaboration dinners by top chefs don’t usually make for good copy.

 

By the time the article sees print or is posted online, the events are usually over, and it’s annoying for the reader to wade through elaborate descriptions of food that they won’t get to eat anyway.

 

Despite this, the highlight of the past few weeks were three magnificent collaboration meals in the city’s most interesting restaurants—dinner by Toyo with Mume from Taiwan; lunch by Gallery by Chele with Amber from Hong Kong; and a Nespresso celebration lunch at Mecha Uma.

 

Suffice it to say that they were all splendid, and I thank everyone involved for their hospitality. Anyone who still thinks that Manila lacks any showcase restaurants that can stand alongside the world’s finest should visit Toyo, Gallery by Chele and Mecha Uma.

 

Although those three are top of mind in Philippine haute cuisine, there are at least two other chefs worth mentioning: Josh Boutwood and Nicco Santos.

 

I haven’t eaten at Boutwood’s newest restaurant, Helm. The last I heard, it was about to introduce a blockchain-based reservations system (to my relief, it still takes reservations the traditional way, by phone).

 

Santos will cope with high rental prices at Hey Handsome’s present location until early December. It will open in new premises next year.

 

 

Problems

 

Helm and Hey Handsome are facing problems that beset every restaurateur. Cancelations are tough on a restaurant and could make the difference between profit and loss for a single evening—especially for a small, 10-seat restaurant like Helm.

 

In many countries, destination restaurants that operate on a boutique scale will ask you to pay for your meal upon making the reservation, or at least take your credit card details so that they can deduct a penalty to cover their expenses should you decide not to show up.

 

Filipinos who happily throw down £300 for a reservation at the Fat Duck, or $275 for a seat at Single Thread, will balk at pre-paying their meal, as Ticket2Me wants them to do.

 

The idea is to treat the restaurant dining experience like a concert or a basketball game—as an experience, rather than a service.

 

This is not so far-fetched. Unlike the old days when you didn’t know whether you would have only a bowl of soup or five courses and dessert, depending on the menu, most restaurants now have tasting menus. And while I guess you could fly to Noma in Copenhagen and say you’ll just have a salad, it seems insane that anyone who goes there wouldn’t want the full experience.

 

With tasting menus, you already know your meal’s cost, and a restaurant can run much more efficiently if it knows beforehand how many covers to prepare for on a given night.

 

If you think about it, you pre-pay for a lot of stuff: airline tickets, hotels, Airbnbs, “half-day city tour with splendid lunch,” theater tickets—so why should restaurants be the exception?

 

However, it’ll take a lot of gumption to implement it here. One of the problems, of course, is that no one wants to be the first. (Boutwood seems to be leading the infantry charge on this one.) Manila’s dining public will do it in foreign restaurants, but will never allow itself to be tied down that way in a local restaurant. (Besides, “Don’t You Know Who I Am?”)

 

 

Also, perhaps I’m okay with this because I’m not a last-minute sort of person and prefer to know my schedule months in advance. But a more spontaneous soul might complain it ruins his joie de vivre.

 

Still, it will ultimately bring prices down. If you’ve joyfully found yourself enjoying a

business-class upgrade or a discounted rate at Four Seasons, chances are, you found these rates on the internet, almost certainly because you booked in advance.

 

The other problem, the increasingly exorbitant lease rates, is all too common. Whether the landlords are mall owners, retail space owners, or food court managers, they are really pleased to work with you, honored to have you as one of their tenants, and eager to support your craft—until they are not.

 

At heart they are capitalists, not philanthropists, and whether or not they regretfully inform you that your business partnership must come to an end, or come down on you with an iron fist, they will protect their bottom line. Profit margins must be maintained.

 

This is not to take sides in the resentment between Hey Handsome and its landlord—sometimes there is simply a mismatch of personalities or expectations. It is to be hoped that Santos and his team find the right place to ply their craft.

 

If it sounds like an industry insider’s rant, customers must sit up and take notice that this is, in the end, about them. We can’t rant about there not having any “world-class” restaurants, or that they’re too expensive, or there’s nothing interesting opening, without considering our part in this.

 

If you make reservations, come on time and graciously make way for the next seating. If you can’t make it, call up the restaurant and tell the staff as soon as possible. Use your senior citizen card with discretion. It is your legal privilege, after all, but one which you can choose not to use. In some restaurants, it can spell the difference between a night of barely breaking even or making that crucial 20 percent, which is the usual profit margin of high-end restaurants.

 

The ecosystem of restaurants, restaurateurs, landlords, and customers (including food writers) is fragile, all too easily upset by greed or indifference.  –CONTRIBUTED