Congratulations to all the chefs, professional cooks and kusineros, as well as the restaurateurs and their dining establishments for being named on the first Michelin Guide for the Philippines.
I attended the awarding ceremony last October 30, and the joy of all these culinary professionals winning a top international accolade was quite infectious. I may not be someone who had to study French culinary techniques or worked in some top-notch, fine-dining restaurant, but as someone who has slaved over a stove or two to feed friends and family, I understand how it feels to receive compliments for a dish or meal everyone has enjoyed.
That these chefs and their kitchen teams had to whip up their dishes consistently over time, making sure their hearts and souls go into every plate served, is an amazing feat and, thus, it does them justice to be named to the Guide.
Of course, to this day, people are still discussing and debating the lists (One/Two Stars, Select, Bib Gourmand) wondering how such and such restaurant made the cut, and why others didn’t. (No, the inspectors didn’t make it to Negros Island, so hipos na kamo, mga palangga. Maybe next year!)
I am particularly happy to see my two favorite establishments-Cirkulo of Chef J Gamboa and sister Malu, and China Blue by Jereme Leung at Conrad Manila-listed in the Select category, definitely a well-deserved recognition. (I am specially fond of the Gamboa siblings because despite all their success, they remain humble and friendly to all. Their immense affection for their restaurant staff is the reason many of the latter have stayed with the siblings for so long.)
There are a few interesting restaurants I’ve been to on the starred list, but I can’t describe them as favorites because I have yet to eat there more than two times in their lifetime. So perhaps, I will get to love them too in due time.
Cheers as well to Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco, who worked hard to get the Guide to enter into a partnership with the Department of Tourism (DOT). Unfortunately, it is a fact of life that the Guide will not come to the Philippines out of the goodness of its heart to rate our restaurants, like it does in Europe or the United States.
The sad reality is, like our neighbors in Southeast Asia, the DOT has had to pony up some millions of dollars to get the Guide to rate Philippine restaurants. (It probably doesn’t help that Michelin Tires doesn’t even sell enough of its products here these days especially with the onslaught of cheaper substititutes from China.)
I remember chatting one time with Tourism Secretary Mon Jimenez, who was then working to position the Philippines as a center of gastronomy in Southeast Asia. He had just successfully pulled off the first Madrid Fusion Manila, and in our discussion he said that if he wanted to, ‘I can get [the] Michelin Guide to come here.’
But I guess Sec. Mon knew it would not have been sustainable given the the sizeable amount of funds to pay the Guide, which the DOT did not have. So he just stuck with the partnership with Madrid Fusion to hold a Manila edition, which lasted for three years, carrying over to even his successor, Wanda Tulfo-Teo.
And so funds willing, Frasco hopes to continue the partnership with the Guide, hoping its foreign and local inspectors will also fan out to Iloilo, Bacolod and other parts of the Visayas, as well as Davao and its neighbors in Mindanao. As she said in our interview right after the Guide handed out the awards, ‘Our regional cuisine is so diverse, [these] really deserve to be highlighted.’ I agree. For one, a steaming bowl of batchoy at the La Paz Public Market in Iloilo is certainly worth repeated visits.
So will the Michelin Guide Philippines attract enough foreign tourists? That remains to be seen. It will be up to our hardworking tourism attaches abroad and DOT’s own marketing people (or consultants) to seize the Guide and weave its information into effective promotions for the Philippines.
NOW, it’s bad enough that the Philippines only received 4.77 million foreign visitors from January to October this year, but to have the DOT headlining earthquakes and typhoons on its own Facebook page seems counterproductive to its own efforts to encourage tourists to visit the country.
I doubt that the people who run the DOT’s social media accounts understand why these exist in the first place. Don’t they know that foreigners looking for information on how to travel to the Philippines peruse these accounts?
Good na sana that they read about the Philippines now having Michelin-starred restaurants, but then to see updates of all the natural disasters here, then photos of the Tourism Secretary handing out relief packs.parang mixed messaging, di ba? And yet they wonder why DOT’s partners canceled flights and bookings to Cebu?
I often read the government-run tourism pages of our Southeast Asian neighbors just to check out what’s happening in their neck of the woods. What page visitors will see are waterfalls, river cruises, old-world charm in their architecture, fun frenzied dancing, among other exciting activities tourists are sure to enjoy. Many of these countries are already promoting events happening in 2026.
Unfortunately, since this administration, the DOT social media accounts have become more politically-oriented than marketing-focused. I get that Secretary Frasco used to be a mayor, and politics is a way of life for her. But perhaps all photos and information of her activities relating to non- DOT matters (yes, like handing out relief goods in typhoon-affected areas) should be relegated t? her personal page, not the DOT’s.
DOT should be posting about what tourists can love about the Philippines-our colorful fiestas, scuba diving in the fish-fevered deep, relaxing spa massages, ziplining over tree canopies, or descriptions of our flavorful local cuisine. Not crumbling church walls, post-magnitude 6.9 earthquake.
Know your target audience, then share the information they most need.