MICHELIN HAS SPOKEN: Modern Filipino Food Has Finally Come Home to Fine Dining

For my worldwide readers and especially my fellow Filipinos around the globe:

MICHELIN HAS SPOKEN: Modern Filipino Food Has Finally Come Home to Fine Dining

Friends, For years I have told anyone who would listen: Filipino food is not just comfort food. It is fine dining. It always was. We just needed the world to catch up to what our lola's kitchen already knew. This year, that moment arrived.

The MICHELIN Guide has made its historic debut in the Philippines for 2026 covering Manila and Environs and Cebu  and what the inspectors are saying is exactly what many of us have felt in our hearts for generations. According to Michelin, modern Filipino food now defines Philippine fine dining. 

What they found

The anonymous inspectors did not just find one restaurant. They found a movement. In its very first edition, the Philippines earned 9 MICHELIN Stars - 1 restaurant with the rare distinction of Two Stars and 8 with One Star, plus 25 Bib Gourmand restaurants recognized for exceptional food at moderate prices. 

And what are they celebrating? Dishes we grew up with: sisig, sinigang, inasal, and adobo — highlighted for their distinctive blend of sweet, salty, and acidic flavors achieved through regional fruits, spices, marinating, and grilling. 

Why now?

Michelin says it best: a new wave of young Filipino chefs is redefining our cuisine, blending traditional flavors with international techniques, giving classic dishes a modern twist. 

I love how they described it. They saw restaurants where recipes passed down through generations sit alongside more contemporary and polished dining experiences. They found greater consistency, technical confidence, and a deeper engagement with local ingredients and culinary history. 

This is not fusion for the sake of fashion. This is respect. Our young chefs are taking what our mothers and grandmothers taught us the sour of calamansi and tamarind, the smoke of inasal, the patience of adobo and presenting it with the confidence it deserves.

Restaurants like Helm, Hapag, Inatô, and Linamnam are leading this. Modern cuisine fusing British-Filipino heritage, refined Filipino cuisine using local ingredients, intimate counter dining with sculptural detail. Each with an independent style, but all rooted in the same story. 

As Michelin put it: "Filipino cuisine gains overdue international framing" and "Filipino food claims its global moment in Manila and Cebu".

For my readers abroad

To those of you who left the Philippines 30, 40, 50 years ago and to those who have never been but love someone who cooks adobo on Sunday this is our invitation to come home through food.

The Philippines has been named one of the World's Most Exciting Foodie Destinations for 2026 for a reason. It is not just because we have good food. It is because we finally have a platform that shows the world that our food has always been world-class.

The hotel and dining scenes are buzzing, yes, but the heart remains the same: local spirits, tropical fruits, coffee, spices, and herbs that taste like home. Mabuhay ang lutong Pilipino. Long live Filipino cooking.

I have watched Filipino food travel from carinderias to cruise ships to family potlucks in California church basements. Now to see it stand under the bright lights of Michelin, honored for its creativity and authenticity, it makes this old man very proud.

If you have a chance, book a table. If you cannot travel to Manila or Cebu just yet, cook a sinigang this weekend. Share it with a neighbor. Tell them the story.

That is how a cuisine becomes timeless. With love and a full stomach, David

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What Filipino dish do you think deserves the next Michelin Star? I would love to hear your family’s version of adobo, sisig, or sinigang in the comments below.

Lastly, Have You Tasted chicken Cooked in Bamboo? The Best Chicken, I ever tasted- Sweet because of the Coconut water and lemony because of the tangled, as well as little bit smoky, because of the bamboo wood.

, https://www.facebook.com/reel/493395656940836/?

s=single_unit&__cft__[0]=AZhISmyptZVTJh84TCQIfGhWU80U_FTb9OWE8PIK7jbzsf_u9rD-yAAbqWA2Id5HtWTRlqD3lpD_j9qi40MQLGhWMG9-1If-00BRSrWgxYUDcvTzgHSkLxiIlalxoRpq6E_mxl2y-Ecg7OJnOThrnjug93ZWf3n3moroE-b5MhpyLwoFsL7NciubyyzrtHUizwzy7vyQHIvFYH6B4vo&__tn__=H-R

Finally, My Photo of the Day: My Matching Outfit-Personalized Hat and Shirt

Introducing and Welcoming Laura Gaither- Director of Resident Experience

I am happy to introduce to My Fellow Residents, Ms. Laura Gaither- our newly hired Director of Resident Experience. I took the above photo a couple of days ago, but it was only yesterday afternoon, that I was able to chat with Laura for a few minutes. I told her, I have a blog with more that 60 residents here at THD in my distribution list and if she does not mind I like to introduced her officially via my blog. I asked for a short write-up about her and here's what she gave me:

"As Director of Resident Experience,  I am here to help make sure our residents have the best possible experience and oversees resident experiences in Concierge, Transportation, Events(Activity) and Housekeeping".  

So THD is now run as a tri-directorship organization with the General Manager(GM) at the Top ladder. The Position of General Manager has been vacant for a while. The GM position  had been vacant around May, this year,  I believe after the unexpected disappearance of Nisha Patel. Currently, Jenny Shively, Director of Leasing and Sales is Acting (Temporary)  GM.

Today, I was also able to talk to Caleb Brown, whose previous title was Director of Food and Beverage.  Caleb told me he just got a promotion and is now Director Of Food, Beverage and Operations. So the three Directors, Leasing and Sales, Resident Experience and Food, Beverage and Operations have now equal authority. The three directors will be reporting to the GM once the position is filled.       

Continuing my introduction of Laura. Laura said, she is the proud mother of two daughters. Her youngest plays softball and her oldest has her own press-on nail company.

Laura came from the Hotel industry with 12 years experience in hospitality. 

She loves to sing and dance, enjoys coffee in the morning and wine in the evening, both equally.

She concluded my short interview with this statement: I'm always laughing and love bringing a little fun and positive energy wherever, I go.

Meanwhile

You can add now, the word Operations under Caleb's New Title after his Recent Promotion

Caleb promised me that by Wednesday this week, he will give me a short personal bio also for my Blogs. Congratulations, Caleb on your promotion. May we have fried Chicken and French Fries in our Menu ( just joking)...And do not call me, SIR...Fried Chicken will certainly that ruined your food budget! 

And back to Laura, Again, Welcome to THD. May your employment be Long, Productive and Enjoyable. Looking forward for more positive interactions with you. And here's the website for my blogs as you requested :   http://chateaudumer.blogspot.com 

Lastly My Photo of Day: My Pet Cat-Batman

Personal Questions:  Will Normal Apartment Maintenance requests, such as  leaky faucets, busted lights, broken doors etc....be under Laura's supervision?  Is the maintenance of the Facility/Landscaping, Swimming pool and Safety/Emergency procedures under Caleb's Brown supervision under Operations?   Other residents may not care, but I do!      

AFTERNOON NOTES • WALNUT CREEK

Tea Time with Cello:Aleksander Nazaryan at THD

Walnut Creek, California — Afternoon Tea with Live Music

I was so impressed with the music ( Cello/Viola) provided by Aleks, last Saturday 

here at THD during our Harvest Tea Gathering, I did some search about him.

 Here's what I learned:     

With cellist Aleksander (Aleks) Nazaryan after his beautiful performance at our THD Tea Party - photo by Jenny Shively

By David B Katague

Walnut Creek, CA • September 27 2026

LIVE AT THD

A Wonderful Afternoon

There is something about afternoon tea that invites you to slow down. The cups are warm in your hands, the table is dressed with fresh flowers/dried vegetables, and for a little while, the clock seems to tick more gently.

Last Saturday  at our THD Tea gathering in Walnut Creek, that gentle pace was lifted by something extraordinary - live cello. With the piano quietly waiting in the background and an autumn floral arrangement on the sideboard, Aleksander brought his instrument into our Fireside Lounge and filled the space with a sound that was both intimate and deeply moving. His rendition of Yesterday and Moon River touched me deeply and the music still lingers in my memory. 

https://chateaudumer.blogspot.com/2020/12/celebration-of-life-macrine-j-katague_16.html 

It wasn’t a concert hall. It was better. It was friends gathered close, tea poured, and the rich, singing voice of the cello just a few feet away. You could hear every breath of the bow, every resonance of the wood. The joy in the room was palpable- the kind of quiet joy that comes when music is shared, not just performed. Some of us even started to sing along. 

The Artist

Who is Aleksander Nazaryan?

Aleksander, Aleks to friends  is a cellist and violist whose life in music has taken him across continents, but whose roots remain deeply Armenian. In his own words, he is originally from Armenia, and that identity has shaped both his path and his sound.

He is a recipient of the prestigious AGBU Performing Arts Scholarship, an award that has supported generations of Armenian artists in the diaspora. That support helped lead to formative moments early in his career, including his 2008 debut concert at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, and a memorable appearance as part of an AGBU quartet in Damascus in 2010, performing for Armenian communities abroad.

Today, Aleks makes his home in the East Bay in the Fremont area where he works as a performing cellist and violist, a teacher, and a generous collaborator at community events just like ours. If you search for him online, you’ll find that many public databases conflate similar names. What we hold to is what he has shared himself: he is an Armenian musician, carrying that tradition forward here in California.

“

I was thrilled to rehearse and play with all these other young performers; everyone was so kind and open... It was a rare occasion where I could really enjoy being Armenian and performing in a foreign land.

— ALEKSANDER NAZARYAN, ON PERFORMING AS AN ARMENIAN ARTIST ABROAD

A Little Background: The Armenian Cello Tradition

To understand why Aleksander’s playing felt so familiar even the first time you hear it, it helps to know a little about Armenia’s musical lineage.

At the turn of the 20th century, Komitas Vardapet,  priest, musicologist, and composer traveled village to village collecting more than 3,000 Armenian folk songs. He saved melodies that might otherwise have vanished, and in doing so gave Armenian classical music its foundation: lyrical, modal, often mournful and tender at once, always close to the human voice.

That singing quality carried forward into Armenia’s great Soviet-era renaissance. Aram Khachaturian wrote his powerful Concerto-Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra in 1963, a work that demands both fire and folk-like lament. Alexander Arutiunian contributed his intimate Impromptu for cello and piano, while Arno Babajanian and Avet Terterian expanded the language further always keeping that thread of Armenian song.

Listen for it: The duduk,  Armenia’s ancient double-reed woodwind is often called the most human-sounding instrument. Its long, breathy, slightly aching tone is the aesthetic heart of Armenian music, and you hear its influence in how Armenian composers write for cello: long legato lines, ornamented sighs, and a vibrato that seems to speak.

A beautiful modern bridge is the album Gems from Armenia by sisters Ani and Marta Aznavoorian, cello and piano miniatures by Armenian composers, played with exactly that vocal, soulful approach. It’s the same lineage Aleksander carries with him.

Why His Music Felt So Special

What made this tea party performance unforgettable wasn’t volume or virtuosity for its own sake. It was tone as well as the music selection. Besides, Yesterday and Moon River, I requested Aleks to play Fly Me to the Moon. It was a beautiful rendition.  

Aleksander plays with a singing tone,  warm in the low register, luminous on top, and always shaped like a sentence. The cello, more than almost any other instrument, is close to the human voice, and in his hands that closeness becomes conversation. You don’t just hear notes; you hear intention, tenderness, remembrance.

In a small room, with tea steaming and friends leaning in, that kind of playing is perfect. It doesn’t need distance. It invites nearness. It reminded us that music, at its best, is hospitality,  a way of welcoming people into feeling.

Lyrical

Long, arching lines that breathe like folk song, never rushed.

Intimate

Made for a living room, not just a stage. You feel the wood vibrate.

Human

A tone close to voice and duduk-  warm, honest, and kind.

Thank you, Aleks, for sharing your gift with us. The tea has been drunk, the cups washed, but your music lingers-  as the best afternoon music does.

With gratitude from all of us at THD. I hope to see you soon during our future Happy Hour Here at THD every Friday Afternoon. Thank You MetaAI for this beautiful format.  Kudos to Alexis for inviting Aleks to our Tea Party.     

April 2024 • Walnut Creek, California • THD Tea Party Series

Tea, friendship, and cello.

DESIGNED FOR PRINT • CREAM • GOLD • LARGE TYPE