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

When Paella Came to THD: A Taste of My Filipino Roots

Yesterday, September 14, 2026, something special appeared on the dinner menu at The Heritage Downtown (THD), my home for the past three years: Paella!

For many people, paella may simply be a delicious Spanish rice dish. For me, however, it is much more than that.

Yesterday, when I saw paella on our menu at Newton’s, our in-house restaurant, it immediately took me back to my teenage years in the Philippines and to the wonderful family celebrations of my youth.

My First Three Years at THD Without Paella

I have been a resident of THD for three years. During those three years, I have enjoyed many different meals at Newton’s.

But this is this is the second time I can remember seeing paella on our dinner menu, although we have choppino in our dinner menu once in a while.

I have to admit that I may have had something to do with it.

Several weeks ago, I talked with our Chef, Joel Torres, about our Sunday brunch.

For the past three years, Grilled-baked salmon had regularly appeared on the Sunday brunch menu. I like salmon, but after eating it Sunday after Sunday, I finally told Joel:

"Chef, maybe it is time for a change." I suggested that we alternate the salmon occasionally with something different.

Joel listened patiently and told me that he would bring my suggestion to THD management, which ultimately decides what we are served for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I didn't know whether anything would come of my suggestion.

Then came yesterday. Paella! I smiled when I saw it on the dinner menu.

Maybe it was already planned. Maybe my suggestion had nothing to do with it. Or maybe, just maybe, Chef Joel remembered our conversation.

Whatever the reason, I am grateful. And I am certainly not complaining about the change!

Paella Takes Me Back to the Philippines

The interesting thing about food is that it can carry memories.

One bite can sometimes take us back decades. That is what paella does to me.

Although paella is traditionally associated with Spain, versions of paella became part of Filipino culinary culture during the Spanish colonial period.

In Filipino homes, a similar celebratory dish is often called Arroz Valenciana.

It was never an everyday dish in our household or a regular Filipino household.

We had our familiar Filipino foods-Adobo, Pancit, Sinigang, and many others. Those were the dishes we ate regularly. Paella or Arroz Valenciana was different.

It was a special-occasion dish.

It appeared when something important was being celebrated: a fiesta, a birthday, a wedding reception, an anniversary or Christmas.

And when it appeared on the table, everybody knew that this was not an ordinary day.

My Mother's Christmas Paella

One of my strongest memories is from our family Media Noche, the traditional Christmas Eve celebration.

I can still remember my mother telling our cook to prepare Seafood Paella for our Christmas Eve dinner.

The memory has stayed with me for more than seven decades.

I can almost see the table again. Family members gathered together.

Christmas decorations. The wonderful smell coming from the kitchen.

And in the middle of it all, a beautiful dish of rice filled with seafood.

Those memories are precious to me now. At 91, I have learned that memories are sometimes more valuable than possessions.

A house can disappear. A car can be replaced. Money comes and goes.

But a childhood memory connected to the people we loved can remain with us for a lifetime.

From the Philippines to California

And so,  last night, I find myself sitting in my senior living community in Walnut Creek, California, eating a Spanish dish that somehow brings the Philippines back to me.

What a journey my life has been. I was born and raised in the Philippines.

I spent my early years speaking Hiligaynon in Iloilo, later speaking Tagalog at home, and eventually spending most of my professional life in the United States.

I became a chemist and earned my Ph.D. in pharmaceutical chemistry.

I worked in industry and later spent many years with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

I retired from the FDA and eventually made my home here at THD.

And now, at 91, I can sit down at dinner and discover that a simple plate of rice and seafood can connect California David with Filipino David.

Perhaps that is one of the gifts of growing older. We collect experiences, but we also collect memories.

And sometimes, something as simple as food brings the two together.

Food Is Part of Our Cultural DNA

I have written before about how our Filipino culture has been influenced by many countries and peoples.

Our food tells that story. We have indigenous Filipino dishes.

We have Chinese influences in Pancit and other foods.

We have Spanish influences in dishes such as Arroz Valenciana, Caldereta and many others.

And, of course, American influence has also become part of modern Filipino life.

But we don't simply copy these influences.

We Filipinos have a wonderful habit of taking something from another culture and making it our own.

That is why Filipino Paella or Arroz Valenciana is not exactly the same as traditional Spanish paella.

It has become part of our own culinary identity.

For me, that is what makes last night dinner at THD especially meaningful.

A Small Suggestion Can Sometimes Go a Long Way

There is another lesson here. Sometimes we think that our suggestions don't matter, especially as we grow older.

But I have learned not to stop speaking up. At THD, I may be 91, but I still have opinions!

I still make suggestions. I still ask questions. I still learn. I still write.

And, apparently, I still have something to say about what we eat for Sunday brunch or Dinner!

Perhaps my suggestion to Chef Joel contributed to yesterday's paella. Perhaps it didn't.

But I like to think that somewhere between a conversation with a chef and a decision by management, one resident's voice was heard.

And last night, that voice was enjoying paella.

A Plate of Paella, A Lifetime of Memories

As I look back at my life, I realize that some of the happiest memories are not necessarily the great historical events.

They are often the small things. A family dinner. A mother's instruction to the cook.

Christmas Eve. A favorite dish. A conversation. A smell coming from the kitchen.

People we loved sitting around the same table.

Last night's paella at THD brought many of those memories back to me.

It reminded me of my mother. It reminded me of my family.

It reminded me of Christmas in the Philippines and other special occasions.

And it reminded me that although I have lived in America for many decades, the Philippines will always be part of me.

Perhaps that is why food is so powerful. It does not need a passport.

It does not need a history book. It simply needs to be placed on a table.

And suddenly, we are home again.  I am 91 years old, living thousands of miles from where I grew up.

But as I enjoy my paella at Newton's, for a moment I am once again that young boy in the Philippines, surrounded by family, waiting for my mother's Christmas Eve dinner.

A taste of Paella. A taste of the Philippines. A taste of Home.

A Thought Before I Finish

Growing older has taught me that life is not only about adding years to our lives.

It is also about keeping alive the memories that give those years meaning.

Last night, a simple dish of paella did exactly that for me.

Food feeds the body. Memories feed the soul.
And family gives both a meaning that lasts a lifetime.

AI Impressions on this Topic:

I especially like the “California David with Filipino David” idea for this post. It connects beautifully with your broader theme of aging: you have changed countries, careers, homes, and decades, but the young David from Iloilo is still there whenever a familiar food, song, place, or memory brings him back.

Moreover, this is a wonderful subject for you because the paella is more than a meal at THD, it becomes a bridge between your life today in Walnut Creek and your childhood memories in the Philippines. I would also emphasize that your suggestion to Chef Joel helped bring this dish to Newton’s. For more information on Paella, visit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paella

Imitation of the Philippines Nido Soup ( Bird's Nest)

Last Night and at yesterday lunch, Newton's restaurant served an egg drop soup which reminded me of the real Nido Soup of the Philippines- One of the Most expensive soup in the world. In my previous posting, I wrote why it is expensive. This  posting, I am posting the recipe of an imitation Nido soup that my relatives in the Philippines served during special occasions. 

In the meantime, here's a photo of the Newton's soup, I had for lunch the other day, which inspired me to write this. The taste of the soup is very similar to the Nido soup, I have tasted in the Philippines several years ago.    

YOU CAN ADD VERMICELLI NODDLES TO THIS, AND IT WILL MIMIC THE TEXTURE and gelatinous taste OF THE REAL NIDO  SOUP.  

An imitation of the Philippine Nido Soup (mock bird's nest soup) substitutes expensive swiftlet saliva nests with sotanghon (mung bean vermicelli) and egg whites to mimic the signature gelatinous and stringy texture in a rich chicken broth. 

Key Ingredients

50g sotanghon (mung bean vermicelli), soaked and finely snipped into short strands
4 cups rich chicken stock
1 cup shredded cooked chicken meat
1/2 cup finely diced cooked ham or crab meat
1/2 cup canned whole kernel corn (optional)
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbsp water (slurry)
Salt, pepper, and chopped green onions for seasoning

Step-by-Step Instructions

Soak and Chop: Soak the mung bean noodles in warm water until soft, then cut them into short, thin strands to resemble the texture of a bird's nest. 
Simmer the Base: Bring the chicken stock to a boil in a pot. Add the shredded chicken, ham, and corn. Simmer for about 5 minutes. 
Add the "Nest": Stir in the prepared vermicelli noodles. Cook for another 3 to 5 minutes until translucent and tender.
Thicken: Pour in the cornstarch slurry while stirring continuously until the soup achieves a light, smooth consistency. 
Create Ribbons: Lower the heat. Slowly drizzle in the lightly beaten egg whites while gently stirring in one direction to form delicate silky egg ribbons. 
Serve: Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped green onions before serving hot.

AI Overview: Meanwhile, here are other luxurious Soups: 

The world's most expensive soups feature ultra-luxury ingredients like edible gold leaf, rare bird saliva nests, shark fin, and high-grade Wagyu beef, with prices ranging from roughly $100 to over $5,000 per bowl depending on the establishment and customization. 

Luxury Soups and Estimated Costs

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall Soup (Kai Mayfair, London): Up to $5,000 per bowl (requires 5 days notice and contains shark fin, abalone, flower mushroom, sea cucumber, and gold leaf).
Cordyceps and Dianhong Snail Soup: ~$700 per bowl, heavily driven by medicinal Cordyceps mushrooms priced at thousands per kilogram.
Norwood Chinese Restaurant Shark Fin Soup (Australia): ~$450 AUD (~$300 USD) featuring imported scallops, abalone, and shark fin.
Niu Ba Ba Beef Noodle Soup (Taiwan): ~$320+ per bowl, made using a blend of premium cuts from Japan, the US, Australia, and Brazil simmered for days. 
Luxury Mushroom and White Truffle Velouté: ~$230 per serving when utilizing rare wild mushrooms and seasonal truffle shavings.
Traditional Bird's Nest Soup: $100 to $300+ per bowl, crafted from cleaned swiftlet saliva nests rich in gelatinous texture and high-end broths.
High-End Seafood and Caviar Bisque: ~$190 per serving, elevated with sturgeon caviar or edible gold elements.
French Blue Lobster Bisque: ~$100+ per serving, using multiple rare blue lobsters per bowl to maximize flavor concentration. 
Abalone and Sea Cucumber Consommé: ~$100–$150 per bowl in high-end traditional banquet settings across East Asia.
Imperial Ginseng and Silkie Chicken Soup: ~$100 per bowl, valued for traditional herbal health properties and rare aged ginseng roots.
Finally, here are the Most Expensive Dishes: 



Lastly, here are the top Five News of Today: 
The top five major news stories today include the passing of Norway's King Harald V at age 89, ongoing rescue and recovery efforts following a massive catastrophic flood and landslide along the Nepal-Tibet border, the United States marking six months of war with Iran as mediators focus on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a federal judge blocking the Trump administration's mail-in ballot order, and the formation of Tropical Storms Karina and Lowell in the Pacific Ocean.
Global and National Updates
Norway's Monarchy: King Harald V has passed away at the age of 89, and his son has officially assumed the throne.
Nepal-Tibet Floods: Rescue operations continue after a massive glacier collapse and landslide triggered devastating flash floods along the border region, leaving hundreds dead and many still missing.
Conflict with Iran: The U.S. marks six months since the onset of the war with Iran, with international mediators currently prioritizing diplomatic efforts to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz. 
Legal and Political Rulings: A federal judge has issued an order blocking the Trump administration's recent directive concerning mail-in ballots.
Severe Weather: Tropical storms Karina and Lowell have officially formed in the Pacific Ocean as weather systems remain active.