FIVE Filipinos — four actresses and a chef-restaurateur — united to represent the vibrant food culture of the Philippines in South Korea. The reality series brings them to Gangnam, Seoul, where they are tasked to run a restaurant that will introduce Philippine cuisine to the city’s bustling dining scene. The culinary travel show, titled Kumusta, is set to premiere on TV5 and Viu on May 24.

Filmed last year, the show is headlined by South Korean star Ji Chang-wook, who assisted the Filipino cast as a server. The celebrities running the restaurant were Jodi Sta. Maria, Janella Salvador, Francine Diaz, Arci Muñoz, and chef-restaurateur JP Anglo.

The show blends food and cultural exchange as the stars break away from their typical on-screen roles to run a fully operational Filipino pop-up restaurant. For most of them, it marked their first time working in the kitchen or service industry.

Speaking in a press conference on March 14 in Pasay City, Mr. Anglo said that he first thought the concept would be “impossible to pull off.”

“That’s what I told them when I was first offered this project. Imagine non-chefs opening a restaurant serving Filipino food in Korea,” he said. “But they were troopers. They embraced their roles the way they embrace their characters when they act. It was impressive.”

Known as the man behind the Filipino restaurant Sarsa and a former MasterChef Philippines judge, he felt joy being able to offer dishes like palabok, sinigang, kare-kare, sisig, gising-gising, lechon, inasal, and halo-halo to Koreans through the show. He added that, though the other cast members did not have his experience, “their heart was really there.”

For Ji Chang-wook — the only non-Filipino in the cast — the role of helping at the restaurant was important.

“When I was asked to join Kumusta, I found it very interesting,” he said in Korean, translated to English at the media conference. “Introducing Filipino cuisine to Koreans was the main point for me, and I thought I could help with this. I really appreciate being a part of it and I did my best.”

Ms. Sta. Maria, who was the hall manager of Kumusta, said that putting a group of strangers together to run a restaurant resulted in them becoming a family.

“Team Kumusta is mapuso (full of heart),” she said. “The most exciting part about sharing our culture is the sense of pakikisama (camaraderie). The international audiences will see how we take care of each other and slowly become a cohesive restaurant.”

Another realization for the cast was how difficult it is to work in the kitchen and service industry, said Ms. Salvador, who was Mr. Anglo’s sous chef.

“I was behind-the-scenes, in the kitchen with Chef JP the whole time. It’s messy. Hindi siya pang-maganda (It’s not for looking beautiful). I have a renewed respect for people who do this as a job,” she said.

Kumusta challenged the celebrities to spend up to 12 hours a day for seven straight days preparing, cooking, and serving dishes for diners. The youngest member of the cast, Ms. Diaz, expressed her gratitude to the others for taking care of her.

“Kapag patapos na ang araw, parang hinahabol ka ng pagod (When the day nears its end, it’s like the exhaustion catches up with you),” she said. “Mahirap maging bunso (It’s difficult being the youngest).”

As for Ms. Muñoz, who actually comes in later in the show as an “all-rounder” reinforcement for the overwhelmed celebrity staff, the project was a dream come true for her.

“I’m a big fan of Korean culture and food, which is the best way to discover a different culture. I was really thankful and happy to be asked to be a part of it,” she said, adding that she was the only one of them to know basic Korean.

The series also boosted its cross-cultural lineup with guest appearances by South Korean celebrities Kim Min-seok, Kim Myung-soo, and Seo In-guk. It is produced by E&S Partners, a subsidiary of Echolive Korea, which is the company that organized Waterbomb Manila in 2025.

For Mr. Anglo, Pinoy audiences can watch out for a unique take on Filipino food being translated into Korean side dishes, which are a staple in every Korean restaurant.

“Overall, I think Koreans were surprisingly impressed,” he said, on how the Kumusta restaurant’s food was received.

Kumusta is set to premiere on TV5’s Weekend Trip block and on the Viu streaming app on May 24. — Brontë H. Lacsamana

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OPM BAND The Ransom Collective has dropped a new track, “Tongue Tied,” which is their first official single in four years. To mark its release, the band held a virtual press conference where they detailed the song’s evolution — from being first written in 2020 to its completion across multiple cities and studios.

The song infuses bossa nova with indie pop and aims to be “a snapshot of who they were and a reminder of what still connects them.” The Ransom Collective was formed in 2013 and went on to define indie pop OPM in the 2010s.

For band members Kian Ransom, Jermaine Choa Peck, Muriel Gonzales, and Lily Gonzales, the song was a product of jamming together and an encapsulation of the butterflies of forming a new love.

“We weren’t sure where the song was gonna go. It was kind of a bossa nova style, but we found a way to pull it into our indie folk sound,” said Mr. Ransom, the band’s lead guitarist and vocalist. “I hope it will bring people back to some memory. The song plays out like a story, of people following a spark of curiosity, intrigue, or romance.”

He added that “Tongue Tied” was shelved for a long time when the band slowed down, with some members turning to other priorities and others moving out of town during the pandemic. This makes the song feel “less like a comeback, but more like coming home.”

For percussionist and vocalist Ms. Choa Peck, it was natural for the band members to pick production back up remotely, record their parts in different studios and spaces, and finally finish the track in Manila in late 2025.

“As a band, we allowed ourselves to experience life outside of the fulltime music that we were doing for how many years. Some of us got married, some of us moved to another country, some of us pursued solo careers. We were supportive of each other’s growth in life,” she explained. “The beauty of releasing this is that it’s like going back to those times, and seeing how we are now in this part of our lives after everything we’ve been through.”

Built on rich instrumentation, “Tongue Tied” introduces new textures and approaches into the band’s signature indie-folk palette, from jazzy harmonies to bossa nova rhythms.

The older Ms. Gonzales, violinist Muriel, noted that they’re no longer too strategic about what they put out. “We’re just going with the flow, whatever comes. If the younger generation picks it up, that’s cool, but in terms of genres, there’s so many different trends now. Our sound is very acoustic and organic, and we enjoy making the music that we like. It comes spontaneously when we write,” she said.

The band detailed that the song could resonate with both long-time fans and new listeners as it balances their familiar sound with a contemporary edge. It can be described as “an unreleased track of the Traces album, but jazzier, so it also feels like a standalone” — an unintentional result that emerged from their easygoing songwriting approach.

“I think our mindset has evolved in terms of having to be productive all the time,” the younger Ms. Gonzales, keyboardist Lily, added, on how their creative process as a band has changed. “It’s not really about productivity.”

On “Tongue Tied,” both she and Ms. Choa Peck were able to unleash their creativity with the percussion and voicing of the outro (the closing section of a song, the opposite of an intro). Mr. Ransom revealed: “The song changed so much because of the amount of time it took [to write]. We ended up swapping out the outro multiple times.”

“The outro was Lily just interacting with the music we already started together,” he said, concluding that “there’s something that just happens when we are all together.”

While they are under no pressure to churn out more music as a band, it is something they are all looking forward to doing naturally, they said.

The Ransom Collective’s “Tongue Tied” is out now on all digital music platforms worldwide. — Brontë H. Lacsamana