Tag: Joseph L. Garcia

BLUE seems to be the color of the pursuit of excellence as one of the oldest and most respected culinary institutions in the world, Le Cordon Bleu, partners with one of the premier universities in the Philippines, the Ateneo de Manila University. The partnership, called the Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo de Manila Institute (LCBAI) was launched in the university’s Arete building last week. Le Cordon Bleu was founded in 1895, providing the culinary education that shaped icons such as Julia Child. In turn, the Ateneo de Manila University has produced heroes, entrepreneurs, and politicians.

LIKE LOVERS who have made themselves too available, it’s easy to take the province of Rizal for granted. It’s too near the city, and it doesn’t boast of Tagaytay’s views and chilly mountain breezes. It does, however, have a character and beauty of its own: so much of it, in fact, to make artists want to work, live, and as in the case of National Artist Carlos “Botong” Francisco, to want to die there.

AN ANONYMOUS vigilante food critic on Instagram, Masarap Ba (@masarapba), has pulled off a stunt worthy of a wholesome comic strip. She once gave BusinessWorld a pseudonym, Kat Abaan (read: fatness), and this Ms. Abaan recently collaborated with Novotel Manila Araneta Center for a food festival. Take a tip, influencers: apparently there’s a lot that can be done, even if no one knows what you look like.

WE’RE almost done with the second decade of this millennium, and while women have made strides in the world, are we making sure that the field is level for them when it comes to the dating game?

PIA ALONZO WURTZBACH was crowned Miss Universe in 2015, and was the country’s third Miss Universe. Ms. Wurtzbach achieved a degree of notoriety after the pageant’s host Steve Harvey called the name of Miss Colombia as the winner, instead of hers. After he realized the mix up, Miss Universe 2014 Paulina Vega had to take the pageant’s crown off Miss Colombia’s head and pass it on to Ms. Wurtzbach.

THE KING is dead, long live the king. The popular phrase has been used to symbolize continuity; that in an institution like a monarchy, while the head may die, the show goes on.

WHAT IS a dish without the drink, and vice versa? Without a dish, one approaches sin, and without drink, one courts a sort of insufficiency, and, well, choking. Homegrown Don Papa Rum encourages one to live life to the fullest with both food and drink in its Chef & Shaker competition.

SM MEGAMALL’s Megatrade Hall was buzzing with activity (and we kid you not, there were actual bees — at least in the honey booths) during the National Food Fair: Philippine Cuisine and Ingredients Show held from March 14 to 17.

WHEN SM said that they’ve got it all for you, they weren’t kidding. BusinessWorld saw how SM wanted to cater to every woman during a fashion show held last week for SM Woman’s Spring/Summer 2019 collection in SM Megamall’s Fashion Hall.

IT’S NOT too late to make reservations for the biggest French dinner in the world. Today, March 21, 26 chefs from all over the country are joining nearly 5,000 chefs worldwide to offer a French three-course dinner all on the same day for Gout de France.

IT’S HARD to imagine that Manila Fashion Fest picked itself up from the ground up only in 2014, establishing itself as the premier fashion show series of the country. In October, it will celebrate its fifth anniversary, but before the landmark occasion it will fist hold its tenth season from April 2 to 5 at the EDSA Shangri-La hotel in Mandaluyong City.

THERE ARE two ways the human mind perceives nature. One makes us seek balance and tranquility, while the other allows us to unleash ourselves and become truly wild. A restaurant in Quezon City allows you to do both: to be tranquil on the weekdays and, for the young ones, go wild on the weekends.

THE EPISTOLARY novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, published in the 18^th century, bore this warning from one of its main characters, the Marquise de Merteuil: “Older ladies must never be crossed: in their hands lie the reputations of the young ones.” In context, the Marquise was in the middle of plotting the downfall of a younger, naive rival.

THE NEW Skechers Sport Gym to Street line isn’t really focused on one’s workout needs.

WHILE the Lopez family can be construed as just another of the 40 families or so that form the nation's elite, the story of the country flows well in their veins, and at the same time, their story imprints on ours. The various Lopez holdings in land, energy, and media, summarized in the Lopez Group of Companies (that includes media conglomerate ABS-CBN, the Rockwell Land developments, and energy companies under First Philippine Holdings Corp., among many, many others) shape the way we live lives in the city and its surrounding environs.

COFFEE is as much a staple in some Filipino homes as rice. However, the minute a Pinoy steps out of the house, there’s hardly any way to get the taste of home — instead we’re inundated with every other cosmopolitan caffeine fix out there. KapeTayo Coffee then, gets the way a Filipino mom likes her coffee, and offers it to the rest of the country.

THE high-powered activities of spring and summer, signaling delight and freedom, are highlighted in the 2019 Spring/Summer collection of Japanese brand Uniqlo.

FOODEE Global Concepts is the company is responsible for bringing in foreign restaurant brands that have earned Michelin stars in their home countries: think FOO’D, Hawker Chan, Tsuta, Kam’s Roast, and Tim Ho Wan (among others). But Foodee’s success with foreign brands began with the Todd English Food Hall in SM Aura, which by now has expanded into other concepts under the name of the celebrity chef: there’s Hook, then Pound; both by Todd English.

THIS RICE COOKER is probably smarter than this writer.

NATURE takes away, and nature gives. July 16 awakens painful memories for many, as it was the day of the great 1990 Luzon Earthquake. With its epicenter near Nueva Ecija, it shook most of the island of Luzon, but particularly the Cordillera Region, the nest of summer playground Baguio City. Around 20 buildings in the city were leveled by the 7.7 magnitude quake, including the grand Hyatt Terraces Hotel. From the rubble, the city found hope in one of its joys — flowers — by launching the first Panagbenga Flower Festival in 1996.

WHILE New York showed a goody two-shoes attitude, Milan Fashion Week, which concludes on Feb. 25, showed excess and a fighter attitude that only the Italians could pull off.

CULT favorite Rico’s Lechon has opened its fifth store, continuing to fuel the craze for Cebu-style lechon (roasted pig). The company’s newest store is located in the SM Mall of Asia complex, on the first level of its South Wing.

WHAT A life it must have been, to be as fabulous as the world can allow, and still become just a footnote in somebody else’s story. Caroline Lee Radziwill, style icon, and one of the characters of the great Kennedy panoply, died in her New York home on Feb. 15, aged 85. Yet for everything she had been (socialite, writer, interior designer, PR executive, actress; princess, even), it is both a blessing and a curse that she will enter history known primarily as being the younger sister of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.

“PERK” can mean making something more lively, or else a small bonus. Last Tuesday, BusinessWorld experienced “perk” in every sense of the word with the launch of Nespresso’s limited edition blends: the Caffes Venezia and the Istanbul, held in the Nespresso boutique in Rockwell.

THE LIFE of actress Audrey Hepburn wasn’t as perfect as her movies would suggest. Growing up as the daughter of a divorced and impoverished Dutch noble, Ms. Hepburn lived through the ravages of the Second World War, facing a fate of near-starvation during the Dutch famine of 1944. During the latter part of her life and her career as a successful actress, Ms. Hepburn joined UNICEF (the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) in the 1980s as a Goodwill Ambassador. According to the UNICEF website, Ms. Hepburn had said on her appointment, “I can testify to what UNICEF means to children, because I was among those who received food and medical relief right after World War II. She continues, “I have a long-lasting gratitude and trust for what UNICEF does.” She was also known to have said, “There is a moral obligation that those who have should give to those who don’t.”

THE FIRST flames of love are nothing short of magical. But what happens when the flames die down? Through the years, lingering smoke and smolder between two loving individuals is all that’s needed to stay together, and that sexy, calming ember is captured perfectly by the Valentine’s Dinner offering of 22 Prime in the Discovery Suites.

FASHION shows our desires and our means to achieve them through carefully selected items. In turn it also begins to see our values and how we seek to live them. In an exhibit called Fashion Revolution at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, we are given alternatives on how to live more sustainably through the clothes that we interact in and interact with.

FOR ITS Spring/Summer 2019 collection, Longchamp goes on a gender-bender and takes its womenswear collection’s cues from, well, men.

JUST IN case you missed it, the doors of Chateau 1771 are open again, having moved from Greenbelt to One Bonifacio High Street.

LITTLE CAESARS used to be a comforting sight in the streets of Manila, until as kids grew up, the branches of the pizza chain closed one by one. Now we can chase a little bit of the past with the reopening of Little Caesars in Ermita.

QUICK, what does a building have in common with a shoe?

LOVE ISN’T a simple affair to be conducted in silence and secrets at the Manila Hotel. For its Valentine’s Day offering, a concert-cum-dinner called A Taste of Love, love will be grand, shouted across the rooftops and sweeping lovers off their feet.

MAYBE airline food is just there to make landing even more worthy, though with new meals by AirAsia, we guess it really does make the journey matter.

EMBEDDED into every garment that has touched skin is a memory. In Glorious Dias, a vintage shop in Poblacion, racks and racks of clothing hold memories: of people, and of a world that has passed, and with every ticking moment, continues to do so.

FASHION designer Cesar Gaupo died on Saturday, Jan. 19, having just celebrated his birthday. He had just turned 72 on Jan. 6.

NOSTALGIC music fans bit their fists hard when Hard Rock Café in Glorietta closed its doors in 2017. Now, they can release their fists, for it has reopened at the Conrad S Maison in the Mall of Asia area in Pasay City.

PIEDMONT is an Italian region soaked in history — and wine. It was here that the House of Savoy held court, the royal house that waged wars to unite the fragmented Italian states into one, the basis of Italy as we know it today. Piedmont is also home to the Nebbiolo grape, which goes into the production of one of Italy’s most famed wines, the Barolo.

CUISINE and culture in many nations can be classified into several levels. As high culture and haute cuisine go hand-in-hand, so do home-cooking and pop culture. A restaurant called Siam Sukh Jai Thai Home Cooking in S Maison claims that they can serve Thai cuisine as it is found on the streets and homes of Bangkok.

CONTI’S Bakeshop and Restaurant, the well-loved source of holiday Mango Bravo cake along with other goodies, was gobbled up by Davao-based Dennis Uy’s Udenna Corp. last year. As it stands, expect a few changes in the coming year for the familiar brand including a major expansion.

THREE HENS are going to try to get your tongue buzzing and your lips moving with a wine brand called, well, Three Hens.

“1” is a concept in Filipino romance that’s undefinable in other languages. We could describe it in parts: the giddiness; the rush when you feel a frisson of emotion for your beloved. Could you call “kilig” butterflies in your stomach? In any case, it won’t matter for this review, because I felt no such thing while watching One Great Love, which to me lacks a beating heart.

NO sisterhood is ever perfect, but Mary, Marry Me makes it look so fun. I guess that’s how I would describe the rest of Mary, Marry Me: imperfect, but at least a good romp.

WE ALL long for a space where we can truly be ourselves. White as the uniform chef Jessie Sincioco often wears, her new building, at a cozy five stories, looms above the streets of a residential area near Makati’s City Hall.

“THOSE who really love, love in silence, with deeds and not with words,” wrote Carlos Ruiz Zafon in his novel The Shadow of the Wind. It is perhaps one of the world’s greatest ironies that some of the world’s most beautiful things are hidden from the human eye. I can go on and on with examples of these, but one of the most luxurious things hidden from the naked eye are the movements of the watches from A. Lange & Söhne.

MEMORIES OF Christmas past are indelibly stamped on the holiday menu of Guevarra’s, chef Rolando Laudico’s buffet restaurant.