Weighing In

Can fine dining ever be sustainable? Chefs Margarita Forés, Chele González, Miko Calo and Stephan Duhesme share their thoughts

- Lauren Golangco

Fine dining has become a matter of great contention in the past few months globally. Last January, chef René Redzepi announced that Noma, his three-Michelin-starred restaurant named The World’s Best five times, would be closing its doors. Speaking with The New York Times, he proclaimed that the modern fine dining model is “unsustainable…financially and emotionally, as an employer and human being, it just doesn’t work. “We have to rethink the industry completely,” he declared. “This is simply too hard, and we must work differently.”

This news came after The Menu, a dark comedy film released in November 2022. A social commentary on the commodification of fine dining, the film also points to the increasingly competitive, high-pressure environment that many of the world’s top chefs are subjected to—one that has encouraged a manner of fine dining that is, as Redzepi might say, ultimately unsustainable.

Below, we hear from four of the country’s culinary authorities and pick their brains on the hot topic. up” with the scene abroad, fine dining here is still very down to earth—and that’s a good thing. Our goals are more sustainable and more in touch with reality. Tasting menus are more about highlighting Filipino cuisine and Filipino ingredients. In a way, we are ahead because we are behind. I always say that. Even with agriculture and farming, the Philippines never really adopted industrialised farming, and now people all over the world are trying to do things more naturally.

MARGARITA FORÉS 
Chef and founder Margarita Forés
Concepts: Cibo, Cibo di Marghi, Grace Park Dining, Lusso,
The Loggia at Palacio de Memoria