Margarita Forés
🇵🇭 Philippines · Filipino cuisine · b. 1959
Asia's Best Female Chef and the global ambassador of modern Filipino cuisine.
Biography
Margarita Forés is a Manila-based chef and restaurateur widely regarded as the leading international voice of modern Filipino cuisine. Trained informally in Italy, where she developed a deep love for Italian regional cooking, she returned to Manila in the 1980s and built one of the country's most influential restaurant groups: Cibo (a long-running modern Italian chain), Lusso, Grace Park, and Cafe Ysabel.
In 2016 she was named Asia's Best Female Chef by The 50 Best Restaurants — only the second Filipino chef to win the award — and has used the platform tirelessly to champion Filipino cuisine, organising international Filipino food festivals from Madrid to New York and consulting on Filipino-themed dinners at globally recognised restaurants.
Her cooking blends deep Italian classical training with a clear-eyed appreciation for the regional cuisines of the Philippines — Pampanga, Bicol, Visayas, Mindanao — and is frequently credited with helping launch the global 'modern Filipino' movement of the late 2010s.
Cooking Philosophy
Filipino cuisine is the next great Asian cuisine to be discovered globally — and it is unmistakably its own thing. Forés argues that the long Spanish, American, Chinese and Malay influences on Filipino food don't dilute it; they make it distinctively layered. Her mission is to give Filipino cooking the same fine-dining seriousness historically afforded to Thai, Japanese or Vietnamese cuisine.
Restaurants
- CiboManila
Long-running modern Italian restaurant chain — her commercial backbone.
- Grace ParkManila
Farm-to-table Filipino-international restaurant.
- LussoManila
Italian fine dining in Greenbelt 5.
Awards & Recognition
- Asia's Best Female Chef (2016) — The 50 Best Restaurants
- Order of Lakandula (Philippines)
- Madrid Fusion Manila Festival Culinary Director
Iconic Dishes
Cookbooks
- Cibo (cookbook)
Signature Recipes Inspired by Margarita
Original recipes we created as homages to Margarita's cooking style and signature dishes. Not direct reproductions of any copyrighted material — these are our interpretations of the traditions Margarita has worked with throughout their career.
Recipes in Margarita's Style
These recipes from our database reflect the filipino cooking tradition that Margarita works in. They are not direct reproductions of Margarita's copyrighted recipes, but traditional dishes inspired by the same culinary heritage.
Career Timeline
Travels to Italy to study Italian regional cooking informally, working with home cooks and small restaurants in Tuscany and Lombardy.
Returns to Manila and launches a catering business — the foundation of her later restaurant group.
Opens Cibo in Manila, her first restaurant — modern Italian cuisine that grows into a multi-branch chain.
Opens Grace Park in Bonifacio Global City — a farm-to-table Filipino-international restaurant.
Serves as Culinary Director of Madrid Fusion Manila, the festival that brings global chefs to the Philippines.
Named Asia's Best Female Chef by The World's 50 Best Restaurants.
Hosts Filipino food festivals in Madrid, New York and Singapore, building global recognition for modern Filipino cuisine.
Frequently Asked Questions about Margarita Forés
Who is Margarita Forés?
Margarita Forés is one of the Philippines' most prominent chefs and the country's most internationally visible culinary ambassador. She was named Asia's Best Female Chef in 2016 and has been a leading figure in the global 'modern Filipino' movement of the late 2010s.
What is Cibo?
Cibo is the modern Italian restaurant chain Forés opened in Manila in 1997. It became one of the most successful casual-dining brands in the country and remains her commercial backbone, while her later restaurants Grace Park and Lusso explored more ambitious farm-to-table and fine-dining concepts.
Why does Forés cook Italian and Filipino food?
Forés trained informally in Italy in the 1980s and built her restaurant career on modern Italian cooking before deepening her engagement with Filipino regional cuisine. She argues the two traditions share more than they differ — both prize family meals, regional pride, ingredient seasonality and slow-cooked stews — and her menus often draw links between them.
What is the 'modern Filipino' movement?
The 'modern Filipino' movement is the wave of restaurants — in Manila, New York, Los Angeles, London — that since the late 2010s has reframed Filipino cuisine as worthy of serious fine-dining attention. Forés, alongside chefs like Bad Saint's Tom Cunanan and Bicol Express's Nicole Ponseca, is widely credited with making the movement internationally visible.
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