“Hospitality is all about how you make people feel,” said chef Jordy Navarra of Toyo Eatery at the wake of Margarita Forés at the New Frontier Theater on February 19. “Whenever I think about Filipino hospitality, I will forever see her face and hear her voice.”
The news of Forés’ passing at age 65 last February 11 felt unreal, it just didn’t compute. She was larger than life. Indestructible. The GOAT, and I don’t say that to be flippant. Surely fake news, I told my husband, until he showed me her son Amado Forés’ Instagram post, confirming the unthinkable.
She didn’t know me, but like so many others, I knew her through the gravitational pull of her influence. She was the Margarita Forés, with a whole cult of personality surrounding her. Born to a prominent family, but no one could say she squandered that privilege. She parlayed it into something bigger, something greater. She took a bite of a palm heart salad in Italy and thought, we can do this better in the Philippines.
She built the Cibo restaurant empire — its space-age interiors and bold orange logo standing out in a time when all bistros looked the same. She put Filipino food on the global map, winning Asia’s Best Female Chef in 2016 when the industry was still finding its footing. At Cibo, I had my first encounters with a sandwich called panini and pizzas topped with fresh arugula. The Italian words, once clunky on my tongue, now roll off easily: spinaci zola, penne al telefono, uva nera.
But what was always so striking about Forés was her devotion — to her craft, her people, and her industry. She didn’t need to work or show up, but she always did. “Wherever she was needed,” Navarra said. She championed Filipino ingredients and talent. She helped some of our greatest chefs get a leg up when they were all starting out. It was at Grace Park that I had my first taste of the grain adlai, and diwal (angel wing clams). On the global stage, she was a constant presence, making sure our flavors were part of the conversation. When our design studio And A Half worked on the branding of A Mano with her son, she showed up, bringing Cibo for the whole studio. At a wedding I attended a few years ago, she showed up and cut the lechon herself. To this day, it remains one of the best meals of my life. So when a public viewing was announced, I simply had to go.
Forés devoured life as she did food — joyfully and without hesitation. She embraced pleasure, adventure, and people, giving back as much as she took in.
I keep wondering how she did it. Putting up your own restaurant can turn you into a misanthrope and a cynic. You keep everything at arm’s length to protect your peace, to ration your energy. And yet, Forés was the opposite.
She was so generous, so giving, so present. Evident in how she filled an entire theater to the balcony with those who had been touched by her generosity: business titans, politicians, artists, longtime regulars, and restaurant staff who had been with her for decades. The former Ambassador to Italy, Giorgio Guglielmino, reminisced about her laughter and her favorite restaurant, Roscioli in Rome. A parade of Cibo waiters and her catering staff raised her a final toast to the tune of “Native New York.” Mar Roxas, her cousin, likened her to an Italian mamma, setting a big table and making room for everyone. Needless to say, the food was delicious, and I ate with gusto. It felt like the only fitting tribute. To savor it, to enjoy it, just as she would have wanted.
Having a dream is one thing, giving yourself to it completely is another. Forés devoured life as she did food — joyfully and without hesitation. She embraced pleasure, adventure, and people, giving back as much as she took in. The MICHELIN Guide announced its presence in the Philippines just a few days ago, and I believe this is part of her legacy. The world knows Filipino food because she insisted it be known.
There will never be another Margarita Forés, that much is certain. And we will feel the weight of her loss for a long time. But the thing about legacy is that it’s more than what we’ll remember, it’s about what endures. Forés will live on through the food she’s cooked, the people she’s fed, and the spaces she filled with her warmth. She made a life out of bringing people to the table, those of us left can honor her by keeping it going.
Miguel Nacianceno’s photographs of Margarita Forés previously appeared in Yummy Magazine in 2013 and 2016, respectively.
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