Three Manila restaurants that show the talents of young chefs applying lessons of top kitchens in West to local cuisine
Josh Boutwood sees the same excitement about Manila’s dining scene as he did working at Noma; he’s part of a corps of young chefs, including Allan Briones and Carlos Garcia, who are helping put Filipino cuisine on the world’s radar
As the cuisine of the Philippines continues to make a big impression on diners worldwide, Manila has cemented its reputation as one of the best places to taste dishes from the country’s most exciting young chefs.
Filipino-British Josh Boutwood is a busy young man, running a portfolio of restaurants as corporate chef for The Bistro Group while simultaneously leading Test Kitchen, a 20-seat, reservations-only, private restaurant on the fringes of Manila’s Makati business district.
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Boutwood’s childhood was spent mostly in the UK and Spain, where his parents ran restaurants.
He enjoyed cooking from a young age and enrolled in the Escuela de Culinario Mojacar in southeast Spain.
He has had stints at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons outside Oxford in the UK, and in the kitchen many young cooks would kill to experience – that of Noma, in Copenhagen.
René Redzepi’s restaurant in the Danish capital, named No. 1 in the World’s 50 Best Restaurant awards four times, has influenced profoundly those who worked there. The chef is well known for foraging for ingredients and making maximum use of local produce – two things that have rubbed off on Boutwood.