President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Sunday honored the late chef Margarita “Gaita” Forés for elevating Filipino cuisine to global recognition, proving it can stand alongside the world’s best.
President Marcos said at the posthumous awarding that “Gaita reimagined Italian cuisine by giving it a Filipino heart. She started as a chef and that she just wanted to cook, and was actually bringing Italian food to the Philippines. But she managed to go far beyond that.”
The President also recalled how Chef Forés left a lasting impression not just through her culinary skills, but also through the unforgettable dining experiences she created. He said Forés succeeded in fusing Filipino and Italian culinary sensibilities and championed the message that Filipino cuisine is world-class.
“When she would make a meal for you, of course, the food was excellent, the food was brilliant, but it was an experience. It was something that you remember. And say, ‘You know I had dinner in this place and the food was prepared by Gaita Forés.’ And it made a change, kicked up the experience to something far from ordinary,” the President said.
The Chief Executive recalled dining with his family in 2016 at a top restaurant in San Sebastian when a chef rushed out, excitedly asking, “Did you hear? Did you hear?”
“And Liza and I were saying, ‘What are they talking about?’ Your chef Margarita Forés is now the Best Asia Female Chef in 2016,” the President beamed with pride, and the audience applauded.
That moment, President Marcos said, filled them with pride—proof of how far Filipino culinary artistry had come. “She gave us something so beautiful and something that we could call our own,” he said.
Forés passed away on February 11, 2025, but her legacy lives on in the meals she crafted and how she inspired a generation of Filipino chefs to dream beyond borders.
President Marcos described Forés as someone driven not by fame or accolades, but by passion. “She just wanted to make the food better…It wasn’t about being famous. She just loved cooking.”
“And that, I think, is her achievement: to show that Filipino food is just as good as yours, and we can actually fuse them,” the President said. | PND
