The new year opens new opportunities to recalibrate, pursue new goals and improve your general well-being. To help you get started, The Westin Manila partners with integrative nutrition coach and certified raw vegan chef Mia Sison for the latest edition of the Green Mondays buffet highlight at Seasonal Tastes. The collaboration will showcase signature creations from the homegrown plant-based food delivery line, Habits by Mia Sison.

“We recognize and understand how most people are looking to reset after a long holiday season,” explains Executive Chef Rej Casanova. “It’s a good time to start fresh and find the right balance. Our partnership with Habits by Mia Sison is anchored on our goal to offer more variety and help you eat well with more wholesome and nutritious options.”

Best-sellers personally prepared by Chef Sison includes her Plantbowls (salads served in a bowl), which she each describes as a complete meal on its own with protein, good fats and carbohydrates. “It’s enough to keep you full and nourished.”

In addition, Chef Sison will serve popular pasta bowls, such as the Lentil Bolognese Pasta Bowl, which has a meaty texture and taste without the meat. She will also serve her Warm Bowls, which, unlike Plantbowls, consist of cooked vegetables.

The featured creations will be part of the restaurant’s One Dish Wonders section in the lunch buffet every Monday (until 27 January). Unlike other items on the buffet, the selections in this section are prepared a la minute and served in tasting plates. This is one of the initiatives by The Westin Manila team to help reduce excess food production.

Planting good habits

According to Chef Casanova, the partnership with Chef Sison also aims to inspire and empower the community. “Our guest chef’s creations speak so highly of her passion in wellness. She not only serves good food, but she also shares an inspiring story of how she started making lifestyle changes with plant-based food, which we hope will empower the community in their health journey.”

About two years ago, Chef Sison, a mom of three, discovered that her youngest daughter has food insensitivity, which led her to start using natural alternatives for her recipes. Committed to her newfound will and growing interest in wholefoods, she enrolled in Sayuri Healing Food in Bali, Indonesia. She shares, “I learned how to make dressings out of nuts. I also learned about superfoods and the benefits of raw foods, which are, unfortunately, not easily available in the Philippines. I realized they were not as intimidating or difficult as they appeared on videos or social media.”

Back home with the family, she applied what she learned as she embarked on a new health journey. “I committed to doing reset every Monday, after a weekend of indulging with family and friends. I would prepare my own salad bowls, smoothies, and juices. I enjoyed sharing this journey on social media, and it sparked the curiosity of my friends and followers online. As word spread, I received a lot of inquiries about my creations. This eventually motivated me to start selling and offering food delivery subscriptions, initially to friends and later to a larger clientele across Metro Manila.”

Try something new this month to jumpstart your wellness journey. Visit Seasonal Tastes for lunch every Monday and get a filling of plant-based creations by Mia Sison.

Book a table via https://qrco.de/SeasonalTastesMNL.