Chef and restaurateur Margarita Forés passes away at 65

Award-winning chef and restaurateur Margarita Araneta Forés passed away at 65 on Tuesday, 11 Feb. Her son Amado confirmed the news in an Instagram post.

Forés' immense influence on the Philippine restaurant scene cannot be understated. Winning the prestigious Asia's Best Female Chef award in 2016 from The World's 50 Best Restaurants organization was a well-deserved, albeit far-too-early, coda to a culinary career spanning nearly four decades.

After spending ten years, in her words, "learning the ropes of a career in the food industry," she opened her first restaurant, CIBO, in 1997. The "caffé-paninoteca," or sandwich shop, blossomed into a gathering place for celebrating families, doting couples, and professionals looking for a modern yet authentic Italian meal.

More eateries followed. Lusso — which recently opened a new location at SM Podium — Grace Park, and Alta gave Forés the opportunity to flex her culinary muscles and explore new ideas, including incorporating more Filipino influences into her menus and utilizing organic, healthy ingredients in recipes.

Forés, born on 23 March 1959, was the daughter of Raul Forés and María Lourdes Araneta and a granddaughter of illustrious Filipinos J. Amado Araneta, who gave his name to Araneta Center — now Araneta City — in Cubao, and Dr. Jose Y. Fores, a founder of Makati Medical Center.

In a 2017 interview with Rogue Magazine, she recounts how the death of the Araneta patriarch in 1985 drove her from New York to Italy the following year, where she studies the national cuisine for four months.

The trip imbued her with a passion for food and with the capacity to overcome challenges, including an eating disorder. Forés would go on to beat cancer twice, using the ordeal as inspiration to debut a strictly-organic menu at Grace Park.