Amado and Margarita Forés share the story behind their success in the Philippine culinary industry

Growing Pains

In the beginning, the mother had no inkling that her son would be interested in food at all. “He was always so hard to feed!” Margarita remembers. “When he was a kid, he was always McDonald’s combination no.5, one piece chicken and spaghetti!” Which Amado confirms: “Fast food spaghetti and fried chicken, always. At home, I liked our chorizo rice.”

The exposure to food was subliminal. Hardly the hands-on mother, Margarita, however, would take Amado with her all the time. “From when he was 2, I would be catering meetings and he would be in the car seat with his yaya,” she shares. “Without technically learning the business, he absorbed it just by being with me.”

When Amado was 7, Margarita took him to Europe, despite people telling her it was too early. But she just followed what her mother, the late Baby Forés, did to her and her siblings, exposed them to Europe at a young age. Today, she is convinced that it was “one of the best decisions I ever made.”

Children grow up and change. And so do their taste buds. For Amado, Margarita says he was probably 14 when he started developing a taste for foods other than spaghetti and fried chicken.

Sharing a common table now, Amado says he feels closer to his mother today more than during his growing up years when, contrary to the cuisine Margarita was passionate about, he preferred Japanese over Italian. “I’d say I was then between 9 and 11,” he recalls.

Amado says he was hyperactive and impish as a child compared to his cousins. “But look at him now!” Margarita gushes. “He works hard. Work ethic is not something you can teach. A person has it or he doesn’t. He is also relentless when it comes to chasing food, making reservations and planning the itinerary of where we are going to eat.”

As in any relationships, things aren’t hunky-dory all the time. Margarita calls it “a constant push and pull.” And elaborates, “You see, he has very clear ideas about what he wants to do and at the same time, about how I can improve on what I am doing.” She, however, has learnt to pull back and listen, often suggesting that they try Amado’s ideas and apply it if it works better. Looking at the scoreboard however, Margarita says she’s the one who relents more often than not.

At Lusso in Podium where this cover shoot was taking place, Margarita decides she and Amado should be interviewed separately. Which worked well, as the young man freely talked about everything he’s done in the short time of four years, more or less.

But first, he sets the record straight: “I am not a chef.” This, he says, is perfect for his role in the restaurant business: designing the process, planning directions and inspiring his team. In contrast, he says that it’s not easy for his mother to divorce herself from the recipe. “Because she is the one cooking, I think my mum’s connection with the food is more personal. Who knows if this is a strength or a weakness but this is how it is. ‘Cuz my mum really cooks from the heart, and this is what attracts people to what she’s doing,” he adds. On the other hand, Amado likes working with data. If something doesn’t do well, he can easily change to what will.

An example of Amado’s astute business acumen is best told by the story of his Japanese brand Ramen Ron. “It’s a partnership with Ukokkei Ramen Ron of chef Tamura. Growing up I would eat very, very often chef’s Tan Tan Ramen there on Pasay Road. But during the pandemic it almost closed.” What her son did with “the first ramen brand in Manila, even before ramen became fashionable”, Margarita says, came totally from left field. “He and I both had no mastery over Japanese cuisine.”

“With Ramen Ron I felt like practicing the Japanese art of kintsugi,” Amado describes, “where you put together something broken by adding another element to make it whole again.”

Tamura, who was once known for his strictness, frowned against take-outs and bringing in of diet drinks in Ukokkei. But during Covid, the restaurant business suffered a slump and he had no choice but to bow to Amado’s idea of take-out kits. And that’s how the ramen business started.

“After that, Amado decided we can already open a restaurant and do ramen with it,” adds Margarita. “Now, it’s a thriving brand because Amado made Tamura do other things like the Chicken Kariage that he had always been known for. And he did collabs with me like the bachoy ramen and the buns with the softshell crabs.”

Margarita acknowledges that Amado’s gift is a mindset that understands what the market wants. He also has the gift of being able to create a tight concept. “You know, a mano is so different from what I am doing in Cibo, Lusso and Grace Park. It was really his own idea to celebrate everything made by hand such as the pizza that’s Neapolitan style and the fresh pasta. This is what’s novel about a mano,” she says.

Amado considers his most unique concept, for now, to be Steak & Frice. “We serve steak on a plate together with refillable fries and rice. Sort of like in Entrecote in Paris, which serves steak but with fries only. It took five years for me to muster the confidence to do something this different; but the restaurant has been full for a year, with a wait list of five or six days. What I am most proud about Steak & Frice is that it’s already coming from my creative ideas, even from my childhood [memories].”

Steak & Frice called for another mother-and-son trip to Paris. “His idea was smart,” Margarita comments. “Yes, we do free fries but Filipinos always eat their steak with rice. So, he also offered free rice. For me it was a super eureka and the concept was so strong so it’s doing very well and I keep telling him he should open another shop.”

Amado serves a lot of dishes inspired by family recipes at this restaurant, showing how he appreciates his roots. Which does his mother proud: “In Steak & Frice, he has a dish from his dad’s side, and the cheese pimiento of Cubao is in his bruchettas. He makes sure that we always celebrate what we have been doing on my mum’s side.”

Family roots is most important to Amado who says this is a lesson learnt from Margarita. “For her, it’s always never forgetting where you came from, where you started. I would always take that with me,” he says. But what he won’t emulate is being a slave to time. “I would like to keep some space for myself,” the groom-to-be declares, perhaps thinking of the big change in his life come May.

See also: The visionary tycoons behind Asia’s leading food companies

Succession Bytes

Apart from his marriage to “the perfect girl for me”, Amado reveals his dream for the future. “Given a chance, I would like to translate my mum more.” Elaborating, he says that he would like “to slowly take over her restaurants but keeping her identity, or rather the soul of what she does but adding my touch”. The dutiful son quickly follows with a wink: “If she allows me to, of course; so please ask her when you interview her later.”

Thing is, both mother and son seem to be on the same page. “Amado has very clear ideas about how to make my existing concepts better. For me it’s a real blessing because in the end, succession planning comes naturally to all Filipino families,” Margarita says. “I’ve seen that with our own Araneta side. It takes a while for the older generation to want the younger generation to take over. And that’s something I learnt actually, thanks to my siblings Oye, my two sisters, my brother Joe. For us, it is so important to bring the next generation in.”

Margarita’s generation is already taking the initial steps of succession. The generation that follows is, after all, composed of only six—Raul, Oye’s son; Amado; and then Joe’s four kids—who are all integrated in whatever businesses their parents are involved in. Mercedes, a daughter of Joe, has joined Cibo, and is being groomed to take over marketing. Her brothers Alfonso and Jose are part of Hijo Farms which grows vegetables,  herbs and greens used at the restaurants; while the youngest, Lorenzo, is working at Radio City Music Hall and soon at Madison Square Garden, hopefully to eventually help out at the Araneta Coliseum.

All this, of course, is to set the stage for Margarita’s retirement. But will she? “At 65, I have realised I have worked so hard already. So, what I really want to do is wind down a little bit,” she says. What she doesn’t see herself giving up yet is her catering, the business that started it all. “Amado feels that catering saps so much of my energy. He feels that I don’t need that kind of headache anymore,” she says. Ironically, in the food empire she started, catering is the big root that should not be forgotten. She shared that Amado made her promise that his wedding will be her last catering gig. “But I don’t know if I can keep that promise,” Margarita says sheepishly.

Nearer in the future, she shares that she will be doing a joint project with Amado, his concept of an Italian brand highlighting Filipino ingredients. Not before she opens Margarita, of course, her signature restaurant. “Margarita is kinda like what Pepato was, not too frou-frou fine dining, more relaxed, a trend I am currently seeing,” she says.

What is on her itinerary when her schedule becomes more open? “Travel,” she says, without batting an eyelash. And we all know where her first stop would be.

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