Celebrity Life

Manila's most loved hotel buffet restaurant hires its first female executive chef

By Angelo Garcia

When Spiral Manila announced that they have a new executive chef--a female executive chef--last month, the post was filled with congratulatory messages for the new head honcho of one of the metro's best buffet kitchens. However, a few questioned the hotel restaurant, “Why only now?”

And understandably so because in this day and age, female head chefs shouldn't come as a surprise, it should be a norm.

“Someone commented, '2020 na, siya pa lang una?' Tama naman. It's long overdue,” Chef Bettina Arguelles agrees to the comment.

Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila's new executive chef is a Filipina with a French foundation and international training. Chef Bettina has always been destined to head a restaurant because of her roots and love for cooking.

FROM ADVERTISING TO THE KITCHEN

At a young age, Chef Bettina already knew what she'd do in the future. But like most Filipino families back then, working in the kitchen as a profession was out of the question.

“My family really loves to cook. I grew up with my lola, I was always hanging out with her because my parents were working. [When] she's cooking, I'm there. My mom also cooks, and she has a catering business before,” she recalls in an interview with GMANetwork.com.

Her parents, however, discouraged her from pursuing a career in the kitchen because they knew it was hard. Besides, there were no local culinary schools at that time. Those who want to be professional chefs have to fly to Europe or the US to get proper training and it was (and still is) an expensive course.

To satisfy her parents, chef Bettina took a different path and she graduated with a degree in Mass Communication from Ateneo de Manila University. She worked in advertising and direct marketing for a couple of years before moving to Japan with her husband Andy in 1998.

During their stay in Japan, she worked freelance, writing copies for the Philippine embassy, English publications, and websites. She also gave birth to two daughters in Tokyo, Erin, and Alexandra. Despite having a comfortable life, she had this nagging feeling to really pursue her passion--cooking.

“When my kids were going to school na, I told my husband, 'Now I'm just waiting for all of you to come home. What am I going to do now? I think I really need to do something for yourself.' I never pictured myself as a housewife or stay-at-home mom,” she shares.

In 2006, after living for eight years in Japan they packed their things and moved to Singapore. Chef Bettina used all her savings and her husband even had to take a loan so she can pursue her culinary dream.

The Arguelles family (from left) Alexandra, Andy, Bettina, and Erin | SOURCE: Chef Bettina Arguelles

DOING IT FOR HER DAUGHTERS

In Singapore, she took up a two-year culinary course at At-Sunrice Global Chef Academy. It was not easy, according to her. She was a foreigner and a 30-year-old mother of two, in a classroom filled with 18-year-olds.

“That was a real challenge also and I think it really gave me that sense of fulfillment I was really looking for,” she shares.

Sadly, she experienced discrimination from classmates and from the other chefs she worked with. It's a work-study program, which mixes classroom and real-world practice. One month would be spent in the classroom then the next three months were spent in hotel restaurant kitchens.

“When I was working at the hotels for our internship, chefs would tell me, 'Is that your household knife?' Palaging ka nilang mamatahin. Sa buffet I served a guest, 'Where are you from? You're Filipino? My maid is Filipino,'” the 45-year-old chef says.

The discrimination was on top of the berating she got from chefs. She was even grabbed by a chef by the collar and pushed against a wall. A lot of times, she came home crying. Her husband and daughters were witnesses to her struggles.

“Maraming times umuuwi ako talaga, I'm crying. Titiisin ko siya sa work ayoko magpakita na I'm affected pero pagdating na pagdating ko sa bahay, when I enter the door, umiiyak na ko,” Chef Bettina recalls.

It was having a supportive husband that kept her going despite all that she was facing. Her husband believed in her and her dreams.

“I think my husband is a feminist even more than I am. He is pushing me to continually break glass ceilings more than I'm thinking I'm capable of. He's been the one who's believed in me, more than I thought I ever could he never had a doubt. He allowed me to pursue my passion and dreams, without making me feel remiss in my duties and wife and mother. I don't think I could've ever achieved anything without that support uplifting me,” she says.

More importantly, as a woman and mother, she was doing it for her daughters.

“I was telling him [husband], I was doing this because I have two daughters. For me, if there's anything I want to teach them, it's that nobody can limit you but yourself. You can be a wife, you can be a mother, and work in an industry where people always tell you, 'you cannot.' But only you can tell yourself that. You shouldn't let other people stop you from pursuing anything.

For me, I think that was important for my kids to learn that. Kasi nga for a lot of my experience, I'm always told I can't. I'm always told, it's not a job that I'm not going to be able to do. I think that fired up the passion. Pag sinabi mo sa 'kin I cannot, lalo akong nangigigil to do otherwise.”

Chef Bettina leads a team of local and international chefs at Spiral Manila | SOURCE: Spiral Manila

SINGAPORE, NEW YORK, MANILA

She worked for several hotels in Singapore including The Fullerton Hotel, Resorts World Sentosa, Privé restaurant under Michelin-starred Chef Wayne Nish. But it was when she met world-renowned French chef Daniel Boulud that changed her life forever.

“I think the catalyst in my career when I was interning at The Fullerton Hotel. Chef Daniel Boulud did a one-night dinner and I was assigned to help him. At the end of the affair, I brought his book, Letters to a Young Chef, pina-sign ko sa kanya. Tapos sabi niya sa akin: 'If you come to New York, work for me.' Pero alam mong bola 'yun,” she shares.

But Chef Bettina took the offer seriously. When her husband was going on a business trip to New York City in 2009, she tagged along. She had a plan. She walked into Chef Boulud's office without an appointment and asked to stage (pronounced “staj,” an unpaid internship) at his restaurant.

“'Chef do you remember me from Singapore? You told me to come here.' [He said] 'You actually came?' 'Yeah, I'm here as a tourist but can I stage at your restaurant,'” she recalls with a laugh.

She ended up working in New York for three months. This sharpened her kitchen skills even further, learning from the best chefs in Daniel Boulud's kitchen.

After her short stint in New York, she returned to Singapore. She helped open Chef Boulud's db Bistro Moderne at Marina Bay Sands. After this, she returned to the Philippines working as part of the team that opened the newly renovated Spiral restaurant. She was asked by her former executive chef at Marina Bay Sands, chef Eric Costille (Spiral's executive chef then) to join him.

In 2016, she then moved back to Singapore and she worked as chef de cuisine at Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa. In 2018 she opened InterContinental Singapore Robertson Quay as executive sous chef before getting promoted to executive chef.

Chef Bettina wins Chef of the Year award in Singapore in 2019 | SOURCE: Chef Bettina Arguelles

In 2019, she was recognized by the internationally-acclaimed World Gourmet Awards as Chef of the Year.

“Actually, they [Sofitel Philippine Plaza] called me in 2018 but I said I'm not yet ready, I'm still happy where I am. I'm not yet ready to move back. Eh buti na lang I did not because [in] 2019 I won the award. Parang everything just fell into place,” she shares.

Finally, in 2020, she returned home.

FUTURE OF SPIRAL AND FILIPINO CUISINE

She returned to the Philippines with big hopes but then, the pandemic happened.

“They asked me to come back because they want to go back to their roots, what Spiral was all about. They knew I knew what it was. It was easy for me to understand what they wanted,” she explains.

Since she was part of the team of Chef Costille, who made Spiral what it is today, she knew what to do. However, when the pandemic hit, she made changes as well to adapt to the abnormal times.

Spiral reopened last October 2 (only open on weekends) to the delight of foodies and its loyal patrons. The restaurant installed plexiglass covers on the buffet line. At 30 percent kitchen manpower, the chefs prepare the dishes fresh. But she wanted the guests to still have control over what they eat.

Spiral Manila adheres to strict health protocols. | SOURCE: Spiral Manila

“Spiral has 21 ateliers, and that by nature of the word is like a craftsman's workshop. So that's what we wanted to bring back, going back to our DNA of an interactive kitchen where the chefs will actually do what they specialize in doing,” Chef Bettina shares.

Ultimately, her plan is to make Filipino cuisine the star of the buffet--to elevate the cuisine and locally sourced ingredients.

“Also to highlight, if I can, my dream also is to elevate the Filipino cuisine here. I hope I can bring that quality just what like Toyo [Eatery] is doing, it's inspiring for me to have these young Filipino chefs doing amazing things with our cuisine.

"Hopefully, in the long run, I'd like Spiral or Sofitel to be known as well for offering good Filipino cuisine. Especially when the foreigners come, it's not just a buffet restaurant with everything in it. It's a restaurant where the good stuff is there,” she says.