{"id":47548,"date":"2026-04-26T14:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T06:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=47548"},"modified":"2026-04-26T14:00:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T06:00:46","slug":"he-swore-he-wouldnt-be-a-chef-now-he-owns-a-2-michelin-starred-restaurant-in-manila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=47548","title":{"rendered":"He swore he wouldn\u2019t be a chef. Now he owns a 2-Michelin-starred restaurant in Manila"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Josh Boutwood has a confession to make: the founder of Manila-based Helm \u2013 the only restaurant in the Philippines with two Michelin stars \u2013 once swore that he would not become a chef.<\/p>\n

Born in the UK to a Filipino father and an English mother, Boutwood spent his earliest years in Boracay before moving back to England for primary school, then again to the Philippines for middle school and, finally, to Spain at age 11.<\/p>\n

His parents were both hoteliers and restaurateurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter which parent I was with, I was always surrounded by a kitchen,\u201d Boutwood says, as he recalls washing dishes in the back. \u201cI never actually wanted to do it, though. I saw them so stressed, and I thought, \u2018That\u2019s not the life for me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Boutwood, 39, presides over an impressive culinary empire in Manila, with a portfolio that includes Michelin Selected projects such as The Test Kitchen, Savage, Ember and Juniper. Recently, he was invited to cook at The Upper House hotel\u2019s Salisterra restaurant in Hong Kong, the brief April 17-18 residency affording him a chance to step outside the relentless rhythm of the Philippines.<\/p>\n

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\"Helm<\/div>
Helm is the only restaurant in the Philippines to earn two Michelin stars. Photo: Instagram\/helmmnl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Boutwood\u2019s next endeavour is a menu at Helm where one ingredient is served seven different ways.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josh Boutwood has a confession to make: the founder of Manila-based Helm \u2013 the only restaurant in the Philippines with two Michelin stars \u2013 once…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[21391,809,21392,21390,476,21389,12017],"class_list":["post-47548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-2michelinstarred","tag-chef","tag-manila","tag-owns","tag-restaurant","tag-swore","tag-wouldnt","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}