June 18, 2026
MANILA – The two-night collaboration of The Peninsula Manila executive chef Rémy Carmignani and senior chef de cuisine Yohan Da Costa of The Peninsula Tokyo’s Peter was at once a conversation starter, a celebration, and a creative hive of ideas. They may have only met for the first time and planned this collaboration for two months, but it didn’t show. In fact, as kitchen partners, they couldn’t have been better matched.
The seven-course menu was a variety pack. While French sensibilities ran throughout the menu—white asparagus, Champagne sauce, Atlantic turbot, and a plethora of Ferraton Père & Fils wines—there was a relaxed yet confident vibe captured in the way Carmignani and Da Costa coasted along, flourishing the menu with Filipino and Japanese sensibilities.
The leeks in the canapés were wonderfully bright, and so was Da Costa’s chawanmushi, which tasted just right when the calamansi kick showed up. Which probably is one of the things Da Costa learned from Carmignani and chef de cuisine Matthieu Fournier, whom he met while in The Peninsula Paris before moving to Manila.
“I’ve learned something valuable from every chef I’ve worked with, but the biggest impact came from chefs who demanded excellence while leading by example,” he says about working in some of the best restaurants in the world. “They taught me that consistency, humility, and teamwork matter just as much as talent. Those lessons shaped how I work and how I lead today.”And those learnings certainly made themselves felt, especially in the poached chicken egg course with seasonal truffles and the opulent bouillabaisse teeming with turbot, Hokkaido scallop, and octopus. Overall, it was a golden collaboration teeming with refined flavors and imaginative executions that reflected the hotel’s 50th anniversary.