Josh Boutwood
“I can judge a restaurant by its bread,” British baker and television host Paul Hollywood once said. For him, the bread speaks volumes about how seriously a kitchen takes its craft.
To that standard, British-Filipino chef Josh Boutwood more than measures up. He is the only chef in the Philippines to receive two Michelin Stars for Helm, a 24-seat degustation restaurant at The Shops at Ayala Triangle Garden, Makati.
His other ventures—Ember at Greenbelt 3, known for its smoked and grilled dishes; The Test Kitchen at One Rockwell East Tower; and Juniper at Shangri-La Mall, which draws on global and Asian influences—are all on the Michelin Select list. In each of them, the bread-and-butter course is treated as part of the meal’s story, not just an opening act.
Butters for breads
Across all his restaurants, the sourdough bread and butter command attention. “Bread has been a staple in multiple cultures for centuries. It’s one of the first examples of food science ever created,” Boutwood tells TheDiarist.ph. Instead of serving bread as something to pick at before the meal, he turns it into a course of its own. “If guests just nibble on a basket of bread, they’ll forget it quickly. We wanted them to focus on it 110 per cent for those 15 minutes.”
Even the butter stands out, whipped to a light, almost airy texture through a technique he prefers to keep secret.
Each restaurant shares a piece of the same starter, named Sebastian, who as of November 5 was 3,153 days old or almost nine years. “He’s a very mature starter,” Boutwood says. “It’s hard wheat mixed with buckwheat and rye, with water and salt. No added yeast, no sugar—just natural fermentation.” The dough ferments for three days before baking, producing bread with a crisp crust and a subtle tang. “Some sourdoughs can be overwhelming,” he says. “Ours isn’t. Sebastian is a happy starter, fed regularly, so the flavor stays balanced and gentle.”
Although he trained in top restaurants in the UK and Sweden and once apprenticed at Noma in Denmark—multiple winner of the World’s Best Restaurants—Boutwood feels as if it was a lifetime ago. “That was in 2009, 16 years back,” he recalls. “With the changes in our industry, it’s hard to relate what I learned then to how we work today. Over the years, we’ve shaped our management style, creativity, and approach to food in our way rather than mirror someone else’s. But what stayed with me from those early experiences was the respect for ingredients and the sheer dedication to them.”
Helm interior
On the balance between local and imported ingredients, Boutwood estimates that just over 30 percent comes from abroad. “We have some wonderful suppliers. Farmers and fishermen are part of the ecosystem of what we do at Helm. Without good ingredients, we can’t cook great food.”
A small team works closely with him to secure the best possible ingredients. “At Helm, we never sacrifice quality. That’s why we don’t insist on using 100 percent local,” he says.
If a local ingredient doesn’t meet his standards, Boutwood sources it from abroad to maintain consistency and excellence. Meats, some fish, wheat, cacao butter, and olive oil are imported, while around 70 percent of the ingredients, such as chocolate, are produced locally and used across his restaurants.
“There are purists in our industry who insist on using only local ingredients,” he says. “I call myself a selectionist. It depends on the quality. The ingredients themselves determine where I will get them from.”
‘There are purists in our industry who insist on using only local ingredients,’ he says. ‘I call myself a selectionist. It depends on the quality. The ingredients themselves determine where I will get them from’
Since coming home in 2010, Boutwood has watched both the culinary industry and global cuisine evolve. “Our culture has allowed me to progress in a way that pays homage to our good ingredients, but also find techniques and processes that can amplify those flavors and really bring them to the forefront,” he says. “It’s just been hard work and dedication that’s been able to do that.”
Quail, charantelle, hazelnuts
Patagonian tooth fish, dill, chili
His restaurant Savage in BGC was the proponent of the open-fire technique that now defines all his outlets. “I was getting a little bit tired of technology,” he says. “Kitchens can become quite full of it, where you press a button and the oven turns on automatically to the right temperature. We have dehydrators, circulators, sous vide machines. I wanted to challenge myself. And what better way than to do something extremely primal, without any technology? We called it pre-industrial cooking.”
Cooking with an open fire, he explains, takes more intuition. “You have to know where the hotspots are and how long it can stay on one side before you flip it, because there’s no control. Everything is controlled by Mother Nature. The fires burn differently every day. Depending on the weather, the wood could be more humid, which means more smoke but a lower temperature. After nearly a decade that we’ve been doing it, we’ve learned to recognize those variances and hone our skills.”
Boutwood is known for defining dishes through a balance of three flavor profiles. “We’re not overcomplicating things. It’s easy for a guest to comprehend three core ingredients and three flavor profiles. More than three, the palate has to work overtime and analyze a lot more, which takes away from the experience. We try to simplify things.”
What the guest doesn’t realize, he adds, is that some of those flavor profiles can take days to produce. “You have to ferment, brine, or marinate, depending on the ingredient,” he says.
One of the dishes that illustrates this philosophy of balance is his chicken breast with truffle paste and onion purée. The truffle paste anchors the dish with an earthy, savory depth, while the onion purée contributes a mellow sweetness drawn from slow caramelization. Cutting through both is a light, acidic jus that ties the flavors together, giving the dish a lift.
“The ingredient tells me how we will approach it,” Boutwood says. “But the position of the dish on the menu also determines how we build those profiles. You can’t have every dish leaning on the same three. Not everything can be sweet, salty, and umami. There has to be variation so the guest’s palate never gets bored.”
Mango, passionfruit, saffron
Fjord trout, carrot, szechuan pepper
At Helm, Boutwood admits, he couldn’t possibly pull off a surprise every night. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t sleep at all. I finished last night at 2 a.m., trying to prep for today.” This restaurant runs on thematic menus. “There’s a theme that runs for four months, so three times a year we run a theme,” he explains. “Our current theme is monochromatic. Each dish represents one color within the color spectrum. We start with purple, then go to blue, orange, green, red, and so on.”
Earlier this year, the restaurant had fun with the Harry Potter theme. Inspired by The Sorcerer’s Stone, Boutwood paired Spanish mackerel with coconut leche de tigre, miso emulsion, and pickled carrots. The acidity of the leche de tigre, the umami of miso, and the crisp bite of the carrots played on the palate like Harry’s first encounters with the wizarding world, when every flavor, color, and sound felt heightened.
Channeling The Chamber of Secrets, the smoked eel from Mindanao was shaped into a delicate pâté, wrapped in sorrel and apple gelatin, and served with pickled Granny Smith apple, cucumber in dill oil, and mustard-leaf ice cream. Rich, earthy flavors and layered textures mirrored the story’s darker, secretive turns—the hidden chamber and lurking danger—gradually revealing complexity with each bite.
Together, the dishes translated the books’ moments into taste, guiding diners through the same awakenings and surprises that mark Harry’s first years at Hogwarts.
The next theme brought him to the streets. Filipino street food, the chef says, deserves a seat at the fine-dining table. “We have such a rich street food culture in the Philippines, and we wanted to do it the Helm way with quality ingredients,” he says. “In terms of flavor profiles and presentation styles, we took a lot of inspiration from what’s happening on the streets, such as the classic isaw.”
He admits, “I personally don’t eat isaw. I very rarely eat any innards of animals. But we wanted to make sure it was on the menu as a snack. We made something called seitan, which is vital wheat gluten that we turn into a dough. It is spelled S-E-I-T-A-N. Please don’t confuse it with Satan,” he says in jest. The gluten was shaped into isaw, lightly fried, and served with in-house fermented pinakurot vinegar.
Pares received a similar treatment. “We used A5 Wagyu sent from a farm in Miyagi Prefecture,” he says. “We paired it with a sauce made from beef tendons, star anise, bay leaf, garlic, and black pepper, all the classic pares flavors. It was like pares on steroids.”
Boutwood can’t point out a particular dish that stands out as the crowd favorite on the current menu. “Food is extremely subjective. We’re getting a lot of mmms and aahs throughout the meal. And that for me is a sure sign that the guest is enjoying it,” he says.
A dish that elicits that reaction is the Fjord trout, a rainbow trout flown in from northern Norway. “What sets this apart is the way we cook it. We say we cook it a la summer’s day in Manila, which is 41 degrees Centigrade,” he explains. It’s a low temperature in terms of cooking salmon or Fjord trout. But the precision low-heat cooking produces exceptional creaminess. “The texture is unlike anything you’ve ever tried before,” he says.
The trout is paired with a carrot purée, a crab fat–based reduction, and a coffee oil made in-house from local Arabica beans, creating an interplay of sweetness, richness, and bitterness. The dish arrives in vivid orange tones, echoing the fish itself.
When the Michelin Guide mentions a chef’s “personality,” it often points to imagination, flair, or a distinctive way of marrying flavors. For Boutwood, it’s something more subtle. “I think it’s my sense of humor,” he says with a grin. “If you lined up 10 chefs in a dark room and they all presented a dish, I’d like to think that when someone tries mine, they’d say, ‘This is a Josh Boutwood dish.’”
‘I think it’s my sense of humor…If you lined up 10 chefs in a dark room and they all presented a dish, I’d like to think that when someone tries mine, they’d say, “This is a Josh Boutwood dish”’
Asked how Helm managed to rise above the rest, Boutwood deflects the question with characteristic modesty. He credits his parents for keeping him grounded. (He grew up in Boracay until he was 11. Upon his return to the Philippines as an adult, he opened a restaurant in Boracay and was tapped by the Bistro Group.)
“I don’t want people to think that because I’ve been given this accolade, I’ve become the best restaurant in the Philippines,” he says. “There are some amazing restaurants in our community. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Maybe I do something better than they do, and maybe they do something better than I can. That’s the beauty of our industry. It all comes down to the guest’s preference.”
Pressed to name a restaurant that does things better, he chuckles. “You know that one? Down the street, left, then right, around the roundabout…” He trails off, still smiling. “The general public will always have a favorite. What’s important is that there’s variation in our industry. If I were everybody’s favorite, most people wouldn’t even get the chance to eat here. The lines would be too long.”
He admits frankly that earning a Michelin star had always been a childhood dream. Surpassing even his expectations with two stars for Helm and three other restaurants in the Michelin Select list hasn’t made him complacent. “I’ll keep pushing to retain those two stars or even try for a third.”
For Boutwood, the recognition isn’t a personal triumph but a chance to lift the entire dining scene. “My objective in winning this award is to help our industry grow,” he says. “I may have shown the world what the Philippines has, but I hope it inspires other restaurateurs, even those not on the list, to showcase what they’re proud of.”
The chef cooks for one reason: to give guests an unforgettable experience. The Michelin distinctions, though, have had ripple effects beyond the dining room. “My managers are complaining about how overwhelmed they are with reservations,” he says. “I’m sure it’s having an impact on our finances, but to what extent, it’s early to say.”
What he is certain of is that the recognition has lifted more than just his restaurants. “It doesn’t only affect my business; it’s going to have an impact on our industry as a whole,” he says. “The excitement about food right now is electrifying. Everyone’s trying everything, and that can only be good for our industry.”
