Culinair 2025: A Feast for the Senses

tive choices — flavors that didn't whisper their values but declared them outright. It was green cuisine with an artistic edge, sustainability not as compromise but as statement.

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CIulinaire 2025 had arrived at the SMX Convention Center. Inside Halls 1 to 3, caterers set up booths that resembled stage sets more than serving stations - polished, styled, prepped to impress. Guests checked in through a smart registration system, their QR codes becoming badges of belonging.

The night promised not just food, but an experience: "a bold fusion of flavor, art, and inspiration," as SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. described it.

The tagline this year was Canvas Reimagined a promise to engage all five senses, to transform the ordinary tasting event into something immersive, innovative, even futuristic.

That promise was not without merit.

Technology threaded its way into the evening. Guests interacted with AI chat terminals for real-time information. Voting for the "People's Choice" was instant, digital, democratic. Onstage, RJ Ledesma, smooth as ever, was joined by an Al-powered cohost who gamely shared the spotlight, a novelty that drew amused smiles. The event wanted to prove that the future of meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) could be both dazzling and deeply human.

And yet, if one paused to take in the scene, what was most striking was not the neon glow of screens nor the choreography of program segments. It was the human current that carried the evening forward, often unnoticed: the servers.

Trays balanced high, they wove through the crowd like dancers on a precarious stage, dodging elbows, sidestepping eager guests, gliding past roped-off installations. They carried glasses as if they were heirlooms. They cleared tables with the quiet rhythm of those who have done it a thousand times before. They became, to my eyes, the true protagonists of the night.

The food, of course, was as much performance as sustenance. Each of the 11 partner caterers collaborated with an artist, producing three-course menus inspired by contemporary art and Filipino heritage.