Whenever the Philippines needs a food ambassador to send abroad, Glenda Rosales-Barretto is called. Glenda has decades of food production experience, organizing presidential state dinners at Malacanang Palace, supervising provincial celebrations for thousands, and running her restaurants in Makati. When I first returned to the Philippines after a long absence, my brother Tristan knew where to bring me for my first authentic Filipino merienda: Via Mare, Glenda’s flagship restaurant specializing in Filipino food. There I had my first taste of charcoal-broiled bibingka and freshly steamed puto bumbong after twenty years of dreaming about them.
