Josh Boutwood on Helm’s 2-Michelin Star Win: “It Takes a Team”

(SPOT.ph) Right as the restaurant’s Michelin win was announced on the event stage, Helm’s reservation system pinged, and pinged, and continued pinging with inquiries nonstop. “Within two hours, we are fully booked [for the rest of the year],” Chef Josh Boutwood tells SPOT.ph.

Most everyone of his fellow chefs, restaurateurs, and other folks in the industry whose establishments had been recognized by the Michelin Guide in some way celebrated at one (or all) of the afterparties, but Boutwood found himself heading back to Helm to be in the company of his team. “They were in the restaurant, still in their whites, cleaning down after service,” the chef tells us. “We opened a bottle of champagne, had a few beers, and just stood there together trying to make sense of what had happened.” His first post-Michelin meal? “Andok's liempo and rice,” he says with a chuckle. “As soon as I got home, I ordered that.”

The Guide’s arrival on our shores is, in countless ways, a massive achievement in itself. Especially impressive is the fact that a restaurant in the Philippines received two Michelin Stars, given that it’s the Michelin man’s very first year in the country. It's only right that a restaurant of Helm's magnitude would receive such an accolade, signifying "excellent cooking [that's] worth a detour."

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We’ve definitely seen Boutwood’s many talents at work at his four currently open restaurants—Ember, Juniper, The Test Kitchen (all three made it to the list of Michelin Selects), and most especially at Helm, where the chef's dexterity and eye for precision meets a courageousness to push boundaries, along with the strategic use of restraint. The Michelin Guide well understands this vision, praising the way the restaurant in Makati delivers experiences that are “always evolving yet consistently refined,” and flavors that are “layered” and “bold” in a way that unites both creativity and precision—a union that reflects Boutwood’s own British-Filipino roots and experience growing up between Boracay and Northern Europe, and traveling between Spain and the U.K.

For Boutwood, however, the award isn’t a trophy he can exhibit without responsibility—in fact, he takes the awarding as a signal to push further and do even better than before. “We do see areas where we can improve and evolve at the same time,” he admits. “So there's going to be some minor renovations occurring in Helm in the new year. There may be one major renovation at the same time. But we feel with the influx of guests that we're seeing, our space has [started to feel] a lot, lot smaller. So we're having to obviously hire a lot more people to compensate for the amount of work that my team members are doing. You know, mental health is still a big issue within our industry, and I'm trying to make sure that they at least get two days off a week. But we need to make sure that we are supported enough with enough staff [n the team] to support that form.” Beyond that? It’s business as usual: “[We’ll] continue innovating with menus that are thematic, and that are different. And we'll see where it goes.”

“I am grateful that Michelin saw something in what we do at Helm, but I do not see this as a crown. I see it as a responsibility. A responsibility to our guests, who come to us to celebrate and to escape for a few hours. A responsibility to our peers in the Philippine restaurant industry, because this recognition is not about being ‘the best,' it is about showing that chefs and teams here can stand on any global stage. And a responsibility to my own team, to keep pushing, to stay curious, and to never let fear or comfort dull what we put on the plate.”

"It felt like the floor dropped for a second, and the room went quiet," Boutwood says of the moment he was called up on stage to receive the Stars during the Michelin ceremony. How could anyone forget—the collective jitters as it was announced the Michelin Guide did, in fact, have a two-Star win that night; the buildup as the drum rolled; and the very moment host Issa Litton yelled "HELM!" and the crowd cheered (screamed, in the case of this author) in celebration.

"I genuinely did not expect it. I went to that event thinking we might sneak into the selection, maybe earn a single star if everything aligned. Two was nowhere in my mind." He admits to being overwhelmed and having no speech prepared. "What I did have were flashes of the last years in service: late nights at the counters, the move to Ayala Triangle, the menus we changed again and again, the themes we pushed to keep ourselves from getting bored and complacent. I thought of every guest who trusted us with their celebrations and every plate we sent out, even if it wasn't perfect, but it got us closer. That is what those two stars represent to me."

Boutwood is careful to emphasize that Helm’s win is not a win for him alone, but one for the community behind him. He expresses his deep gratitude for his partners at The Bistro Group, of which he is executive chef. “Long before Helm, they took a chance on me and gave me the space to learn, fail, and grow, both in the corporate world and with concepts like The Test Kitchen, Savage, Ember, Juniper, and eventually Helm. Their support, trust, and willingness to back ideas that do not always fit neatly into a box have been a huge part of why we could even dream at this level.”

He also gives a special shoutout his family. “To my children, Malaya and Phoenix, thank you for sharing your dad with a kitchen that takes so much of his time and energy. Every service, every tasting, every sleepless night has been easier to carry knowing I get to come home to you. And to my wife, Nilla, thank you for holding everything together when I am not there, for grounding me when the pressure gets heavy, and for believing in this path from the very beginning, when all of this was just a rough idea and a lot of long hours. These stars are as much yours as they are mine.”

Most crucially in this context, Boutwood shares his deep appreciation for the team at Helm. “[Regarding] Michelin [giving us] two stars, those two stars aren't mine. Those two stars belong to the restaurant. And that restaurant wouldn't be anything without that team that's behind me,” he tells SPOT.ph. “I may be the vision of the restaurant, but the heart and soul is my team. I couldn't do what I do, and we couldn't execute what goes on in my mind without them behind me. No, without them with me.”

The chef points out the “collective effort” that goes on behind every meal served at the Helm. “We work together, and we have this singular goal of making great experiences for guests. It takes a team. It's not a one-player thing. And, you know, that team out there [is] everything to me.”

His team plays an integral role not just in execution, but in the ideation and conceptualization steps as well. When developing a menu, Boutwood would typically come up with choices of themes that they would then discuss as a group. “I'll share everything… and then we'll sit collectively, and then we'll say, ‘Okay, is this one possible from an operational standpoint of view? Can we pull this particular thing off?’” They would then go back and forth these questions and ideas, working for weeks to finalize the plans, then try and execute them to make sure they translate as well to real life. “A lot of opinions that they have are extremely valid and important in the ownership of a menu. So as long as it fits within the main idea and the execution is good, if it fits within the concept and we're able to pull it off, it goes onto the menu and that creates ownership within the menu.”

“Helm is not a one-man show. It never has been,” says Boutwood. “These two stars belong to every single person who has passed through that kitchen, who has stood on the floor, who has washed dishes, polished glasses, and quietly made sure the room feels like home for our guests.”

“To my Helm team, past and present: thank you. You are my found family. You challenge me, you disagree with me, and you push back when something doesn't feel right; that friction is exactly what keeps the food honest and evolving. You have trusted me with crazy ideas, you have carried themes that sounded impossible on paper, and you have put your own personality into the menu so that it never feels like it belongs to just one person. Those stars are stitched on all of our jackets, not just mine.”

The Guide’s arrival in the Philippines was not without critics, with some probing whether we even needed the foreign validation it admittedly brought. To this, Boutwood points out: “We're not judging our restaurants locally with the Michelin [Guide]. As much as it benefits a local restaurant and their standings, the actual point of Michelin is benchmarking us against other restaurants around the world, and seeing where we are on an international stage on how we see our restaurants and how they benchmark against them. A one-star restaurant here is equal to a one-star restaurant in Madrid. A two-star restaurant here is equal to a two-star restaurant in South Africa.”

This stamp of approval, in turn, benefits the local scene as a whole as Boutwood explains. “So I feel like it's only going to benefit our industry, not just locally—obviously I can see the trend already on my reservations—but internationally as well. Once international travelers' numbers come back to what they were before [the decline of Philippine tourism], it's going to improve our industry. And for the years to come… no doubt there's going to be a lot more restaurants at it. So we've become a real destination for dining within Southeast Asia and the world.”

“Our local industry I think is excited and amped up about these accolades. Even those that weren't mentioned or even selected, I feel, have a renewed energy to try and pursue something for next year, which I think is great. It only is going to improve our local industry to greater heights,” he says. “How the world sees us, I feel like now we have become seen as a dining destination. Before, the Philippines, as much as I love it, we were known for beaches, for sunsets, for great cocktails on the beach. Now we're known for fine-dining restaurants and Bib Gourmand restaurants and other restaurants around the different sectors where travelers can enjoy a multitude of different experiences when they arrive. And I think that's a good thing. I think that benefits everyone… and I feel like the progress that we'll make over the next few years with having this is just going to be better and better and better.”

Together with the team of Helm and all his restaurants, Boutwood’s certainly playing his part in raising the bar—as they long have, and continue to do. “Our promise [at Helm] is this: We cook for each guest who walks through our doors, not for any award. We will continue to refine our approach, push ourselves, and strive to represent the Philippines the best we can, one service at a time.”