For too long, Southeast Asia’s food stories have been told in press kits and marketing blurbs. But anyone who has sat across from a chef knows the most revealing moments don’t make it to a press release. They surface in late-night rants, quiet doubts, and small triumphs behind the kitchen doors.
Beyond the Menu Podcast arrives to change that. Produced in Manila and now streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube, the show embraces the inevitable gloss of food media but balances it with grit. Each week, it takes listeners inside the kitchens, cultures, and creative tensions that shape the region’s dining scene.
A Show That Cuts Deeper
This isn’t just food talk. The podcast asks why meals matter and what it takes to keep them alive. Guests include Michelin-starred chefs, Asia’s 50 Best names, and rising culinary voices. Instead of rehearsed résumés, the hosts dig into cultural influences, pressures, and passions that rarely leave the back room.
“A few meals changed how I saw dining,” says co-host Dennis Hipolito. “Whether it was in a one-star or a three-star restaurant, the best experiences always shared a few things: perfectly executed dishes, flavors that delivered on their promise, consistency across the menu, and service that stayed with you long after.”
He continues: “Dining in Michelin-recognized places and at restaurants on Asia’s and the World’s 50 Best lists set a benchmark for me—a standard I now use to understand and compare experiences everywhere else. But I don’t just eat at fine dining tables. I spend just as much time at hawker stalls, food courts, and neighborhood spots. For me, it’s about how the food and the experience come together, no matter the setting.”
The Hosts, In Their Own Words
Co-host Trisha Vanns brings perspective shaped by her dual roles in PR and content creation. She has spent years listening to industry insiders outside the spotlight—and she sees the podcast as a way to carry those conversations to a wider audience.
“Feeding people is such a powerful love language—and I’m still in awe that it’s a profession powered by nothing but love.”
“I’ve sat with so many people in the food world—hearing their stories, the good, the bad, the raves and the rants,” she says. “Those raw conversations gave me huge takeaways, and now I come into this podcast armed with lessons and insights I can’t wait to share. I also want the youth to see culinary as an aspirational career.”
Together, Dennis and Trisha bring balance: his decades of global dining experience paired with her cultural fluency and openness to the unguarded side of the industry.
The Team Behind the Mic
The podcast’s creative muscle comes from an experienced team:
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Michael Carandang, Emmy Award-winning producer and restaurateur, translates his storytelling craft from reality TV into the food world.
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Pol Divina, a Manila-based food photographer who once shot Singapore’s hardest-to-book restaurants, brings an eye for visuals that frame food as more than dishes—he captures the stories they hold.
Why It Matters
Podcasts are intimate. They strip away spectacle and create space for candor. For Southeast Asia’s food community, that intimacy is long overdue. While the region’s restaurants are climbing global rankings, its stories have often been filtered or simplified.
Food media will always carry a degree of gloss—it’s part of how the industry presents itself. But what Beyond the Menudoes differently is to let the shine coexist with the shadows. The podcast doesn’t remove polish; it adds grit. By weaving raw stories into well-produced conversations, it gives listeners the best of both worlds: professional craft paired with honesty and vulnerability.
And the timing feels right. The entry of the Michelin Guide to Manila is already reshaping the way the city sees itself and is seen by the world. Local chefs are earning stars, diners are raising expectations, and the dining conversation is shifting. Beyond the Menu joins that moment, ensuring the stories behind the stars and accolades are told in the voices of those living them.
From Manila—a city that has always valued storytelling—the podcast signals a new kind of food media: one that values honesty over gloss, and grit as much as glory.
Beyond the Menu Podcast is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. Pull up a chair. Your seat at Southeast Asia’s dining table is waiting.
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