In memory of the Hotel InterContinental Manila

Opened on April 15, 1969, I first set foot in the Hotel InterContinental Manila in the mid 1970s when I accompanied my father, the late Renato “Katoks” Tayag, to meet his former journalist colleagues at the Café Jeepney. It was then the home of the 365 Club, an informal gathering of the country’s most important media practitioners, with columnist Teodoro Valencia as its titular head. Politicians, PR consultants, lobbyists, wheeler-dealers, and the who’s who of Manila high society went there not only to hobnob with each other, but also to promote some personal agenda or two. Still in my teens then, I was star-struck at meeting the legends of Philippine journalism, whose bylines one could only read in the broadsheets.

Subsequent visits to the InterCon Manila over several decades included watching a fashion show in 1976 by my cousin Roy Gonzales, then the head designer of the House of (Jean) Patou (Gonzales is a third-generation designer of RT Paras, the oldest and longest continuing haute couture house in the country. Roy’s predecessors at Patou were Karl Lagerfeld and Jean Paul Gaultier, with Christian Lacroix following after him.)

I’ve also attended debuts and weddings of some relative or friend, judged at several Camera Club of the Philippines competitions, was twice a guest speaker at some tourism and hospitality convention, and participated in four Christmas tree exhibits held at its lobby conceptualized by its then PR director Jennifer “Jenny” Peña. It was the first hotel in the country to come up with such an exhibit in its lobby, starting in December 1994, participated in by the country’s leading artists, fashion designers and jewelers.

But my longest “stay” at the InterCon Manila was when Peña invited me in October 2000 to be a guest chef at Prince Albert Rotisserie, the first Filipino to have that privilege (they usually featured only foreign chefs for their food promos at Prince Albert). It was to be a French/Pampango fusion thing, to be called “Les Liaisons Delicieuses.” I clearly remember when I first met the chef de cuisine, Cyrille Soenen. As we were introduced, the first thing he said was, “’(H)ow do you do?” And, without missing a beat, added: “’(H)ave you heaten?” Spoken like a true Frenchman. I was immediately disarmed and felt sincere warmth from the guy; it was like meeting a long-lost kabalen (Pampango for “town mate”). Was it perhaps because we spoke the same language (pun intended)? After all, aside from the shared misplaced “h,” don’t we Pampangos say “wa” for yes, while the French say “oui”? Well, it’s close enough (wink, wink). InterCon was “home” for almost a month.

The year 2000 was also the start of my “other” career, this time as a food columnist for The Philippine STAR. Needless to say, that was the beginning of countless memorable media dinners at Prince Albert and Café Jeepney, savoring the cuisines of some visiting foreign and local chefs, and, not to forget, we all have in our collective memories Prince Albert’s incomparable roast prime rib of beef and our all-time favorite dessert, Crepe Samurai.

Over the 46 years of its existence, InterCon Manila never got to the stature of a grand old lady like the Manila Hotel during its heyday. But why should it? It never aspired to be. She was a quiet, elegant lady, sitting demurely in a corner, like a lady dressed in a classic Inno Sotto dress: understated, never calling attention to herself, but reassuring to know she was always there when you needed her.

But alas, she wasn’t meant to last forever. And, like a true lady who knows her time has come, she quietly bows out of her corner to give way to a bustling transportation hub. True to its tagline, the hotel took 46 years to become a classic, but sadly, it only took the stroke of a pen to end it with a whimper. But still, my generation and I will grieve her loss, just like losing a dear old dependable aunt whose time has come.

Let’s walk down memory lane (thanks to Jennifer Peña and the InterCon Manila archives for the information and photographs).

The Hotel InterContinental Manila was inaugurated on April 15, 1969. It was Makati’s first five-star hotel and is the longest operating international chain hotel in the Philippines to date. Ayala family matriarch Doña Mercedes Zobel McMicking wrote out a check for US$12 million for the hotel’s construction. The hotel was part of the quadrant plan of her husband, Col. Joseph McMicking — a development plan for what used to be a hacienda of swampy terrain.

Then President Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady Imelda R. Marcos were at the inaugural party. Singer Pilita Corrales emerged from below the center of the swimming pool in an airtight glass tube to do her number. There used to be an elevator from the basement underneath the pool. During the 1993 hotel renovation, the elevator was taken out.

Radio and TV personality Leila Benitez was the first public relations manager of the InterCon.

The top floor supper club El Castellano featured singing divas Pilita Corrales and Carmen Soriano. It later became known as Bahia, which was famous for its Mongolian barbecue and Makati City skyline view before the advent of taller buildings.

InterCon was the first to introduce the concept of “guest relations officers” in the mid 1970s. This practice was later taken up by other hotels in the country and the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) made it part of the brand’s standards in their hotels around the globe.

It was also the first hotel locally to establish a business center for clients.

Contrary to popular belief, the hotel was not designed by the late National Artist for Architecture Leandro Locsin; hence, it does not fall under the law that it cannot be demolished if it reaches 50 years old if designed by a National Artist. According to the NCCA’s official findings, its design was provided by IHG, which may, in fact, have similarly designed buildings in other parts of the world. Locsin was the local architect who implemented the building design.

World luminaries who have stayed at the hotel include Prince Albert of Belgium; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; Grammy winner Norah Jones; UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; former president of then Federal Republic of Germany Walter Scheel; US publishing magnate Randolph Hearst; US Secretary of state George Shultz; and Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti.

Intercon Manila Alumni

Many of the hotel’s former staff later moved on to become stalwarts in their respective careers:

Bobby Carpio was with the InterCon Manila since it opened in 1969. He started as a purchasing clerk, working his way up to assistant F&B Manager and other positions until 1977. He later assumed executive positions in other InterContinental hotels abroad like Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the UAE before joining the Century Park Sheraton in 1988, initially as resident manager, then to general manager until 1996. He has since moved to New York, working with several companies in the hospitality industry as manager and consultant.

Miguel Cerqueda was born in Catalonia, Spain, and studied at Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland. He started his training in the hotel industry in 1964, working first in Germany, then Switzerland and Spain, where he met his future wife, the Filipina Christine Aguado. When they moved to Manila in 1971, he joined the InterCon Manila as maître d’hotel/restaurant manager of the Prince Albert Rotisserie and its supper club El Castellano, later renamed Bahia. In 1974, he was assigned to InterCon Borobudur, then to InterCon Saipan, both as banquet manager. In 1977, he moved to Manila Hotel as its F&B director, then to assistant manager and resident manager, finally becoming its general manager in 1987, a position he held till 1999. He has since put up his own hotel-management team, initially the Genesis Hotels and Resorts Corp. until 2012, and is currently the president of Asian Grand Legacy Hotels Corp., managing Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar in Bagac, Bataan.

Edgardo Espiritu was the hotel’s first comptroller and HR manager. He was Finance Secretary during the Estrada administration (1998-2000); president of Westmont Bank, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co, and Philippine National Bank; was Philippine representative to the World Bank and Ambassador to the Court of St. James and the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Chef Billy King was InterCon Manila’s executive chef from 1986 to 1988. Before coming to Manila, King worked in numerous hotels in London and the Middle East. In 1990, King went into private practice, opening Le Soufflé restaurant at the old Greenbelt, Makati, together with his sous chefs Andreas Katzer and Jessie Sincioco. The partnership ended in 2002, after which he opened Le Chef at The Manor in Baguio and The French Corner in Alabang. King is known to have defined fine dining in the metropolis since the 1990s with his clean and neo-classic approach to cooking.

Chef Jessie Sincioco was InterCon Manila’s assistant pastry chef from 1983 to 1990. In 1983, Jessie, then a home-based baking enthusiast, joined the Maya cooking competition (baking category) and reached the finals, which was held at the InterCon’s Grand Ballroom. She won the grand prize in the baking category with her special mango cake that she named “My Tita’s Special Treat.”  One of the judges, InterCon’s then resident manager Siegfried Schober, offered her three months’ training at the hotel’s pastry section. After just a month of training she was offered the position of third commis by then pastry chef Roland Lutz. Not long after, the hotel sent her to Europe for further training. Chef Jessie honed her craft at the InterCon until 1990, when she joined chef Billy King to open Le Soufflé Restaurant. At present she runs her own restaurants (Chef Jessie Rockwell Club, Top Of The Citi by Chef Jessie, and 100 Revolving Restaurant) and has become a culinary star herself, known for her French and Filipino cuisines. Summing up her culinary career, she said, “Kung wala ang InterCon, wala si chef Jessie ngayon (If there was no InterCon, there would be no chef Jessie today).”

Chef Cyrille Soenen joined the InterCon Manila in 2000 as chef de cuisine of Prince Albert. Two years later the French-born chef became the hotel’s executive chef until 2005. He has since opened his own French restaurant, Ciçou (his childhood nickname), and is concurrently the director of culinary arts at Impressions French Restaurant at Maxims Hotel, Resorts World Manila.

Frenchman Christian Pirodon was InterCon Manila’s resident manager from 1991 to ’94, general manager from 2005 to ’08 and area general manager for the InterContinental Hotels Group Philippines (Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Suites, Crowne Plaza) from February 2010 to the present. Pirodon is a chef by training, running a restaurant in Lyon, France, before coming to the Philippines. He first arrived in 1975 and has since considered Manila his home for the past 40 years. He considers it his lifetime achievement to not only work in the country’s hotel industry, but also to have raised a family here with Filipino wife Imelda (who succumbed to cancer over a decade ago) and their two children, Ian (presently GM of Crowne Plaza Sydney) and Jennifer (a fashion designer). Pirodon has since remarried a Korean lady, Sunny, and they have a seven-year-old son, Matthew.

Other notable Filipinos who were former InterCon Manila staff and are now doing well abroad are Manuel Mercado (former front office manager then executive assistant manager) as general manager of the Grand Millennium in Jakarta; Patricia Puyat Palanca (former sales manager, banquet manager then F&B director) now GM of Crowne Plaza Dubai.

Following In Their Fathers’ Footsteps

Bobby Carpio’s daughter Irene Carpio Noble was a graduate of the California Cooking School. She worked as a chef at Prince Albert from 1991 ’92 and had the privilege of preparing a pasta dish for Luciano Pavarotti when he visited Manila in 1992. She is currently the director of banquets at Double Tree Hotel in Manhattan, New York. According to the elder Carpio, working at InterCon was considered at that time the best “graduate school” any hotelier could get, with its rigid training and high standard of work ethic.

Miguel Cerqueda’s son Marc was a former F&B director of InterCon and is currently the managing director of all the El Nido Resorts owned by the Ayala Corporation.

Pastry chef Fred Barrios’ (Crepe Samurai creator) son, June Barrios, also worked in InterCon’s pastry section under chef Jessie Sincioco. He later went overseas to work in hotels and cruise ships.

Christian Pirodon’s son Ian is currently the GM of Crowne Plaza Sydney, Australia.