My night with the country's two Misses Universe

It was quite serendipitous when I had two events in one night with one Miss Universe from the Philippines at each occasion.

I started my night at Altro Mondo Arte Contemporanea on the third level of Greenbelt 5 in Makati City for the joint art exhibit of the talented siblings Isabel and Ramon Diaz. As expected, the cocktail reception had the gorgeous Diaz clan around. Miss Universe 1969 Gloria Diaz looked lovely as ever, accompanied by her equally beautiful daughter Isabelle and the rest of the stunning Diaz sisters, nieces and nephews. 

Isabel’s large canvases of flowers brightened the exhibit area. She also had other paintings of people, horses and yachts. I have always loved Isabel’s city scenes and admired her portraits. In fact, years ago, when she asked me what city I would like to have, I said Moscow and she painted one for me.

For Ramon, koi remains to be one of his favorite subjects, something that I totally love as well, just like his collection of sumo wrestlers before. His large pieces of koi in the exhibit were equally stunning in color and workmanship but his painting of koi in black and white was what really caught my eye.

Food and drinks were served in what looked like a mini-reunion of the Diaz clan with the presence of some artists and other VIPs in the art world.

The exhibit was sponsored by the Belo Medical Group. Photos by Pepper Teehankee on a Canon Powershot S100

 (Check out www.altromondo.com.ph or call 501-3270 to 71 for details.)

 From Greenbelt, I then proceeded to L’Incontro Restaurant in Bel Air, Makati City for the launch of L’Aperitivo Champagne Bar. There was a pairing of four variants of Laurent-Perrier champagne with different savory dishes prepared by L’Incontro’s Tina Pamintuan and matching desserts created by pastry chef Crissie Hontanosas from L’Academie de Cuisine.

There I bumped into another Miss Universe (1973), another beautiful Filipina, Margie Moran-Floirendo. I told her about the exhibit of Ramon and Isabel Diaz and she said she missed it because of the heavy traffic. So, we went on to drink our champagne and enjoy the food L’Aperitivo prepared.

Laurent-Perrier’s regional export director Ludovic de Lageard gave a brief talk explaining the four types of the champagne we were about to try.

Laurent-Perrier Brut was paired with raclette foam and spiced poached pears in an almond-filled tart. Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle was served with toasted ravioli mille-feuille with mushroom truffle ragout and milk chocolate Bavarian on a thin almond sponge base. Laurent-Perrier Rose was paired with roasted bell pepper and garlic paté with prosciutto and poached cherry and thyme cream on a chocolate crust. Laurent-Perrier vintage 2002 was paired with blinis with smoked salmon and mascarpone cheese and was finished off with a brunoise mango, papaya and pineapple creme chantille and chiffon cake.

Looks like this champagne bar in the restaurant would be a great way to start before going to dinner or to have a nightcap to end dinner.

Straits Wine Co. is the distributor of Laurent-Perrier champagne in the Philippines.

(L’Aperitivo Champagne Bar at L’Incontro Ristorante Italiano is located at 207 Nicanor Garcia St. (formerly Reposo) Bel Air, Makati City. It is open from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m., every day except Mondays.)

The value of hard work

 A wellspring of graciousness and gratitude is the best way to describe the launch of Fortune Life’s second year into its invaluable advocacy, “The Value of Hard Work and Discipline.”

Ambassador Antonio Cabangon Chua, chairman emeritus and founder of Fortune Life and executive vice president and general manager Evelyn Carada were on hand to greet all the guests led by Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro and Undersecretary Yolanda Quijano. 

“I am extremely happy to see that my former student back in La Salle, Arnold Cabangon, now the president of Fortune Life, is walking the talk on hard work and discipline and inspiring students to persevere and save for their future,” Bro. Armin said in his keynote address.

A classic, Fil-Hispanic ambiance set by Via Mare both in décor and sumptuous food was a perfect setting for a number of delightful surprises. First was the recognition given to five exceptionally good advocacy implementors, they who showed their unwavering support and dedication to the program: educators Amcy Esteban, Benzon German, Rosanilia Saludo, Lino Inovero and Edna Madrid.

Another pleasant surprise was Jessa Zaragoza, dazzling in an electric blue terno, who stole the spotlight with her rendition of Pangako, Fortune Life’s signature song, which was written by Chit Mijares-Chua of ABC Productions. The song talked about the company’s promise and strong commitment of excellent service to all its policyholders.

Before the evening ended, Arnold Cabangon reiterated the company’s commitment to continue distributing for free some 45,000 activity books to select schools. This year, Visayas and Mindanao schools will be the recipients.

Arnold’s elder brother, Jun Cabangon, revealed that their company’s advocacy will also hold small but intimate gatherings where top couturiers, beauty queens and fashion stylists will give lessons and seminars on personality development and makeovers to educators and teachers.