Maurice Arcache: The real food critic

LIFESTYLE ICON Arcache (fifth from left) with Maricris Zobel, Vicki Belo, Xavier Btesh, Liza Marcos, Matti in this 2014 photo

I only saw him briefly at a few dinners at the Inquirer with our late editor-in-chief Letty Magsanoc. But he really lit up the room!

I asked him what his secret was to looking so fabulous at his age. He was in his late 70s then, maybe even early 80s. His answer: tequila!

He was the original food critic. Doreen Fernandez was the one with the column and the most revered food anthropologist and writer. But she never said anything negative about any restaurant. Her rule was that if she disagreed with the cooking or if a menu or restaurant was bad, she just would not write about it.

But Maurice Arcache did not hold his tongue—he was the living definition of an honest opinion!

His food column was in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine (SIM), where I also had my first column but it retired as a magazine in 2011.

His column was such a deliciously spicy read! In the very first issue of SIM on March 9, 1986, with no less than Letty Jimenez Magsanoc as editor-in-chief, Maurice Arcache did a summary of restaurants that were “in” or “out.”

“Roma at the Manila Hotel is more IN than any other place in Manila,” he wrote. “[But] the Champagne Room is OUT—food lousy, luncheon buffet’s too dull for comfort—only the ambience remains,” he continued.

He also mentioned Capriccio of the Silahis Hotel, which he said was “in” for its “excellent food, excellent service, super view” while Nielsen Towers at the Peninsula was not just “out” but “OUT OUT OUT” (this is now Escolta).

He also named many restaurants that maybe only his generation would remember: Hugo’s of the Hyatt Hotel; Sud of the Sheraton; Abelardo’s at the Philippine Plaza. Really not holding back, he added, “All the restaurants of the Midtown Plaza are OUT-OUT-OUT.”

And how can you not love him with these honest descriptions? He described Bistro Remedios as “an overrated restaurant,” Abelardo’s as “trying hard but just never succeeds,” Restaurant L’eau Vive with “French speaking nuns… now has deteriorated into a semi-Vietnamese refugee camp.” (L’eau Vive, by the way and by the grace of God, is still around!)

Cowrie Grill he described as “mediocre” and with “service so slow you have to come for lunch to be served supper.” He said Los Hidalgos was “not measuring up to the Intramuros elegance.”

And for the renowned Esperanza’s, he advised to “bring a big magnifying glass if you want to see what you’re getting and get ready to declare bankruptcy when you get the bill.”

All that in one page! And I thought I was harsh back when I was writing for SIM.

Later he became known as an icon of society. But to me he was the real food critic: a true gourmet, unrelenting in demanding excellence and unapologetic in his descriptions of the restaurant experience.

Good night to my favorite restaurant critic. Fear not, the joy of heaven far outweighs the highs of the best tequila. May you be in the company of angels… with overflowing champagne and caviar!