The Hidden Life of A Great Hotel
The Peninsula Manila is 35 this year. It is the second oldest of only nine Peninsula hotels in the world (Hong Kong was the first and Paris opens in 2013). To mark the anniversary the Pen is hosting a photographic exhibition entitled 35 Years of the Peninsula. Celebrating the Personal in Portraits.
The exhibition consisting of 35 beautiful black and white portraits by Sara Black starts in the middle of the Lobby, moves to the Upper Lobby and the Arcade Staircase, goes down to the Shopping Arcade and back up to Escolta restaurant. By following the exhibits curated by Albert Avellana you get a pretty good tour of the hotel.
You can have your chichi dinners, this is the table we want to join. Every day at 1400 or so the chefs of the Peninsula’s dining outlets sit down to a meal they made for themselves. Mmmmmm.
Clockwise from left: Senior Sous Chef Alex Destriza, Senior Sous Chef Bernard Taboso, Spices Chef Avanish Kumar Jain, Sous Chef Efren Villanueva, Executive Sous Chef Eduardo Maddela, Old Manila Chef Samuel Linder, Escolta Chef Anthony Craven, Senior Sous Chef Annalyn Solano, Spices Chef Phaithoon Atthasarn and Guest Chef Chamman Thepchana.
When we heard that the exhibition consisted of personal portraits we assumed that the subjects would be celebrities, politicians and socialites who frequent the Pen, the society magazine stuff that incites in us a deep unappeasable hunger for fishballs, isaw and tokneneng. Bo-ring.
No, this is so much better: the 35 pictures give us a glimpse at the inner workings of the Peninsula Manila, and introduce us to the real people who make a great hotel possible. These are the people who ensure that your room is perfect, your food delicious, your dry-cleaning flawless, and your indecent proposal from Michael Fassbender/Colin Farrell/George Clooney/Dan Carter/Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy is delivered without a hitch.
Like the Stewarding team that polishes 609 tons of silver a year so you can look at the back of your spoon and see…No, don’t.
(Clockwise from left): Manny Alfaro, Mark Fernadez, Mike Reblora, Matthew Estrella, Bernard Osianas and Polgreen Moñusco
Or the Housekeeping team whose job is to account for every single peace piece of china, silver and glassware in the house.
Emmanuel Santos (left) and Edgar Abanto (right) supervise a team of 27 and spend approximately six hours every month inspecting each of the 10,000 pieces of china, 40,000 pieces of silverware and 3,000 pieces of glassware for signs of wear and tear.
The ensaymada, napoleons, King Oscar’s Cake at The Peninsula Boutique do not appear magically in the vitrines each day. They require the craft and care of a crack team—literally a crack team that cracks 1,000 eggs and churns 50 kilos of butter a day.
Senior Sous Chef Annalyn Solano. Reminder: Everything at The Peninsula Boutique is baked fresh every day, and is sold at 50% off at 7:30 pm.
The 17 types of chocolates at the Pen Boutique are hand-made by the Chocolate Girls, (L-R) Parcenet Llaet and Estelita Marcial.
One day a young man asked Peninsula Concierge Carlo Fornier for help in stage-managing his wedding proposal to his fiancee. Carlo had one day to make all the arrangements. The moment the girl stepped into the Pen for a business meeting, she was handed a bouquet of her favorite flowers “from a secret admirer” (while her officemates were whisked away to another part of the hotel and informed of the plan). The moment she sat down at one of the tables by the Upper Lobby, a tray of dark chocolate truffles and a glass of Champagne was delivered to her. The moment she took her first sip the string quartet would play her favorite song. Then silence would fall over the place as the fiance made his surprise entrance, holding the small, velvet box. (Whatever could that box contain?) After all that planning all that was lacking was for Carlo to marry her himself haha.
Michael Fassbender/Colin Farrell/George Clooney/Dan Carter: See how stress-free it would be? Just talk to the Peninsula Concierge.
35 Years of the Peninsula runs until 31 October 2011.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 2nd, 2011 at 09:26
Happy 35th, Manila Pen!
Such a wonderful thing you did mounting that exhibit. I think the employees would appreciate it :)
And to Carlo, YES NA!!! LOL!
October 2nd, 2011 at 20:10
Congrats and happy anniversary to the Manila Pen! And what a brilliant idea to take these portraits of the employees; they must be very honored.
I have lots of fond memories of the Manila Pen, especially their lobby bar. My favorite one was from the mid-Nineties, during one of their many renovations, when I ordered a Diet Coke at the lobby and they gave it to me on the house, because they needed a few customers to help out with the OJT for their new staffers. Then there’s the one moment when a friend and I saw Edu Manzano smoking in the lobby, which made my friend roll her eyes because – according to her – “artista lang yan.” Taray!
Now that I think about it, though, having a Carlo-staged wedding proposal from any of my pretend boyfriend is miles better than seeing them re-create the Coco Martin/Matteo Guidicelli fistfight at Salon de Ning. Hahaha!
October 2nd, 2011 at 22:08
Plus the annual Palanca Awards night, the chocolate buffet, post-concert arroz caldo and many great meals.
And who can forget this text message from the Pen:
“Sorry I can’t make it to dinner, there’s a tank in the lobby of the Pen.”
October 2nd, 2011 at 22:45
And who can forget this text message from the Pen:
“Sorry I can’t make it to dinner, there’s a tank in the lobby of the Pen.” >>> Oh my goodness, yes! Almost forgot about that!
October 3rd, 2011 at 09:10
I should make a pilgrimage to the Pen sometime, if only to visit the restaurants.
October 3rd, 2011 at 09:49
Parang gusto kong mag-check in…baka sakali may mag-propose din sa akin.
October 4th, 2011 at 19:07
“Or the Housekeeping team whose job is to account for every single peace of china, silver and glassware in the house.”
piece? :)