Regina Troy Barrios

Friends of Franco: Miko Calo × Josh Boutwood

Article (news)

Miko Calo&#x27;s instructions to every guest chef who walks into <a href="https://www.instagram.com/taqueria.franco/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Taqueria Franco</a> are simple to the point of being almost unhelpful: here is a taco. Do whatever you want.This month, Josh Boutwood, whose restaurant <a href="https://www.instagram.com/helmmnl/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Helm</a> holds <a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;q=helm+michelin+stars&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the Philippines’ only two MICHELIN stars</a>, took her up on it—and what he made may be the most fun thing to eat in Manila right now.It&#x27;s a hamachi tostada: cured fish cut into cold, glossy cubes with jalapeño, habanero, cilantro, red onion, vinegar, and crema, piled onto one of Franco&#x27;s buckwheat tortillas fried crisp and flat. Squeeze lime on top. The tostada shatters when you bite it. The fish is clean and cold. Then the habanero heat settles slowly on your tongue. Every element earns its place.It is exactly the dish you want in this heat. It is available only through May 31.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1778499632096DSC00317.jpg" style="width:960px;display:block;height:auto" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Hamachi Tostada | Photo: Taquería Franco</div>This is the latest edition of Friends of Franco, Calo&#x27;s ongoing collaboration series that asks one question: What else can be a taco? Previous editions include a chicken krapow taco by chefs Nicco Santos and Quenee Vilar that became one of Franco&#x27;s most talked-about limited runs. This month&#x27;s guest chef is Josh Boutwood, the biggest name the series has hosted yet. He  admitted, quite cheerfully, to having never eaten at Franco before.This despite the fact that it is a nine-minute walk from his own kitchen.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1778499997760DSC00334.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Miko Calo, Josh Boutwood, and the Hamachi Tostada | Photo: Taquería Franco</div>Boutwood and Calo are old friends and a well-established creative pair. They have cooked together in considerably more formal settings—most recently, a nose-to-tail, gills-to-fin sutukil feast that made headlines, and before that, a one-night collaboration dinner at Calo&#x27;s Avec Series at Makati Shangri-La. Those were serious occasions with long menus, careful pacing, the full grammar of fine dining.Taqueria Franco speaks a different language entirely, and Boutwood understood that immediately. He went through the menu, noticed the tuna tartare, registered that Calo knows how to handle raw fish, and started thinking about the weather. It’s May, it’s hot, and he wanted something cold, bright, and a little electric.So he went with hamachi.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1778500183720DSC00160.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Boutwood and Calo: thick as thieves, plotting your next meal | Photo: Taquería FrancoFor a hamachi, a  regular tortilla wouldn&#x27;t hold, but the buckwheat tostada would—and does. Everything else followed: the habanero, the vinegar-spiked crema, the lime that pulls it all together.</div>Stay for the rest of the menu, which includes duck confit with hoisin, mussels with blue cheese that make you rethink moules-frites, and a pineapple cheesecake that stays with you for days. There are nonalcoholic cocktails made with Sober Spirits, notably a Banana Rum Highball with a banana cordial that tastes, against all probability, almost like the real thing.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1778500434420DSC00149.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Taquería Franco&#x27;s new regular | Photo: Taquería Franco</div>&quot;Where has this place been my whole life?&quot; Boutwood said. He has since identified Franco as his designated escape hatch for stressful lunch days. That is the best possible endorsement a neighborhood restaurant can receive: the two-Michelin-starred chef down the street wants to eat there on his days off.The hamachi tostada is there until the end of the month. It will not wait, and neither should you.<div> </div><div>Friends of Franco: Miko Calo × Josh Boutwood runs from May 1 to 31, 2026 at Taqueria Franco (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/taqueria.franco/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@taqueria.franco</a>), LPL Center (back entrance), 130 L.P. Leviste St., Salcedo Village, Makati.</div>

At Taqueria Franco, Miko Calo handed Josh Boutwood a tortilla and a question—what else can be a taco?—and the answer is a cold, spicy hamachi tostada that may be the most exciting thing to eat in Manila before May ends.

At Taqueria Franco, Miko Calo handed Josh Boutwood a tortilla and a question—what else can be a taco?—and the answer is a cold, spicy hamachi tostada that may be the most exciting thing to eat in Manila before May ends.

There's A Josh Boutwood Tostada At Taquería Franco And It's Only Here Until May 31

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There's A Josh Boutwood Tostada At Taquería Franco And It's Only Here Until May 31

Troy Barrios

Published May 10, 2026 08:00 PM PHT

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Updated May 12, 2026 04:00 PM PHT

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taqueria franco

josh boutwood

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