Gallery by Chele: How the Michelin-starred restaurant stumbled into sustainability

CULINARY
Apr 08, 2026 4

Gallery by Chele didn’t set out to win the inaugural Michelin Green Star in the Philippines, an award given by the prestigious global restaurant rating system to establishments "at the forefront of the industry when it comes to sustainable practices."  

In fact, Chef Chele Gonazalez says they don't even market themselves as a sustainable restaurant.

"This didn't happen because I wanted to be a sustainable restaurant," Chele tells GMA News Online on Zoom one afternoon. "It happened because of the way I learned how to cook. You get seasonal ingredients, we work directly with farmers — and sometimes sustainable ingredients mean quality ingredients," he says.

According to the Michelin Guide, inspectors consider a number of things when giving out the Green Star, including "the provenance of the ingredients, the use of seasonal produce, the restaurant's environmental footprint, food waste systems, general waste disposal, and recycling."

When the Michelin Guide first introduced the Green Star in 2021, Gallery by Chele was nearly 10 years into practicing what the Micheline Guide calls sustainability.

Their evolving menus had already been highlighting local ingredients, like heirloom rice and local salts. And their team of chefs had already been experimenting with what otherwise would've been considered agricultural waste, like cacao pulp.

In its fifth floor space in BGC, Gallery by Chele was already keeping a small garden, where they grow local and endemic herbs, like pancit-pancitan, talinum, gotu kola, and the insulin plant. The garden also allows them to minimize food waste through composting.

LOU ALBANO

GMA News

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