MANILA, Philippines – What does the future of food taste like? That’s what hundreds of guests got to explore for themselves at the Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) Future Menus 2026 Food Trends Adventure last weekend. Held in partnership with GCash for Business, Future Menus transformed the Foro de Intramuros into the home base of a one-of-a-kind food crawl.
The event showcased the culinary ideas shaping how people eat today, and how they may be eating tomorrow. With GCash for Business helping make payments simple and convenient, guests could move seamlessly through the experience and focus on discovering the flavors and trends shaping the future of food.
From Trend Report to Tasting Menu
Future Menus is Unilever Food Solutions’ annual global food trends platform, developed based on extensive research and insights from chefs around the world. This year’s report spotlighted four key trends shaping the future of dining: the resurgence of heritage cuisine, the elevation of street food through more refined techniques, the growing influence of borderless cuisine, and the emergence of more personalized dining experiences.
“Every year, Future Menus brings together insights from chefs, industry experts, consumer behavior, and global food trends to identify the movements that will shape the future of dining. […] what makes Future Menus truly valuable is […] translating those insights into practical, profitable solutions that chefs and operators can bring to life in their kitchens immediately,” said Kat Huang, country marketing head of Unilever Food Solutions.
Throughout the food crawl, guests discovered how these trends translated from concept to plate through dishes from 15 merchants, namely: Backyard BBQ, Bigby’s, Bun Run, Caerus, Chotto Matcha, Fiasfud, H Proper, Itamessy, Mezmars & Mau’s, OnlyPans, Poppy’s Halo Halo, Rebel Bakehouse, Sama Sama, Shawarma Ko, and Soriano’s.
Several dishes from the event that offered a glimpse of these trends included Sama Sama’s Filipino beef pares inside a tender bao – their interpretation of the Borderless Cuisine trend, where chefs borrow techniques and formats from around the world while staying true to the flavors of the dish itself.
Meanwhile, Soriano’s shone a light on a classic Filipino dish with its Beef Morcon, bringing back a traditional fiesta dish hardly found on menus today. It’s the kind of dish that captures the spirit of another trend, Culinary Roots, that celebrates ancestral recipes by making traditional Filipino flavors feel exciting and relevant for a new generation of diners.
For dessert, Poppy’s Halo Halo elevated two well-loved Filipino merienda classics – Halo Halo and Mais Con Yelo – without taking away their nostalgic charm but elevating them through craftsmanship, quality ingredients, and thoughtful presentation.
Together with the rest of the menus presented at the event, these dishes proved that the future of Filipino cuisine isn’t defined by a single look or style, but by the ways chefs and businesses continue to experiment with formats, reinterpret familiar flavours, and respond to consumer tastes.
Powering the Digital Future of Dining
Presented in partnership with GCash for Business, the event also marked the first-ever cashless Future Menus, offering a real-world look at how the dining experience is changing alongside the country’s shift toward digital payments. GCash for Business was selected as the event’s exclusive payment partner, powering the end-to-end payment experience from ticketing through transactions at participating merchant booths.
According to Kate Cruz, B2B Marketing head of GCash, 60% of food and beverage transactions in the Philippines are already digital. One in five diners pay directly using an e-wallet like GCash, adding, “The shift in consumer behavior is already happening. The opportunity now is to make sure businesses are equipped to keep up.”
For GCash, that means looking beyond the consumer side of digital payments. Every digital buyer, after all, needs a digital seller – and with MSMEs accounting for 90% of businesses in the Philippines, more than 56% of these merchants remain digitally underserved.
“Merchants don’t fear technology; they fear friction,” Cruz said. “Empowering consumers was only half the equation, and now that paying with GCash has become part of Filipinos’ everyday routines, we saw that we needed to shift our attention to bridging the gap for the businesses they’re paying, too.”
At the Food Trends Adventure, GCash for Business had a dedicated booth where restaurants and food business owners could register and apply for their own SoundPay Plus device, a payment solution that accepts multiple payment methods and provides instant audio confirmation for successful transactions.
Across the food crawl experience, GCash for Business also launched a Scan-to-Order feature allowing guests to order and pay directly from where they were instead of waiting in line, further showing how digital tools are streamlining the dining journey and easing the experience for everyone.
As food businesses continue to evolve in response to changing tastes, formats, and consumer expectations, the digital infrastructure supporting them is evolving as well. Through GCash for Business, the Future Menus Food Trends Adventure showed that dining is not only about what ends up on a plate, but also how businesses and consumers connect around it.
The Future Menus 4 report is now available to download for free through the UFS website. To learn how food businesses can streamline operations, simplify payments, and focus on delivering exceptional dining experiences with GCash, visit GCash for Business.
