Strawberry cansi? Art meets food at Mt. Camisong for Ibagiw 2026

BENGUET, Philippines — It began with a painting of a paper boat caught in a fishing net, surrounded by fish and swirling waves. Chef Stanley “Stan” Suva saw it and he immediately remembered a kilawin dish he had created years earlier.

Artist Amparo Moldero-Magallanes had not painted Of Dreams Cast at Sea with Suva’s dish in mind. But the resemblance was striking enough that he pulled out his phone to show her.

It was one of the happy coincidences that made their collaboration for the ninth Ibagiw Creative Festival feel special.

At Alapaap Dining in Mt. Camisong Forest Park, art has returned to the dinner table for another year of Gastro X Art, pairing chefs and visual artists to explore the relationship between food and creative expression.

This year, Suva, Mt. Camisong’s vice president for food and beverage, is paired with Moldero-Magallanes, a Baguio artist and apothecary whose paintings are playful and personal.

Their project, Roots in Transformation, is part of Ibagiw 2026’s theme, RIKUS: A Creative Circular Baguio, which explores sustainability, renewal, and the creative reuse of materials.

But this collaboration goes beyond matching paintings with beautifully plated food.

A little sweetness in the unexpected

The first surprise came with the kilawin.

The familiar Filipino dish had a welcome addition: camote. Its sweetness and texture worked remarkably well with the acidity of the kilawin, making an already enjoyable dish more interesting.

The kilawin was paired with Moldero-Magallanes’ Of Dreams Cast at Sea, a watercolor-and-ink illustration of fish, waves, and a fishing net carrying a paper boat.

The pairing was meaningful because neither artist nor chef had created their work for the other.

Another dish, Pinoy Chicken BBQ with Smoked Pineapple Salsa, came with a clever take on rice.

The familiar tutong, the browned rice that forms at the bottom of a cooking pot, was reimagined as Pinoy ampaw, a crispy rice cake made with Unoy heirloom rice from Pasil, Kalinga. Its crunch complemented the chicken barbecue and smoked pineapple salsa.

The dish was inspired by Moldero-Magallanes’ Of Crispy Steps and Borrowed Flight, a playful illustration of children, a paper boat, and a chicken against swirling colors and mountain forms.

Then came the strawberry cansi.

Cansi, a beef soup traditionally associated with Western Visayas, gets its sourness from batwan. Suva’s version introduces Benguet strawberries, bringing a distinctly local ingredient into the broth.

The result was addictive: the soup’s tang and the strawberries’ sweetness made for an unusual combination that worked.

Suva has explained that the restaurant uses underripe strawberries, less suited for desserts, in its cansi. It is one way the kitchen makes use of ingredients that might otherwise go to waste.

The accompanying artwork, Of a Strawberry and a Floating Cow, features a strawberry hanging beneath a fanciful scene of clouds, mountains, and a floating cow.

Dessert brought another surprise.

The chocolate mousse came with a rose element that added freshness to the rich chocolate. Inspired by Of Leather Towers and Sweet Rivers, the dish played with layered textures, with the fruit leather and mousse echoing the painting’s towers and flowing forms.

It was a lovely end to a meal that kept us curious about what would arrive next.

Returning to the easel

There is a personal story behind the paintings.

Moldero-Magallanes grew up with artist parents and began painting as a child. As life and work took over, however, her creative pursuits gradually moved into the background.

For years, her artwork appeared on the packaging of products from her small business. Upon reaching her golden years, she decided it was time to return to painting and share her work more widely.

She describes her style as whimsical and dreamlike, shaped by her parents’ influence and her desire to bring viewers back to simpler, happier memories.

For this year’s collaboration, she also experimented with materials that might otherwise have been discarded.

Expired Abra dyes became watercolor palettes, while rejected materials from soap production were turned into paint. Old glitter dyes were incorporated into acrylics, and existing canvases were given new life.

Her background in medical technology, she explained, helped shape her resourcefulness and willingness to experiment.

Moldero-Magallanes also spoke warmly about the chefs she and her husband have befriended over the years.

She has long believed that chefs are artists in their own right, not only because of how food looks, but also because they create experiences through taste, texture, and memory.

A dish, she observed, can remind someone of a mother’s cooking or a particular moment in life.

Watching Suva connect his earlier kilawin with her painting gave that belief a personal meaning.

More than a beautiful plate

Suva shares her view of cooking. As a chef, he sees food as a form of artistic expression, with ingredients and cooking techniques serving much the same purpose as an artist’s materials and tools.

His interest in Moldero-Magallanes’ work deepened when he learned how she incorporated recycled materials into her paintings.

At Alapaap, his kitchen has been working to reduce food waste and find more uses for available ingredients.

Their collaboration offered a chance to bring these approaches together.

Mt. Camisong board chairperson Ludette Querubin acknowledged that sustainability remains a work in progress.

The organization, she said, continues to learn and improve its practices through partnerships with artists, chefs, and the surrounding community.

For Querubin, sustainability extends beyond environmental concerns to food, culture, livelihoods, and the people who make these initiatives possible.

That broader perspective is relevant in the Cordillera, where resourcefulness and making use of available materials have long been part of everyday life.

The collaboration also points to a possible direction for Baguio’s creative economy. Artists can reach new audiences through dining, while chefs introduce guests to local ingredients, cultural stories, and the work of other creatives.

Such collaborations could benefit both, provided they give participating artists meaningful recognition and support.

A meal worth remembering

Gastro X Art has returned to Ibagiw, and this year’s pairing at Mt. Camisong shows why the collaboration deserves to continue.

The dishes were enjoyable on their own. What made the meal memorable was discovering the stories behind them, then looking at the paintings again and noticing details we had missed earlier.

The art did not feel like decoration added to a restaurant. Nor did the food seem like an afterthought to an exhibition.

Suva and Moldero-Magallanes found a way to let their individual works speak to each other, sometimes by design and, as with the kilawin, through coincidence.

Roots in Transformation runs from November 8 to 30, 2026, at Alapaap Dining in Mt. Camisong Forest Park, Sitio Peday, Barangay Loacan, Itogon, Benguet, as part of the Ibagiw Gastro X Art + Live Music Creative Crawl.

If you happen to visit, don’t rush through the meal. Look at the paintings, listen to the stories, and give the food your full attention.

Especially the strawberry cansi. I’d happily have another bowl. – Rappler.com