The chef behind Metronome and Michelin Bib Gourmand Taquería Franco looks to her childhood in Butuan for a one-night-only dinner at Po & Pilar.
For one night only, Miko Calo joins Po & Pilar for a dinner looking back to where her relationship with food began: her grandmother’s home in Butuan. On September 1, Calo joins Po & Pilar for the third edition of Just The Way My ____ Made It, the restaurant’s takeover series inviting chefs and beverage professionals to step away from their usual menus and cook from a more personal place. Calo’s edition, Just The Way My Wawa Made It, draws from memories of her grandmother, Consuelo V. Calo, whom she called “Wawa.”
It is a fitting collaboration for a restaurant whose own story begins with grandmothers. Po & Pilar is named after the grandmothers of co-founder Jericson Co, with a menu built around the food, memories, and traditions that shaped their family.
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Miko Calo And Po & Pilar Return To The Grandmother’s Table
Long before Calo trained at FERRANDI Paris and spent seven years working within Joël Robuchon International in Paris, London, and Singapore, some of her earliest lessons in food came from watching the rhythms of her Wawa’s household. She would later return to Manila and lead Metronome through its five-year run, and today serves as culinary creative director of Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded Taquería Franco.
She remembers aunts roasting homegrown cacao for tsokolate, cooks preparing the evening meal, and her grandmother being particular about the freshness of seafood and the way rice was cooked. One dish she especially associates with Wawa is inagun-un, known as paksiw in Tagalog, made with mangko or mackerel tuna, a specific vinegar, and sea salt.
For the dinner, Calo will draw from both the everyday and special-occasion dishes she remembers eating at her grandmother’s table. The idea is memory rather than exact recreation, allowing those early tastes and rituals to pass through the perspective of the chef Calo has since become.
Just The Way My Wawa Made It with Miko Calo will be held on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, at Po & Pilar. There will be two dinner seatings at 6 PM and 8:30 PM. Po & Pilar is located at 227 Salcedo Street, Legazpi Village, Makati. Reservations are available by call or text at +63 962 909 1749. For more information, visit their Instagram page.
Photos courtesy of Po & Pilar
Frequently Asked Questions
Miko Calo’s Just The Way My Wawa Made It dinner at Po & Pilar takes place on September 1, 2026, with seatings at 6:00 PM and 8:30 PM.
The one-night-only dinner is inspired by Calo’s grandmother, Consuelo V. Calo, whom she called Wawa, and the food and memories of her childhood in Butuan.
Calo is drawing from everyday and special-occasion dishes served at her grandmother’s table. One dish she particularly associates with her Wawa is inagun-un, also known as paksiw in Tagalog.
Miko Calo is the culinary creative director of Taquería Franco in Makati, which received a Michelin Bib Gourmand in November 2025. She previously led Metronome during its five-year run.
Reservations for the September 1 dinner at Po & Pilar in Legazpi Village, Makati can be made by calling or messaging +63 962 909 1749.
