What does the future of food taste like? Hundreds of guests explored that question at the Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) Future Menus 2026 Food Trends Adventure, held in partnership with GCash for Business at Foro de Intramuros.
The event showcased 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 through the food crawl while discovering the flavors and trends highlighted in this year’s Future Menus report.
From trend report to tasting menu
Future Menus is Unilever Food Solutions’ annual global food trends platform, developed through research and insights from chefs around the world. This year’s report highlighted 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,” said Kat Huang, country marketing head of Unilever Food Solutions. She added that the value of Future Menus lies in translating these insights into practical and profitable solutions that chefs and operators can bring to life in their kitchens.
Throughout the food crawl, guests experienced how these trends translated from concept to plate through dishes from 15 merchants: 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 offered a glimpse of the trends in action. Sama Sama served Filipino beef pares inside a tender bao as its interpretation of Borderless Cuisine, where chefs borrow techniques and formats from around the world while staying true to the flavors of the original dish.
Soriano’s, meanwhile, put the spotlight on a classic Filipino dish with its Beef Morcon, reviving a traditional fiesta favorite that is now rarely found on menus. The dish reflected the Culinary Roots trend, which celebrates ancestral recipes by making traditional Filipino flavors feel relevant to a new generation of diners.
For dessert, Poppy’s Halo Halo elevated two familiar Filipino merienda favorites, Halo Halo and Mais Con Yelo, through craftsmanship, quality ingredients, and thoughtful presentation while retaining their nostalgic appeal.
Together with the rest of the menus presented at the event, the dishes showed that the future of Filipino cuisine is not defined by one look or style. Instead, it continues to evolve as chefs and businesses experiment with formats, reinterpret familiar flavors, and respond to changing 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. GCash for Business served as the exclusive payment partner, powering the end-to-end payment experience from ticketing to 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, while one in five diners pay directly using an e-wallet such as GCash.
“The shift in consumer behavior is already happening. The opportunity now is to make sure businesses are equipped to keep up,” Cruz said.
For GCash, this means looking beyond the consumer side of digital payments. 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 also had a dedicated booth where restaurant and food business owners could register and apply for a SoundPay Plus device. The payment solution accepts multiple payment methods and provides instant audio confirmation for successful transactions.
GCash for Business also launched a Scan-to-Order feature during the food crawl, allowing guests to order and pay directly from where they were instead of waiting in line. The feature offered another example of how digital tools can streamline the dining journey for both consumers and businesses.
As food businesses continue to respond to changing tastes, formats, and consumer expectations, the digital infrastructure supporting them is also evolving. The Future Menus Food Trends Adventure showed how the future of dining involves not only what ends up on the plate, but also how businesses and consumers connect around it.
The Future Menus 4 report is available for free through the Unilever Food Solutions website.