Four Michelin Stars, One Counter: Jaan Comes to Helm

Four Michelin stars will converge around a 24-seat counter in Makati on August 25, when Josh Boutwood welcomes two-star restaurant Jaan’s Kirk Westaway to Helm. Such arithmetic makes an efficient advertisement, but it is not what persuaded either chef to collaborate. Their dinner began with friendship—and with the discovery that, despite producing markedly different food, they agree on what a restaurant should do.

“Kirk and I go back a few years. We first met during the Asia Culinary Exchange when he was visiting the Philippines, and we immediately got along,” Boutwood recalls. “We’ve stayed in touch ever since, and this year the opportunity to cook together finally came together.”

The dinner brings together the chefs behind two of Southeast Asia’s most highly regarded restaurants. Helm became the only restaurant to debut with two stars in the inaugural Michelin Guide to Manila and Environs and Cebu. Jaan by Kirk Westaway, meanwhile, received its second star in 2021 and retained both in the recently announced 2026 Singapore selection. Michelin describes Boutwood’s cooking as an intersection of his British-Filipino background, Spanish influences and an evolving series of themed menus; Jaan is recognized for Westaway’s contemporary treatment of British produce and culinary traditions.

Westaway grew up in Devon, where the garden maintained by his family helped establish the seasonal instincts that now govern his cooking in Singapore. Boutwood’s biography is less geographically tidy: born in England to a Filipino father and English mother, he spent his formative years between Europe and the Philippines before developing Helm’s particular vocabulary of memory, technique and local produce.

Their shared British connection will run through the tasting menu, interpreted using the ingredients, flavors, and traditions of Southeast Asia. Individual dishes have yet to be disclosed, although the chefs say the evening has been composed as a continuous progression rather than a sequence of alternating signatures.

“Whenever we host an international chef, the goal is never to present two separate styles on the same menu,” Boutwood explains. “We want the dishes to work in harmony, with each course building on the last. It’s about creating something that could only happen on that one night.”

That approach suits Helm, where the proximity between kitchen and dining room leaves little space for ceremony—or concealment. Guests watch dishes being assembled across the counter, making the labor and concentration of service part of dinner itself. For Westaway, accustomed to Jaan’s panoramic dining room on the 70th floor of Swissôtel The Stamford, the smaller setting offers another mode of exchange.

“It wasn’t really about the restaurants,” he says of accepting Boutwood’s invitation. “It was about cooking alongside someone I respect.”

The Jaan x Helm dinner will be held on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, with seatings at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Helm is located on the third floor of The Shops at Ayala Triangle Gardens in Makati. Reservations may be made through joshboutwood.com or at +63 915 909 8647.