The Magic of Helm

At Helm, Chef Josh Boutwood isn’t just serving food, he’s building worlds. With each new menu, Boutwood ventures beyond traditional fine dining to create immersive culinary universes where every course is its own narrative. His last tasting menu drew from the mythos of Star Wars while his current one takes inspiration from the enchanted world of Harry Potter. At first, these may seem like mere nods to pop culture, but Boutwood’s fascination with world-building goes deeper. He doesn’t simply reference these iconic sagas, he interprets them through a gastronomic lens.

For Boutwood, food is a medium akin to ink or film, capable of transporting diners across space and time, and inviting them to become protagonists in their own sensory adventure. Like the great storytellers, his process is one of constructing a universe: grounded in myth and layered with meaning. His menus follow a hero’s journey replete with an arc of challenge and process of discovery.

Helm’s latest offering, the Wizardry Menu, conjures a dining experience that feels lifted straight from the halls of Hogwarts. But don’t expect butterbeer or pumpkin pasties in their obvious forms. In the kitchen’s imaginative style, this menu doesn’t recreate the wizarding world literally, it reinterprets it into an exquisite multi-course degustation.

Cured, confit quail with salt-baked beetroot, roasted cauliflower purée, crowned with a hibiscus foam.

In a whimsical start to the evening, each guest draws an envelope to determine whether they belong to Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw. This choice isn’t just theatrical, it influences the first dish, making every experience personal from the get-go. Plates are presented with flair, true to Boutwood’s culinary point of view : precise, seasonal, globally inspired, and occasionally laced with humor or mischief. Each dish represents a chapter in the journey of all eight films and captures the essence of their stories through flavor, texture and emotion.

Squid porridge with lemon and dill, with activated charcoal crisp.

Every element throughout the menu is deliberate—from the first dish inspired from The Philosopher’s Stone—a lightly-cured Spanish mackerel paired with tri-colored pickled carrots for added acidity, miso emulsion for creaminess, and Thai basil and chervil for some earthy notes, to the dessert—a dark chocolate ice cream served with an almond financier, a tart fermented pineapple syrup, and finished with some hazelnut praline and aerated crème brûlée foam, informed by the clash between Harry Potter and Voldemort in The Deathly Hallows.

Josh Boutwood’s signature bread course: sourdough brioche knot, sourdough made with buckwheat, nori and truffle butter, smoked cultured butter and pork fat tallow.

The Wizardry Menu is a masterclass in culinary storytelling. What Boutwood offers is more than a meal, it’s an experience that bridges fantasy and fine dining, memory, and imagination. Once again, Josh Boutwood and his Wizardry Menu reminds us that food can be more than sustenance; it can be a story, a spell, and a journey. For those lucky enough to step into his world, it’s nothing short of magic.

Helm, 3rd floor, Ayala Triangle Gardens, Makati Ave, Makati, 0915.909.8647