Hinge Inquirer Publications celebrates 10 years in publishing

Call it a gathering of friends and esteemed guests, of tight-knit communities convening for one evening to celebrate 10 fruitful years of publishing. Last Nov. 24, Hinge Inquirer Publications (HIP) celebrated its anniversary at the Century City Mall events area.

Tessa Prieto-Valdes took the stage to introduce the various heads of HIP’s freezine and commercial titles: Denise Alcantara, managing editor of Northern Living, Southern Living and Cebu Living, Jed Gregorio, editor of Scout, Cai Subijano, managing editor of Preen.ph, Ria Prieto, editor of Inquirer RED, Cit-cit Sioson, editor of Look magazine, Juana Yupangco, editor of Baby magazine, Patrick Joson, editor of MultiSport, Angelo Comsti, editor of F&B Report, Eric Salta, managing editor of Soul BGC and F&B Report, and Bea Ledesma, group publisher of HIP.

For dinner, top chefs Mikel Zaguirre of Locavore, Jayps Anglo of Sarsa, Happy Ongpauco-Tiu of Pamana, Dedet Dela Fuente of Pepita’s Café, and Myke “Tatung” Sarthou of Alab served a host of bitesized versions of their restaurant’s favorite dishes.

Following his restaurant’s penchant for serving fresh interpretations of local fare, chef Mikel served chicken tinola xiao long bao and chicken terrine with caramelized onions and mustard and malunggay pesto.

Meanwhile, chef Jayps served batchoy beef ribs in a soft bun and molo potstickers, the former is an experiment that Anglo served for the first time, and the latter is an all-time favorite. Anglo designed the dishes to express HIP’s progressive values. “Since it’s Hinge, and Hinge is very forward, very hip, binagay rin namin iyong menu para maging hip din,” Anglo says.

Chef Happy served easy-to-eat versions of her restaurant’s popular fare: sisig mixed with chicharon, chicken inasal with crispy chicken skin, and bulalo steak with roasted bone marrow, all individually wrapped in pita bread. Chef Happy also served three variations of native paellas: aligue, longganisa, and baby adobong pusit.

“It’s never a complete celebration without lechon,” says nobody else other than the lechon diva herself, chef Dedet. Mainstays of Pepita’s Kitchen, lechon de leche and binagoongan rice stuffing were served from Dela Fuente’s station.

Chef Myke Sarthou finished the course on a sweet note with Alab’s signature desserts: bibingka cheesecake and sapin sapin.