Margarita Araneta Forés (March 23, 1959 – February 11, 2025) was a Filipino chef who ran restaurants that serve varieties of Italian cuisine.

[citation needed] She grew up in Manila until she was a freshman attending Assumption College San Lorenzo, when the family moved to New York City.

[2] The culture in her new city would eventually serve as inspiration for her culinary career, with Sunday visits to the same midtown American-Italian restaurant led to her interest in learning about the Italian food that was not so well known outside of the local areas in the country.

[citation needed] When the company downsized during the 1980s as the market shrank while preparations were underway for the British colony to be transferred to China, she moved back to New York.

[citation needed] Reunited with her family, her mother got her a job working for fur licensee Valentino's, and eventually moved onto their head office.

While she was away, her mother had become heavily involved in the New York party scene, with Forés later recalling the time she was introduced to people such as Salvador Dalí, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Margaux Hemingway.

[citation needed] She initially began as a caterer, having created the company Cibo Di M,[4] cooking directly in people's homes with two sous chefs to help her.

[2] She saw her main competitors at the time as being the American cuisine chains TGI Friday's and Hard Rock Cafe, but criticized that these were not Filipino-owned operations.

[3] Forés admitted surprise at winning the award,[2] comparing it to Miss Universe,[5] and credited the victory to her work in promoting Filipino products both within the Philippines and abroad.