Philippines
Our Story
A Love Story, a Brick Oven,
and a Dream Called Altrove
It began with a journey —
two wanderers, a Slovenian and a Filipino who had grown up in Japan,
who found each other somewhere in the world
and discovered they saw everything the same way:
through flavor, through fire, through love.
Sandy had learned in Japan to see food as art —
five colors, five tastes, five senses fully awake.
Every great restaurant, she believed, must have one mastery —
one craft pursued without compromise, without apology.
Martin showed her Ljubljana. In a simple trattoria,
she tasted a pizza — and the world went quiet.
This is the one, she knew.
Before they left Europe, Martin did not simply pack his bags.
He walked into the kitchens of Naples and the Adriatic coast
and asked the maestros to teach him — no wage, only wisdom.
He gave his time in exchange for flour and fire and truth.
Back in Sta. Maria, Bulacan, they built a brick oven in the backyard —
not for a restaurant, but for the love of making something real.
They tested recipes, created the menu, refined every detail.
Weekends became feasts. Friends became family.
Family became believers. The food was always the answer.
It was Martin who decided the form:
old Filipino houses — capiz windows, wooden floors,
the warmth of memory built into every wall.
Two worlds, one room, one table.
In 2009, they traveled to El Nido, Palawan —
an island of impossible beauty
with nothing worthy of it on a plate.
So in 2010, they opened the first Trattoria Altrove.
Guests waited thirty minutes for a table.
Stories spread like smoke from a wood fire.
Now twelve flames burn across the Philippines —
from Palawan to Pampanga, Siargao to Laoag.
Each one a fragment of the original dream:
to carry you, for one evening,
somewhere else entirely.
