Few things are more fulfilling than knowing that your last act in this world was savoring the very thing that gave your life meaning.
For Chef Margarita Araneta Forés—who passed away on February 11, 2025—her final moments reflected a life dedicated to the world of food.
Through her last Instagram stories, she left behind a digital time capsule of her big passion.
After jet-setting on a global food trip across Morocco and Madrid, she returned to Hong Kong, taking in the view from her window at The Upper House Hong Kong—a boutique luxury hotel designed by sought-after architect Andre Fu.
"What a way to come home," she wrote at the time.
Moments later, Chef Gaita's social media updates placed her in the middle of a Mughal-inspired restaurant, Prince and the Peacock, swept in a symphony of flavors, history, and artistry that defines its cuisine.
The carousel of snapshots, immortalized in Instagram stories at around 8 p.m. on February 10, 2025, painted a perfect picture of Gaita's romance with the culinary arts.
Seated in the main dining hall, she reveled in an elegant dinner where the spirit of India's royal courts was suffused in every dish.
Read: Margarita Fores: Remembering the chef-restaurateur behind Cibo
Margarita's dinner feast at Prince and the Peacock
Nestled in Hong Kong's Tai Kwun district, the Prince and the Peacock is a masterstroke of Michelin-starred Chef Palash Mitra, who is known for his understanding of South Asian flavors.
Every meal at Prince and the Peacock begins with the "Khushamdeed"—a Punjabi term meaning "Welcome"—containing a selection of refined Indian street food elevated to fine-dining status.
Like all its guests, Chef Gaita began her meal with this signature spread.
In one of her IG stories, she shared a photo of red herring kofta topped with green caviar, bearing the caption, "Starters alone were amazing."
Alongside it was a modern twist on a classic: fruit gol guppa with pomegranate jaljeera, which is a sweeter take on the time-honored Indian paani puri.
Instead of the traditional spicy, tangy filling, this version featured chopped fruits like pomegranate, pineapple, and mango, complemented by sweetened yogurt and fruit-infused water.
Her meal also included tokri chaat, a dish brimming with history dating back to the Mughal Empire.
Traditionally a street food staple, the Prince and the Peacock version transformed the tokri chaat into a dish of crispy potato baskets filled with spiced chickpeas, sev, tangy chutneys, and aromatic spices.
For her main course, Chef Gaita indulged in chapli kebab worth HKD198 or about PHP1,500.
The less than a year-old restaurant's variation of the chapli kebab is a twice-cooked Pashtun delicacy made from leg of lamb ground with chilies, ginger, garlic, onions, and a signature spice blend.
She paired it with pickled shallots and patti samosas (HKD138/~PHP1,030)—golden, crisp parcels of spiced chicken and Poona onions.
After drifting through layers of gastronomic bliss, Chef Gaita took a moment to appreciate her surroundings, captioning a photo with: "Beautiful dining room."
Prince and the Peacock is designed by award-winning interior designer Joyce Wang, who is from Hong Kong and based in London.
The restaurant's 60-seat main hall, The Kohinoor private dining room, which is beside a scenic veranda, offered an atmosphere steeped in old-world grandeur touched by modernity.
In what would be her last documented moment, Chef Gaita was seen meeting the Prince and the Peacock team, including Chef Palash Mitra himself.
It was a gathering of culinary minds and a celebration of shared passion and artistry.
Surrounded by exquisite flavors and kindred spirits, she ended her evening immersed in what has been the core of her very existence.
If life is a series of fleeting moments, hers concluded exactly where she had always belonged—at the heart of a meal, savoring every last detail.
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