At 24, Abi Marquez, the “Lumpia Queen,” has become a global sensation, clinching the Food Creator of the Year award at the 2025 World Influencers and Bloggers Awards (WIBA) during this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The WIBA Awards, in their seventh year, spotlight the world’s top digital creators in fashion, travel, lifestyle, and food. Marquez’s win in the dazzling setting of Cannes, France, isn’t just her triumph—it’s a mirror for us, her fellow Filipinos, reflecting our collective hunger for connection, creativity, and cultural pride through the universal language of food.

From TikTok to the red carpet: Abi Marquez at WIBA with her award | Photo: Abi Marquez

Her story started in 2022 as a college student in Hotel Restaurant and Institution Management, filming food videos for a school project. Her playful takes on lumpia, the Filipino spring roll, turned her into a viral star. Her “Peach Mango Pie Lumpia” video, reimagining a classic Filipino dessert, racked up over 31 million views, striking a chord with Filipinos in Manila and abroad. “I didn’t set out to go viral,” she once said in an interview. “I just loved sharing Filipino food, and suddenly people everywhere were into it. It felt like I stumbled into my purpose.”

Marquez’s Cannes win builds on a string of honors. In 2024, she was the first Filipina raised in the Philippines to win a Webby Award for Food & Drink in the People’s Voice category, followed by nominations in 2025 for both the Webby and People’s Voice Awards. She also nabbed two nods at the 45th Annual Telly Awards, a 2024 James Beard Media Awards nomination for social media, and a spot on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia list. In 2025, she was named FoodPHILIPPINES Advocate Par Excellence for the second year.

All this proves Marquez is more than a content creator—she’s a cultural force. Her rise reflects a generational shift: young voices using digital platforms to amplify traditions, showing that anyone with a smartphone and a story can shape culture.

Marquez with her Webby award last 2024 | Photo: Abi Marquez

Her videos are a love letter to Filipino food, with hooks like, “What if we stuff lumpia wrappers with this?” From s’mores lumpia to a Beef Wellington version that caught Gordon Ramsay’s eye, she blends nostalgia with innovation. “Food is how I show love,” she said. “I want to bring people together and teach them to make good food at home.” 

Perhaps it’s her background in scriptwriting, broadcasting, and video editing that make her content feel like a chat with a friend, creating a space where Filipinos swap childhood memories, diaspora viewers reconnect with their roots, and newcomers discover dishes like adobo or sinigang. This community-building mirrors our own desire to belong, whether we’re sharing a meal or a memory online.

Marquez is a cultural force and her work is a love letter to Filipino food | Photo: Abi Marquez

At Cannes, Marquez didn’t just win—she made a statement. Her custom red Filipiniana gown by Jo Rubio, inspired by Pinoy spaghetti, paired with spaghetti nails, a kutsara (spoon) earring, and a pasta-shaped bag from Nik Bentel Studio, marked her as a budding fashionista. This bold look, her first big fashion moment, showed how she’s weaving Filipino identity into every facet of her brand.

Her Instagram post captured the joy: “Still WILD that I’m in Europe for the first time, winning for what my team and I built with love, surrounded by creators from everywhere, AND repping Filipino food on a global stage 🇵🇳.” Thanking her team, NYMA management, and fans, she added, “MARAMING SALAMAT PO 🙏 You helped put Filipino food on the world map.” Her style and gratitude reflect our own aspirations—to stand out while staying true to who we are.

What Marquez has now is cultural weight. By bringing Filipino food to the world stage, she echoes a universal truth: food connects us. “I’ve cooked Filipino food with people from totally different backgrounds, and they loved it,” she said in her FoodPHILIPPINES speech. “Good food speaks to everyone.” Her journey shows how we crave stories that bridge cultures, making the unfamiliar feel like home.

With 2.9 million TikTok followers in just three years, Marquez’s short, catchy videos connect with Gen Z while winning over older generations. Her parents’ advice to “always give your best” drives her to keep experimenting and engaging. Her content celebrates Filipino traditions like salo-salo (group meals) and handaan (big feasts), making them feel fresh and global. “I’m so proud Filipino food got me here,” she said after her Webby win. And now, at Cannes, she proves that Filipino cuisine, while often sidelined, deserves the spotlight.

We also love her fashion sense, which might hint at a new chapter? But even as she’s redefining what it means to be an influencer, “We don’t need to change to be seen,” she said at this year’s IFEX Philippines Media Preview. “We just show up with our recipes, our stories, and our lumpia.” 

Marquez’s journey has always been rooted in passion, community, and pride—and in so doing, she holds up a mirror to us all, showing that by embracing who we are, we can inspire the world.