THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!

Often my foreign mentors would tell me when creating new dishes....

From the time I donned by immaculate chef whites up to the time I am ready to hang up my apron, I always believed in retaining the dish's and cuisine's origin. Somehow most purists shun at the word FUSION!

The way I figured to refresh the dish was maintain 80% of the original dish and apply 20% classical French techniques to give a dish a new presentation or approach if you will. For example what can you do with Lasagna making use of ingredients indigenous to the Philippines? Well, I made the lasagna dough from dried taro leaves (Laing) and the fillings were typical ingredients used in Laing- pork strips, shrimps, shrimp paste lemongrass, chili and of course coconut cream. And what do you have....Laing Lasagna!

The dish is still Laing but in pasta form. No fusion here.