It's called the Melting Pot for a reason — and this chef is putting a twist on classic American Flavors.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Life is all about trying things. It's like what you do and what you don't do, right?
00:06So if you don't do it, just be prepared to live your life never experiencing that.
00:11That's a really shitty way to live.
00:19As a child growing up in an immigrant family where my parents were still assimilating to the culture of America,
00:27there's a lot of things that I did not get to taste as a child.
00:31So when I grew up and I started driving and I started having my own independence,
00:37high school was a big time for me because I started to venture off on my own without my parents.
00:43And tasting sushi for the first time or tasting pho or tasting just things that weren't at my house really blew my mind.
00:53And I think that's what started it all.
00:57We're starting to get to the point in food where everything's starting to bleed together.
01:07I think it's awesome because then people start digging in.
01:10Filipino food for me, I've been really working hard on exposing our flavors.
01:17Sour, sweet, salty.
01:20And when I describe different dishes and it had the story that go along with it,
01:26people really look into that and they start learning about cultures.
01:33You start realizing how vast and great the world is through other people's food.
01:41I mean, that's why I love what I do.
01:44When I started cooking professionally and started cooking with other people and cooking with other ethnicities and other kinds of cuisine,
01:52I started to really expand my mind and it really made me understand people a lot more than I used to.
02:01Every time I run into people who are very close-minded with anything really, even if it's not food,
02:07at the end of the day I always tell them, look dude, life is all about trying things.
02:13It's what you do and what you don't do, right?
02:15So if you don't do it, just be prepared to live your life never experiencing that.
02:20And that's a really shitty way to live.
02:23You know what I mean?
02:25But hey, if that's what you want, that's what you want.
02:27There's some people I can't ever force to eat seafood.
02:31They just don't want to eat seafood and it's like, you know what?
02:33More for me.