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I grew up in a Chinese Sicilian household with a culturally Filipino background. So the fusions I grew up ranged widely. My Sicilian father raised me with traditional pastas, pizzas, and Italian recipes while my mother didn't cook as much. She taught me about comfort food. The type of food that makes you warm inside because it was made with love and had a lot of fat in it.When I was 19 my Grandma in the Philippines was getting sick. So, I moved to a southern Island in the Philippines called, Cagayan De Oro for a year. In that time I tried food that I could never have imagined. I returned to California to my mom's arthritis getting much worse and affecting the way she lived. This is when I started cooking regularly so she could ease into her new lifestyle a little bit easier. This is when I started understanding how different chemicals like solanine can affect those with joint pains. A few years later I found myself in culinary school at Mesa College and was exposed to a whole other world I had no idea existed. It's been a long and exhausting venture but I am so blessed to be doing what I love on a daily basis.