El Comedor Meals and Memories: Featuring the Recipes of Lourdes P. Del Rosario

Where did her recipes come from? From the family heritage, supplemented by diligent research, collecting and clipping from newspapers, magazines, cookbooks and friends: Montserrat Viaplana's Pescado en Mayonesa, and the dessert of meringue islands in a syrup that she called Floating Island, now known as Canonigo; her mother's Sopa de Ajo Seca, Pastel de Pichon and Carne Mechada with chorizOs; her family's classic bread pudding her personal favorite, Zarzuela de Mariscos, a soup-stew of fish, shellfish and crustaceans of different textures; the popular Cochinillo Asado, a three-week-old suckling pig, baked so tender that it could be sliced with a saucer; and more.

The story of Lourdes P. del Rosario is the story of an individual, a talented cook who went from home to teaching to supervising executive lounges and to conceptualizing and running a restaurant now almost 30 years old.

It is also the story of the Filipina, the bearer of family tradition and food culture, the social historian of the home, who literally keeps home fires burning, but goes beyond the household to enrich the workplace with her courage and skills. It is she who is responsible for the Philippines' having the best Spanish restaurants in Southeast Asia; it is she who keeps priorities straight: home and family first, and after them the working world, the country, and the globe.