MANILA - What does internationally acclaimed Chef Bobby Chinn think about Filipino food? Well, to put it bluntly, he thinks Filipino food is confusing, overwhelming, but in the end, quite interesting.

"I think that the cuisine here, to a Western-trained chef is confused. It's Asian, but it's confused," he said in an interview at the 3rd Manila Food and Beverage Expo (MAFBEX) in Pasay City, where he will be hanging out as a special guest until Sunday (June 21).

"I don't see Filipino food as having the same type of identity as Vietnamese, Chinese, or Thai. It seems like the influence of the Spanish had basically taken away a lot of what was here. It's still here, but not in the same number," he added.

He explained that most of the food he had tasted in the Philippines while filming for his popular Discovery Channel travel and food show "World Cafe Asia" last year had very strong Spanish influence. This is something he found as a big shock.

During the trip, he sampled paella, dried fish, tapas dishes, grilled squid drenched in its own ink, and even field crickets.

"Obviously, the Malaysians, Indonesians, Polynesians had their influence with the coconuts and the use of the peanuts. There are the use of ingredients that generally, in the Western mind, they wouldn't use at all. Like, coconut milk and olive oil. I would've thought that they would use something tropical like sesame oil. So I think that as long as you're Filipino, and you understand both the Malaysians, Indonesians, the Spanish and the history, then your food is very open to interpretation," he said.

As a sucker for street food, since he says this is the source of a country's unique flavors and cooking techniques, Chinn has tried both deep-fried chicken intestines ("isaw") and seafood balls in the streets of Manila.

Ask him about "balut" or boiled duck egg, though, and you can almost see him flinch. "It's something that I'm probably not going to order again. I can eat it again if I was asked to. Out of politeness. It didn't taste bad, it's just the idea. I mean, who came up with that idea? It's like the thousand-year-old egg. It's like abortion, so the duck would be really pissed off with me," he quipped.

Much as he tries to grapple with Filipino foods' identity, however, he insists that he has never had a bad meal in the Philippines. He even has high praises for Filipino Chef Gene Gonzalez, whom he describes as the perfect "ambassador for Filipino food."

"When you think about these types of things as a chef, you ask 'what is good food?' Good food should have contrast - it could be sweet, sour, spicy. Filipino food does satisfy all that. I hope it's the [young Filipino chefs] who will take Filipino food to the next level. With all the ingredients, the abundance of great seafood, and the fact that Filipinos do love their food. Hopefully, we will see a lot of great Filipino restaurants in the Philippines as well as outside," he said.

Mix and mingle

Traveling around the world and sampling food from various cultures is a passion for Chinn, partly because of his unique background. As he is always proud to relate, he is half-Chinese and half-Egyptian, born in New Zealand, schooled in London, grew up in California, worked in San Francisco and is now based in Vietnam.

Growing up with Arabic and Shanghainese grandparents, he developed a taste for Peking Duck and Lebanese "shawarma", a meaty sandwich wrap, which he considers a must when in England.

However, he doesn't play favorites (except with his girlfriend), but looks for food based on his location, proximity to food sources, and his particular mood at the time.

"I like many foods. I like Indian food if I'm, tired, hung over, lazy, and just want to go to bed. That would put me to bed in no time flat. Same for Mexican food, even Arabic food. I like some Chinese food, like Peking duck, tofu dishes, stir-fry, and soups. I like Californian food for its sensibility, which is regional French. If I want to go light, I'd go Japanese. I like French food for technique and English food if you're just really masochistic," he said.

This mix of cultural and culinary influences makes him willing to explore and try cuisine when no one else would. In fact, he tried to put Vietnamese food on the culinary map at a time when no American would even touch the stuff (because of the US embargo), let alone train in Vietnam and eventually open a gourmet Vietnamese restaurant in Hanoi.

"I had a very open mind towards food. You get to learn different techniques from the Asians versus the Arabs. I think that, just being somewhat of a misfit, I have total disregard for rules and so I'm very open to changing things from the traditional way. Which gives me an open mind to create dishes within reason. Not anything too complicated," he said.

Chinn is open-minded enough to prefer street food over food at swanky restaurants, something most other gourmet chefs would overlook. Street food, he says with some reverence, is fantastic because they are unique and time-tested over several generations.

"You can go all over the world today and eat really good Japanese sashimi, even in Egypt. But you can't get good street food. A lot of people recognize that street food is really cheap, it's really good, and the person making it mastered one thing and they make it really well. A restaurant could never compete with what a guy is making in that street at those prices," he said.

Also, sampling street food is a great way to make friends. "The people are obviously always friendly when they see some foreigner sitting down and trying something that they do. Because people who cook are generally passionate. The greatest feeling is the gratitude of people saying, 'Thank you, it's really good.'

'Stand-up comic waiter'

Much like the twisting narrow roads of Hanoi, Chinn's road to chefdom came after much prelude.

There was a Richmond College degree in Finance and Economics, then a brief stint at Wall Street, a job selling seafood in Los Angeles, a foray into stand-up comedy at the "Groundlings", then a job waiting tables at the Miyako Hotel with Chef Elka Gilmore and her Franco-Japanese cuisine.

Although he got a lot of scolding from his parents for chucking out his suit and tie, his decision to haunt the kitchen is the best he ever made. For him, remembering tidbits like "the croissant is not French, it's Turkish" and "Duck a la Orange is actually Moroccan" was better than crunching numbers and paper-pushing.

"My father came in and he's like, 'Excuse the cliché, but what are you now, a stand-up comic waiter? 'Cause one, you're not funny, and two, you're a shitty waiter.' But I hung out in the kitchen and I started enjoying myself. You start learning about stuff and if you love what you do, you'll remember. As long as you find something you love doing, then it's not really that difficult to go to work," Chinn said.

Probably an offshoot to his comedic training, Chinn is prone to cracking jokes at cooking demonstrations, or inserting humorous bits in his menus. At "Restaurant Bobby Chinn", entrees are not entrees but "dumb cows that thought they were living in India" or "lambs that had no idea about Islam." The top item on his vegetarian menu is: "We tell you 'You are beautiful' all night long. (Includes a signed copy of the menu) - $5.00."

As an avid cookbook reader, he says the biggest challenge in his profession is the pressure of creating new dishes and challenging expectations. "The pressure of continuing to create, for me, is probably the most difficult thing because I know that this dish is really good. Sometimes I don't want to create. I mean, isn't there enough traditional food out there that's good enough?"

Also, as he has seen, a lot of food businesses perch precariously in the global economic climate. The place that taught him how to make Vietnamese Pho (pronounced "fuh"), for example, has been replaced by a Panasonic store due to the crisis.

Asia's "high-octane" chef remains confident, though, that Asian restaurant businesses and culinary innovations still have much room.

"There will always be space for more. People continue to find ways of making ingredients taste better, cutlery to make it cut easier, chinaware to make it look more beautiful and stylized. It's the essence of who we are as human beings. And I think it's a good time to be Asian in Asia right now, even with the financial debacle," he said. Photo from World Cafe Asia, Discovery Travel and Living.