Chef Alvin Cailan and his unique dishes

It's called the Melting Pot for a reason — and this chef is putting a twist on classic American Flavors.

Transcript

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.