This project has been long overdue. I kept going back and forth, wondering how I could precisely present the essence of these dishes while creating something new from something so classical and timeless. I felt stuck between ideas until I revisited Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, where he wrote:

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

Inspired by this, I decided to simply start somewhere and let the project evolve on its own.

I am fascinated by Darwin’s idea of “descent with modification,” and it made me think about how this concept appears in the evolution of food—even down to a single dish. I studied articles I could find online and recipes created by key chefs and culinary figures in their original languages, trying to understand how these dishes became THE dishes over time.

As someone who grew up—and still lives—immersed in multiple cultures every moment of the day, I chose to pair two classic dishes with different origins but similar inspirations. By combining their core elements, I created new recipes from them and hope it can inspire a few.