A KAPAMPANGAN chef is set to launch an artworks book at a university in Angeles City next week.

Chef Claude Tayag, who is known for giving twist to Kapampangan dishes, will launch his coffee table book "A Watercolor Journey" at the Holy Angel University (HAU) on September 13 at the University’s Café Juan.

The book is published by HAU and was recently launched at the National Museum of the Philippines.

The launch will be accompanied by an exhibit of dozens of Tayag’s watercolor masterpieces, with themes ranging from travels, landscapes, still life, festivals and religious icons.

Tayag will also hold an intimate conversation with students of humanities, architecture and multi-media arts at the University’s Museum of Kapampangan Arts on the same day.

The full-color book features Tayag’s watercolor paintings as photographed by Neal Oshima, with introduction by Floy Quintos and write-ups by Esperanza Bunag Gatbonton, Alice Guillermo, Rod Paras-Perez and Alejandro Roces.

Tayag’s artistic career spans five decades, first achieving national prominence in the 1970s after winning an art competition and holding his first solo exhibit. His large-scale paintings have since adorned theatres, hotels, museums and institutions, including the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

In the 1990s, Tayag branched out to sculpture and furniture designing as well culinary arts, writing food columns in newspapers and authoring or co-authoring award-winning and best-selling books like Food Tour, Kulinarya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine and Linamnam: A Culinary Travel Guide Book.

The Food Tour book won the Best Philippine Culinary Travel Guide in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in 2007.

Married to writer Mary Ann Quioc, co-author of Linamnam, Tayag is the son of famous Kapampangan writer Renato “Katoks” Tayag.

For book order and inquiries, contact kapampangancenter@gmail.com and 0918 456 1744.