MANILA, Philippines?Food connoisseur Larry J. Cruz was cooking up a new menu on fine living to the end.

It?s as if even from the great beyond, LJC has managed to make his vision of a haven on the slopes of Mount Arayat come true?one that captures the essence of Filipino heritage and community. His abrupt passing nine months ago did not stop the project that had been launched from Larry?s inexhaustible mind.

This September, Larry Cruz would have celebrated his birthday, as he always had, with a big party. His daughter Lorna Cruz Ambas, heir to his LJC Group of Restaurants, and business partners Mike and Cathy Turvill of Nurture Spa Village would see that the birthday tradition continues, maybe not in the grand manner Larry?s presence so exemplified, but auspiciously, to welcome the birth of his new baby: Abe?s Farm and Nurture Spa Village in Magalang, Pampanga.

To the urban café society he nurtured for over 20 years, Larry was always larger than life. In later years he would retire to this country farm to relax and to give his young boys what [as he said in an interview] he failed to give his older children?space to watch them grow up. But his friends did not think he was aware that he was sick until he was hospitalized for bleeding ulcers in October last year.

Like his father, painter-writer Abe Aguilar Cruz, after whom Larry named Abe?s Farm, Larry had the passion for food, believing that ?eating on the edge? against doctor?s orders was still most certainly eating well. (Larry discovered the spot where Abe?s Farm is now, by serendipity. It came on the day he went home to Magalang to scatter his father?s ashes. Abe was from Magalang.)

Of his life-saving heart bypass sometime ago, while acknowledging that years of nicotine, fat and cholesterol had taken their toll, Larry wrote, ?The good life has its price.?

No one thought?accepted?that a bon vivant, a visionary of the good life would pay the price so soon, when he still had one last dream to fulfill. He was in the midst of building a complete destination for life?s pleasures on the slopes of the mountain of his childhood. It was one that would integrate excellent food, good company, cigar and wine with massage and spa treatments.

Abe?s Farm was his retirement home, his private corner of the world. That he would let others to enter that world is an indication of his wanting to leave a legacy.

His longtime friend, architect and painter Agustin Goy, had built for him a country house in bamboo and old wood with few antiques but plenty of space for kids to run around, and a terrace view to welcome the wind from the nearby mountain. Larry would soon open the terraced second story of his home as dining lounge for traveler-guests.

Larry wanted spa relaxation in his new venture. Since he did not know the business, he tapped the Turvills? expertise.

Cathy and Mike spent hours listening to Larry about how he would showcase Kapampangan and Filipino culture through the food, furniture arts and crafts of Abe?s Farm, and how he would create a special Filipino destination that people would come from afar to see.

Larry bought a heritage house, which he would rebuild in Abe?s Farm, and where he would put his antiques and memorabilia. Daughter Lorna, who has taken over the LJC business, will continue that vision.

His sudden demise caught everyone by surprise. Cathy recalls that Larry sounded hale and hearty a week before he died, with no indication that he was losing the battle against cancer, ?He sent a text message from the US, looking forward to opening his new farm-spa venture.?

When an integrated Abe?s Farm and Nurture Spa Village fully opens on Larry?s birthday, guests will find his imprint all over the place.

Larry would have been pleased with how Goy transformed a piece of the farmland into a spa village, with Zen-like cottages, gazebos and garden paths exactly as he had envisioned.

Indigenous Ifugao huts brought down from the Mountain Province in knockdown pieces have been erected beside the big swimming pool, air-conditioned for overnight or day-long accommodations.

The spa has recreated traditional Kapampangan cures in its menu, from the hypnotic melody of an old Kapampangan lullaby to the therapeutic kaktus gel, papaya or mango picked from the slopes of Mt. Arayat, the kamias fruit for strengthening and whitening fingernails, to the volcanic pumice stones of Mt. Pinatubo for smoothening the feet.

The facilities provide a convergence of good living Larry redefined as: rediscovering country life, family, friends, companionship, reveling in a nurturing touch, rediscovering old kitchen recipes and homemade remedies for getting well?things that have all gone missing in the frantic urban life. Was the Don of café nightlife telling us something?

To find out what LJC was cooking up, venture out of Manila?s urban blight northward to rustic Magalang. You will be there in about an hour and 20 minutes.

From NLEX, take Angeles exit. Follow the Magalang road leading to the town plaza. When you hit the end of the town main road, turn left and then right on the first corner to enter the road to Barangay Ayala. Drive straight ahead past a resort toward a livestock village until you see the directional signs to Abe?s Farm. Take an unpaved road where the lush greenery of a wooden gate on the left says you have reached your destination.