FOOD CONNOISSEUR Larry J. Cruz was cooking up a new menu on fine living to the end.

It?s as though he managed to make his vision of capturing the essence of Filipino heritage and community in a haven on the slopes of Mount Arayat come true, even from the great beyond. His abrupt passing nine months ago did not stop this project launched by his 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 will see that the birthday tradition continues, perhaps not in the grand manner Larry?s presence 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, as he said in an interview, to give his young boys what he failed to give his older children?space to watch them grow up. Until he was hospitalized for bleeding ulcers in October last year, his friends do not think he was aware that he was sick.

Like his father, painter-writer Abe Aguilar Cruz, after whom Abe?s Farm is named, Larry had a passion for food, believing that ?eating on the edge? against doctor?s orders was most certainly eating well. ?The good life has its price,? he wrote of his life-saving heart bypass sometime ago, acknowledging that years of nicotine, fat and cholesterol had taken their toll.

Still, no one thought that a bon vivant and visionary of the good life would pay the price so soon, not when he still had one 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 would integrate excellent food, good company, cigar and wine with massage and spa treatments.

Larry discovered the spot for Abe?s Farm by serendipity ? on the very day he went home to scatter his father?s ashes in his hometown, Magalang. Abe?s Farm would be Larry?s retirement home, his private corner of the world. That he would let others to enter it indicates a wish to leave a legacy.

His longtime friend, architect and painter Agustin Goy built him a country house of 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. Soon Larry opened the terraced second story of his home as a dining lounge for traveler-guests.

He also wanted spa relaxation in this new venture. Since he did not know the business, he tapped the Turvills? expertise. Cathy and Mike spent hours listening to Larry on 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 Turvillrecalls that Larry sounded hale and hearty just 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. He 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.

Beside the big swimming pool, indigenous Ifugao huts brought down from the Mountain Province in knockdown pieces have been erected, air-conditioned for overnight or daylong accommodations.

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

The facilities indeed provide a convergence of the 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 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?ll 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?s main road, turn left 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.