Layers upon layers of beautiful pasta sheets filled with rich, luscious meat sauce in between sheets, and cooked to golden perfection. The glorious melted cheese topping crowns this delightful comfort food, a portion of which is already a meal on its own. This is why besides sweet spaghetti with hotdogs, lasagna seems to be one of the favorite pasta dishes of Filipinos.

This is also why lasagna happens to be a personal favorite of chef Oye Isidro, who is best known for his special cookies, bars, loaves, and chicken empanada. He prepares them in small batches, freshly baked, made to order.

“Lasagna is an all-day food. It works for lunch, merienda, dinner, brunch, even breakfast. Yes, it’s definitely a personal favorite, but it was also a challenge to myself whether or not I could make a lasagna that I would really be proud to put the Tito Oye name on,” says Oye, when asked why he decided to create a lasagna line under his online food business, Tito Oye.

He adds: “I wanted to make a classic lasagna, but I wanted it to have a really deep and savory flavor. I used a mirepoix as part of the base — onion, garlic, a little carrot and celery — so the flavor is very aromatic, pungent, and savory. I didn’t want to make the typical sweet-style Filipino lasagna. I wanted something more traditional in character, with a really rich and flavorful base where you can actually taste the layers of the sauce, meat, cheese, and pasta.”

The result of his kitchen tests was his Classic Lasagna, which has layers of generous meat sauce between perfectly cooked lasagna sheets. This was his first of three lasagna offerings under his Lasagna by Tito Oye line. “It’s a recipe I developed based on what I wanted a really good lasagna to taste like. I had to work on it and keep tweaking the recipe until I got it to the point where I could say, ‘Yes, this is the lasagna I want Tito Oye to be known for’,” he explains.

The second one, Spinach & Artichoke Cream Lasagna, came not too long after. He wanted to create something that was more vegetable-forward, not necessarily vegan but definitely more on the veggie side. Since Oye has always liked Spinach Artichoke Dip, he thought of making it into a lasagna. So he experimented on it, layered those flavors into a lasagna, and, much to his delight, it actually worked. Now, orders for his Spinach & Artichoke Cream Lasagna, which is layers upon layers of freshly cooked spinach in cream with artichoke chunks, are giving his Classic Lasagna orders a good fight. A happy fight, really, for both are thriving.

Just recently, Oye introduced a third lasagna variant called Chicken Pastel White Lasagna, whose inspiration came from Oye’s love for Chicken Pastel. The idea was to combine two comfort foods that he loved, Chicken Pastel and Lasagna, into one single delectable and irresistible dish.

“I wanted something completely different from the classic tomato-based lasagna, so I went in the direction of a creamy white sauce with the comforting flavors of chicken pastel,” says Oye.

And, just like his first two lasagna variants, his Chicken Pastel White Lasagna turned out to be another big hit. All three are now available in three sizes — Solo Size (8x6x2 inches in size, good for one to two persons), Signature Pan (7x10x2 inches in size, good for four to six persons), and Family Size (12x8x2 inches in size, good for eight to 10 persons). All three are special because they continue to be slow-cooked in small batches, no mass production, and not compromising quality for quantity.

Will there be a fourth variant?

“Maybe,” says Oye. “I’m not ruling it out. But I don’t want to create a fourth flavor just for the sake of having another flavor on the menu. If there’s going to be a fourth Tito Oye lasagna, I want it to have a reason to exist and to be something genuinely different to offer.”

So, meanwhile, this is the story of Tito Oye’s three lasagnas.