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A decade ago, along with eight other
mainland- and European-trained cohorts,
these chefs launched a style of cooking
that put Hawaii on the culinary map. In
1991, the 12 founding chefs of Hawaii
Regional Cuisine formed an organization
with a single purpose: to celebrate the
Islands' seasons, soil, and cross-cultural
traditions with a style of cooking
anchored in the fresh harvests of land and
sea. Driven by their powerful enthusiasm
for all things grown in Hawaiian soil, the
"gang of 12" urged Hawaii's farmers,
fishermen, and ranchers to raise and
gather the specialty produce and fresh
fish and meats necessary for their
cutting-edge creations.
Exotic yet familiar, nostalgic and
innovative, their cooking has wowed
audiences at the James Beard Foundation in
New York and other national forums,
generating awards and accolades apace.
This means that the formerly barren
culinary landscape between plate lunches
and what used to be "fine dining" (frozen
fish weighted with heavy European sauces,
garnished with canned asparagus) is now
peppered with such ravishments as as ahi
tartare, Maui onion soup, taro au gratin,
Waipio fern shoots, blackened ahi summer
rolls, Molokai sweet potato puree, gourmet
Waimanalo greens, and a spate of fruit
coulis, sauces, and desserts that reflect
the season's bounty. And let's not forget
the fish, elegant snappers with names like
onaga (ruby snapper) and ehu (red snapper)
and uku (gray snapper) and the queen of
them all, opakapaka (pink snapper), not to
mention the marlins and swordfishes and
moonfish and goatfish, and the new
sensation, moi (threadfish). Grandmother's
lau lau and Aunt Sissy's chile sauce, and
mom's stir-fried noodles and seaweed salad
(not to mention lilikoi chiffon pie and
mango bread) are likely to appear in one
form or another on even the most haute of
menus. Whether Hawaiian, Japanese,
Chinese, Portuguese, Filipino, Southeast
Asian, or Southwestern American, Hawaii's
cross-cultural traditions are celebrated
and enhanced by these creative chefs.
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