Excerpt from John Mariani’s col­umn in Esquire.com

““If chefs ate their own food,” said Paul Bocuse, “we’d have a bet­ter cui­sine,” and the first duty of any cook is to make deli­cious food, to make his or her guests happy, some­times sur­pris­ing them with a novel idea, some­times keep­ing them guess­ing with a bit of trompe l’oeil. The French have always rec­og­nized this dis­tinc­tion, empha­siz­ing again and again sim­plic­ity in cook­ing, just as did da Vinci when he said of art and craft, “Sim­plic­ity is the ulti­mate sophis­ti­ca­tion.” When a chef goes to delib­er­ate extremes to daz­zle on the plate, he or she is vio­lat­ing the car­di­nal prin­ci­ple French gas­tronome Curnon­sky insisted on: “Cui­sine is when things taste like them­selves.” In cook­ing, form fol­lows func­tion, not vice versa, in the same way that the designer of a beau­ti­ful air­plane has, by neces­sity, to make sure the wings stay on.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-for-men/cooking-as-art-6640412?click=news

For the fifth con­sec­u­tive year Chef Mavro restau­rant is the only inde­pen­dent restau­rant in Hawaii, and one of only a hand­ful nation­ally, to earn the Amer­i­can Auto­mo­bile Asso­ci­a­tion (AAA) Five Dia­mond award.  Other notable inde­pen­dent restau­rant win­ners nation­ally are The French Laun­dry and Gary Danko in Cal­i­for­nia, and Char­lie Trotter’s and Alinea in Chicago. See the com­plete list here:
http://newsroom.aaa.com/2012/01/aaa-adds-nine-hotels-and-seven-restaurants-to-five-diamond-list-for-2012/

The con­sis­tently out­stand­ing food, ser­vice and décor of Chef Mavro restau­rant was con­firmed by the anony­mous vis­its of highly trained AAA inspec­tors. The Five Dia­mond award is “reserved for those out­stand­ing restau­rants that exem­plify the high­est level of excel­lence in every facet of operation.”

Chef Mavro com­ments:  “We’re delighted because the AAA Five Dia­monds recon­firms that casual fine din­ing is pos­si­ble.  Our restau­rant offers a unique com­bi­na­tion of a relaxed Hawaii style with national-level excel­lence in food, ser­vice and ambiance.”

Reserve your table by call­ing us (808) 944‑4714 or on the reser­va­tions page of this site www.chefmavro.com/reservations.html

Hap­pi­ness on a Fork shows you recipes on the menu right now!

http://happinessonafork.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/chef-mavro-1812/

Appe­tizer on Chef Mavro’s 6-course menu: Peterson’s Farm Egg with Fresh Perig­ord Truffles

Over the hol­i­days, Chef Mavro came out of his kitchen for a few moments to meet Chef Hiro­hisa Koyama of Japan’s Kokin Aoy­agi restau­rant, who is in Hon­olulu to cook for the 2012 Sony Open Gala Din­ner at the Con­ven­tion Cen­ter.  In 2010, Chef Mavro was cho­sen to pre­pare the Gala Din­ner so they were able to share thoughts on the chal­lenge of cook­ing for 1,000 VIPs!  Chef Koyama loved the fla­vors of Chef Mavro’s 6-course tast­ing menu and the relax­ing ambiance of the restaurant.