More than ever our new Sum­mer Menu is all about our local farm­ers, grow­ers and fish­er­men.  Our restau­rant is not only about us but involves what I like to call our ‘ohana, fam­ily, which includes mostly the same peo­ple since 22 years ago when I first landed in Hawaii.

Today I would like to cel­e­brate this ‘ohana and tell them how much their hard work and ded­i­ca­tion is appre­ci­ated.  Thanks David Sum­ida for deliv­er­ing him­self his water­cress to our door. Kurt and Pam Hirabara in Kamuela for grow­ing in such a con­sis­tent way a bounty of baby greens and herbs (when Kurt started farm­ing on the Big Island 22 years ago, I was one of his first cus­tomers). Brooks Tak­e­naka gen­eral man­ager of the fish auc­tion for bring­ing from the close waters the most amaz­ing qual­ity of fresh fish. The Threlfalls who raise goats in Ahualoa for pro­duc­ing one of the best fresh goat cheeses I know. Jeanne Vanna our tomato queen.  Hubyba for your vari­ety of fine herbs and spices. The Stan­gas for pro­vid­ing Hamakua mush­rooms to our sea­sonal menus. Jim and Tracy Red­dekopp Hawai­ian Vanilla — I bought the first Vanilla bean that they pro­duced in 1998 and have enjoyed their pro­duc­tion ever since.  Joe Wil­son for nurs­ing the liveli­est lob­ster in the world at Kona Cold.  Karen Fuku­naga for select­ing for us the best and the most con­sis­tent local ingredients.

Also our more recent dis­cov­er­ies Frankie’s Nurs­ery, Grant our fish­er­man from Molokai, Gary Forth-Maunakea and his amaz­ing team at Ma’o Organic Farms, Jim from Kona Kea Shrimp, Wen­hao for his sea aspara­gus, and all our friends who brought from their back yard to our door, lychee, mango, hearts of palm, avo­cado, sour­sop, betel leaves, pome­los, moun­tain apples, rambu­tan, man­gos­teen, cala­mansi, guava, green papaya…

And this is what our restau­rant and our new Sum­mer Menu is all about.

Sous Chef Andrew Le har­vest­ing pep­per­corns at Frankie’s Nurs­ery in Waimanalo

Molokai fish­er­man deliv­ers to our door

Our day-boat catch comes every morn­ing either from the fish auc­tion or from our  Molokai fish­er­man; whichever has the most beau­ti­ful fish. In sum­mer we get Uku (gray snap­per) most of the time.  It is the fresh­est, direct from the boat and I like it’s ele­gant tex­ture.

Day-Boat Catch Bour­ride “Moderne”

This white fish is per­fect for Bour­ride, a Proven­cal name for white bouil­l­abaisse.  I love this recipe from my home town Mar­seilles where we mix an equal quan­tity of fish broth and aïoli, add 1 egg yolk per per­son and cook the mix­ture like a sabayon. Then we cover the fish and gar­nish with it.  Well this is deli­cious but too rich for my taste. So we found a mod­ern way to do it.

Place 2 parts of hot broth, 1 part aïoli, and no addi­tional egg yolk in a siphon can­is­ter; two car­tridges of com­pressed air and we foam the Bour­ride “Mod­erne” on the top of the fish.  Now it is very, very light and very, very tasty.

Out of the 5 wines we blind tasted with the Bour­ride “Mod­erne,” the Chablis from Domaine des Malan­des was the best. It is sharp, lemony but still min­eral with beeswax after taste that blends per­fectly with our gar­licky emulsion.

Talk­ing about cre­ativ­ity here are our new dishes:

pho­tos: Justin Mori­zono

Fresh Kona Kea shrimp, dusted with Garam Masala, Hearts of Palm Remoulade, Chervil and Espelette: where France meets Hawaii.  This is a total explo­sion of fla­vors made to be together.  I insist on fresh because this is the only fresh sea water shrimp you can find in the Hon­olulu mar­ket.  Most of the time shrimp are frozen even if you buy them direct from the boat. They are frozen on the boat as soon they are out of the water (or not and then they’re mushy — ugh). 

To make sure you fully enjoy the fresh­ness of this prod­uct we poach it very lightly in veg­etable broth and fla­vor with garam masala. Every body in Hawaii would tell you “the best part of the shrimp is the head.”  We didn’t dis­card the heads they are fried sep­a­rately and served with the dish (Japan­ese style).  Also on the plate; hearts of palm chervil remoulade with espelette accents (Basque coun­try chili).

Our pair­ing com­mit­tee picked up a Hun­gar­ian wine the cit­rusy, peachy flow­ery Tokaji Mus­cat Lunel from Grof Degenfeld.