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