One of many new Spring Recipes: Baby veg­eta­bles from MA’O Organic Farms, hand selected dur­ing an in-field tast­ing with chef de cui­sine Kevin Chong, each one cooked in its best fla­vor­ful way. 

Click here for Chef Mavro’s Let­ter on the new Spring Menu

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs013/1102026593933/archive/1103219227744.html

Chef Mavro restau­rant is so roman­tic that the cel­e­bra­tion goes on for four days! On Feb­ru­ary 12, 13 and then 15, you can choose from a four-course ($78) or a 6-course ($120) menu, each very flex­i­ble. From the com­fort­able ambiance, to deli­cious food & wine, to friendly expert ser­vice, this is a restau­rant designed for cou­ples. In fact, when Chef Mavro cre­ated the restau­rant, he asked star inte­rior designer Mary Philpotts to “make women look even more beau­ti­ful!” Soft light­ing, peach tones and a relaxed vibe cre­ate an atmos­phere that invites con­ver­sa­tion and of course romance!

Mahalo for another good year
AAA Five Dia­monds again for 2010
18/20 Gayot’s top rat­ing in Hawaii again for 2010

One more Christ­mas in my new home town.

I was born in Mar­seille, cap­i­tal of Provence.  Mar­seille is a big city (on the French scale) more than 1 mil­lion inhab­i­tants.  Grow­ing up in Mar­seille is like grow­ing up in a small vil­lage, every­body knows you and you know every­body.  If you haven’t seen a friend for a while you think “maybe is dead!”  Nobody (except me) leaves Mar­seille, born, grow, work and die some time in the same house.

Peo­ple from Mar­seille are very wel­com­ing, always smil­ing and jok­ing. Nobody (except in the restau­rant busi­ness) works very hard. When it takes one year in Paris to cre­ate a new road; it takes 10 years in Mar­seille to do the same road. But nobody really cares or complains.

In Mar­seille busi­ness is tough we always say “this is the price of the sun.”  We are not rich but happy. On bad times we think about the “pôvre” (mis­er­able in Mar­seille dialect) inhab­i­tants of Paris and Lyon and we feel better.

Now, replace the word Mar­seille by Honolulu…Is that not amaz­ing?  I am home guys.

23 years in Hawaii and I don’t take any­thing for granted. I am, like the first day, still enjoy­ing the morn­ing run around the Punch­bowl as well as the Mon­day swim at Kaimana Beach fol­lowed by a lunch at Ono Hawai­ian Foods. Every time I eat ogo I cel­e­brate like this is the best thing I have tasted in my whole life.  Same for local mango, water­cress, lilikoi, guava, papaya, ahi, gin­ger etc.

Day-Boat Catch
Provence herbs, black olive, con­fit lemon & capers, caramelized fen­nel
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Hol­i­days are here and we are ready.  The Hol­i­day menu is offered through Jan­u­ary 2nd (7 days a week).  We will fea­ture a spe­cial dessert to cel­e­brate Christ­mas Eve and Christ­mas Day.

Our Day-Boat catch is the cel­e­bra­tion of Provence.  Crusted with Provence herbs cured black olive, con­fit lemon and capers, it’s served with a caramelized  fen­nel bulb and a bub­bling lemon thyme emul­sion.  This recipe is a very good bar­gain.  It is going to make you fly to Mar­seille with­out leav­ing your seat.  The wine, very crispy, cit­rusy, peachy, apri­coty with long acid­ity (all the words in “y” even the one doesn’t exist).  I am talk­ing about the Domaine de Chatenoy, Menetou-Salon from the Loire Val­ley, selected by our wine pair­ing committee.

What is espelette and how good is the Tamarind Roasted Sable­fish?
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Back to Hawaii with the Tamarind Roasted Sable­fish.  It per­haps looks like a mis­oy­aki but­ter­fish but it is not.  Tamarind glazed, the fish is gar­nished with salad of cucum­ber, red radish and cel­ery, tossed with a yogurt-cilantro extra vir­gin olive oil dress­ing.  The sauce: a puree of gar­lic fla­vored with espelette.  What is “espelette?”

Thank you for ask­ing.  Before this menu I was myself not sure exactly what it was.  Kevin Chong dis­cov­ered the espelette while vis­it­ing years ago the Basque Coun­try between France and Spain.

Basques are won­der­ful peo­ple, they don’t want to be French and they don’t want to be Span­ish either.  They are Basques…The cui­sine is won­der­ful, Chicken Basquaise, Piper­ade etc. What hap­pens in Basque coun­try stays in Basque coun­try. Next door in Provence we don’t hear about it.

Sorry I for­got; you ask what espelette is?

Espelette is a dried basque chile, not too hot with very spe­cific fla­vors some­thing like maybe cayenne and paprika.

Chal­lenge for the wine? Not really; we all picked up a Pouilly-Fuisse from Chateau Pouilly which was cre­ated for this recipe with dried-fruit fla­vors that work very well with the espelette.

Fois Gras “au tor­chon,” mar­cona almonds, fig bal­samic, Por­tuguese sweet­bread
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I talk too much and I have almost no more room but I want to tell you about the new Foie Gras.

The foie gras is poached “au tor­chon” (inside a towel in order to squeeze the foie after cook­ing to remove the excess of fat).  The foie is topped with spiced mar­cona almonds (from Spain).  The dish is gar­nished with a mar­malade of granny smith toma­toes (not apples), accented with baby mus­tard cab­bage leaves.  Then served with a fig bal­samic vine­gar, toasted house Por­tuguese sweet­bread on the side.

The wine is not a Sauternes which makes me happy because I think that as fan­tas­tic as this wine is, it is too sweet for Foie Gras ter­rine. The wine is a Ger­man Gewürz­traminer Spätlese from Fitz-Ritter. This is a per­fect bal­ance of sweet­ness and acid­ity that doesn’t over­shadow the foie gras.

Our Win­ter Menu will start Jan­u­ary 5th fea­tur­ing new dishes such as Lamb, Date Tarte, Big Island fresh Goat Cheese…But this is for my next letter.

Please check our com­plete hol­i­day menus and our New Year’s Eve gala dinner.

Aloha,

George Mavrothalassitis/Chef Mavro
Chef Mavro Restau­rant
1969 S. King Street
Hon­olulu, Hawaii 96826
(808) 944‑4714

Big Island Goat Cheese

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Our som­me­lier and restau­rant man­ager Todd Ash­line is also a fea­tured colum­nist for The Hon­olulu Adver­tiser. Read his Raise a Glass fea­ture story on gift sug­ges­tions for wine and food lovers (scroll down to pre­vi­ous blog post).
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Truf­fles, Lob­ster, Wagyu Beef on New Year’s Eve Menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of course the high­light of the Hol­i­day is our New Year’s Eve gala din­ner with gold & black decor and favors.  This menu spot­lights the ingre­di­ents that you dream about for this occa­sion:
fresh truf­fles, caviar, foie gras, lob­ster, wagyu beef and the grand dessert of 2010!
We cre­ate a fes­tive oasis and a civ­i­lized way to dine for New Year’s Eve, yet close to Waikiki if you plan to fin­ish the night with fire­works and dancing.