While it may be true that more Spam is consumed in Hawaii than in any other state, it is equally true that Hawaii has grown into a multifaceted culinary destination celebrated for its Pacific Rim cuisine and array of locally raised food products that run the gamut from goat cheese truffles to lavender honey.
Happily for meetings, this remarkable evolution means a whole new menu of sightseeing and learning experiences, dining opportunities and gift ideas. Whether it’s sipping fresh-roasted java at an organic coffee farm or haggling with the local chefs at an early-morning fish auction, the ways to partake of Hawaii’s edible bounty are almost endless.
“Just as people have been coming to Hawaii for sun and fun, some people are now coming here to eat,” says Mathew Gray, owner of Hawaii Food Tours and a former restaurant critic for the Honolulu Advertiser, the state’s largest daily newspaper. “Everything has evolved so much since I first came here 14 years ago. We’re not quite New York or San Francisco, but you can still get a world-class restaurant experience.”
Gray and other observers of the local culinary scene give a lot of the credit to a dozen talented local chefs who, after gathering together on Maui in 1991, decided to promote and give an official name to the type of cooking they were doing in their restaurants: Hawaiian Regional Cuisine (HRC). The chefs, among them Roy Yamaguchi, Sam Choy, George Mavrothalassitis, Peter Merriman, and Alan Wong, apply classic cooking techniques to create Pacific Rim-inspired dishes prepared with local ingredients.
Not only has the HRC movement inspired scores of new and celebrated restaurants in Hawaii and on the mainland U.S., it has had a profound impact on the direction of the state’s agriculture. In need of a great array of local produce, chefs began to seek out local farmers and encourage them to grow what they needed for their kitchens.
“Years ago it was a challenge to find fresh produce in Hawaii, but now it’s everywhere,” notes Kathy Clarke, a longtime Hawaii resident and owner of Kathy Clarke Meetings and Incentives, a destination management company with offices on Maui and the Big Island. “The chefs went to the farmers and assured them they would buy whatever they grew. They created a market for things like heirloom tomatoes, bok choy, bitter melon, and spring lettuces.”
At the same time, the decline of the state’s pineapple and sugarcane industries has played a part in creating more agricultural diversity in Hawaii.
“So much of the land once used by the big growers is now available for small farms,” Clarke says. “So we’re seeing all kinds of new specialties, including farms devoted to vanilla, cocoa beans, lavender, and goat cheese.”
Along with farms dedicated to produce, Hawaii now includes several farms raising seafood such as lobster and abalone in nutrient-rich, cold-water tanks.
“You can now come to Hawaii and enjoy fresh Kona lobster that tastes just like Maine lobster, or abalone that is like abalone from Northern California,” Clarke says.
Another potent factor that makes Hawaii distinctive as a culinary destination is its diverse melting pot of ethnic cultures from Asia and Europe. Even casual eateries in Hawaii offer a global spectrum of foods that can include anything from Chinese noodles to Korean barbecue to Portuguese sweet bread.
According to Hawaii-based food writer Joan Namkoong, author of Food Lover’s Guide to Honolulu (Bess Press), the state’s richness of ethnic cuisine owes it all to the sugar cane industry, which took hold in the 19th century.
“The cane growers brought people over here from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Portugal, India, and Scotland, and all of these groups brought something to the table,” she says. “So that’s why a typical breakfast in Hawaii might be Portuguese sausage with scrambled eggs and Japanese rice.”
A prime example of this multiethnic influence is the Hawaiian food staple known as the plate lunch, a dish typically composed of two scoops of rice, a scoop of macaroni salad and meat or fish.
“The plate lunch originated as a packed lunch that workers could eat in the cane fields,” Namkoong says. “A lot of times workers from different ethnic backgrounds would trade items with each other.”
Increasingly, the word is getting out about Hawaii’s distinctive edible offerings, thanks in part to recent televised exposure such as the Bravo channel’s Top Chef reality series, which culminated in a competition between chefs at the Hilton Waikoloa Village resort on the Big Island. Using traditional luau ingredients, the young chefs created dishes for the birthday party of Chef Alan Wong.
According to Tom Risko, director of sales for meetings, conventions and incentives at the Maui Visitors Bureau, increasing numbers of visitors, including meeting attendees, expect a culinary experience to be among the highlights of their stay.
“People really want to try a celebrity restaurant while they’re in Hawaii, partly because travelers in general are more interested in food and wine these days and partly because of what’s happened here,” he says.
And even if a celebrity restaurant is not on the agenda, the odds are that local flavors will still be an enhancement to the meeting.
“Hotels and restaurants all over Hawaii are using local products. Our fresh herbs and produce are now front and center,” Risko says. “It’s really integrated into the visitor experience.”
Dining Around
Almost anywhere groups meet in Hawaii, there is an expanding array of dining choices at hand. Nowhere is this truer than in Honolulu, where restaurants have been opening at a record clip in such areas as the new Waikiki Beachwalk and redesigned Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center.
While the local HRC chefs are well represented at Honolulu restaurants such as Chef Mavro and Alan Wong’s Restaurant, and at the many restaurants throughout Hawaii owned by Sam Choy and Roy Yamaguchi, there are also increasing numbers of restaurants operated by famous chefs from outside Hawaii, such as Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Waliea, Maui, and Chef Nobu Matsushisa’s Nobu Waikiki in the Waikiki Park Hotel.
“In the past five years there’s also been a big trend for more of the big chains to open up outlets in Hawaii, says food writer Joan Namkoong, noting that restaurants such as P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and Ruth’s Chris Steak House are among the new offerings at Waikiki Beachwalk.
Whether the restaurants are chains or purely local, the dine-around options for meetings in Hawaii have never been more varied or convenient.
“The choices just keep growing and growing, especially in Waikiki where there are so many restaurants in a compact area,” says Patti Jubell, director of program development for MC&A, a Hawaii-based destination management company. “You’ve got all the new restaurants, plus all the old classics.”
Mathew Gray’s Hawaii Food Tours offers groups the chance to try three different top Honolulu restaurants during his progressive dining tour called Gourmet Dining Trilogy. However, Gray’s favorite offering is his Hole in the Wall Tour, which takes small groups to off-the-beaten path eateries, bakeries and markets.
“We take them to places they would probably never get to on their own,” he says. “They get to taste, touch and smell—they’re not spectators, but participants. They try the plate lunch, Chinese buns filled with sweet potato, cream puffs, noodles. They get to experience the melting pot of foods that are here.”
Meet the Chef
Chefs all over Hawaii are involved in many of the culinary-related activities available to groups in Hawaii, whether they are walking tours, cooking demonstrations or gala events.
In walking tours of Honolulu’s Chinatown, MC&A has teamed up with Chef Glenn Chu from Indigo Restaurant to offer visits to a local open market where the chef and participants pick out ingredients for a meal. The group then returns to Indigo to enjoy a meal prepared with the items from the market.
Events with Hawaii chefs are a specialty of Gourmet Cooking Hawaii, a company that arranges culinary demonstrations in venues throughout the islands. Typically, the culinary demonstrations are a three-hour experience where participants work with a chef in preparing an appetizer, entrée and dessert. Often a wine expert is on hand to discuss different wines paired with each course.
“When a client calls, they pick the chef they want and we make it happen,” says Owner Kathleen Lin-Hurtubise. “It can be at the chef’s restaurant, but we also have access to designer kitchens in palatial waterfront homes and ocean-view penthouses.”
For large groups, Gourmet Cooking Hawaii can bring in several chefs who will do demonstrations on-stage in a ballroom. Or groups can be divided into teams that work with different chefs in preparing various courses and then come together to dine afterward.
Most major meetings hotels in Hawaii also offer culinary-related activities that feature their own chefs. For instance, Maui’s Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa features a fish-cooking demonstration with Chef Mike Lafaro for spouse groups at its thatched-roof, Polynesian-style restaurant set on a saltwater lagoon.
“The demo is built around presentation techniques—they learn not only how to prepare the fish, but how to carve it and create garnishes,” says Kevin Peterson, food and beverage director for the resort.
At the Source
These days Hawaii provides ample opportunities for visitors to get up close and personal with the way foods are produced on the islands. Popular options for small to midsize groups are visits to family farms that have developed a specialty niche such as goat cheese or vanilla.
Several of the most group-friendly farms are located in upcountry Maui on the lush slopes of Mount Haleakala. The Maui Visitors Bureau’s Tom Risko notes that spouse tours are frequently organized to include a visit to two or three of the farms before concluding with a lunch at a restaurant known for its use of local produce such as Chef Beverly Gannon’s Hali’imaile General Store.
Among the upcountry Maui farms open to the public is Alii Kula Lavender, an 8.5-acre spread planted with more than 25,000 lavender plants representing 40 different varieties. Groups of up to 25 people can tour the gardens and then attend a demonstration on how to cook with dried lavender. The tour can also include a lunch featuring lavender-seasoned chicken salad and rolls.
Surfing Goat Dairy, which produces award-winning goat cheese products on 42 acres of rolling Maui pasturelands, is a place where visitors can not only observe the techniques of gourmet cheese production, but also try their hand at feeding and milking the goats. Tours also include the chance to sample the farm’s 25 varieties of cheese and its rich chocolate truffles made from goat cheese.
Upcountry Maui is also home to Tedeschi Vineyards, which produces everything from traditional table wines to sparkling dessert wines made from pineapple and passion fruit. Groups can enjoy an outdoor picnic at the winery and sample its products in an historic tasting room built for the visit of a Hawaiian monarch in 1874.
On Kauai, the Blair Estate offers tours of its coffee farm, which over looks the waterfalls cascading down the slopes of Mount Wekiu. The farm’s new visitors center offers guests the chance to sample coffee brewed from its organic beans.
At Molokai’s Coffees of Hawaii, guests can explore the 300-acre coffee plantation on foot or in mule-drawn carriages. After the tours, visitors can observe the sorting and roasting process.
On the Big Island, many tour possibilities are centered on the island’s celebrated production of Kona coffee. Among the coffee sites is the Hilo Coffee Mill, located on 24 acres halfway between Hilo and Volcanoes National Park, where visitors can watch the roasting process and sample both a variety of Big Island-produced coffees and teas at the tasting bar. Outside of Kailua-Kona, the Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation takes visitors on a tour of both the farm and its roasting facility.
Located outside of Hilo on the Big Island’s Hamakua Coast, the Hawaiian Vanilla Company, the first vanilla farm in the U.S., provides tours in which participants can see how vanilla beans are harvested from the farm’s vanilla orchid vines. Among its other offerings are Vanilla Experience Luncheons, which feature a bountiful buffet of cuisine and beverages subtly flavored with vanilla and other local ingredients.
The Big Island’s macadamia nut production has long been showcased at the Mauna Loa Macadamia Visitors Center just outside Hilo. Groups can take a drive through Mauna Loa’s nut orchards and observe the nuts being processed and dipped in chocolate. The center offers an extensive gift shop and a snack bar serving macadamia nut ice cream and other local specialties.
Some of Hawaii’s most celebrated chefs are associated with tours that combine farm visits with gourmet dining, giving participants a chance to see how local ingredients are brought to the table. Peter Merriman, one of the original HRC chefs, offers the Merriman Culinary and Farm Tour in partnership with Hawaii Forest & Trail, a local tour company. The tour, which takes place on the upcountry grasslands of the Big Island’s Kohala Coast, includes visits to an historic sheep and cattle ranch and an organic vegetable farm before concluding with a four-course dinner at Merriman’s Restaurant in Kamuela.
On Maui, Chef James MacDonald, who runs two popular restaurants in Lahaina, I’O and Pacific’O, has created a tour and dining program at the O’o Farm, where organic vegetables, fruit orchards and vineyards are planted on slopes overlooking the Pacific. The visit includes a lunch prepared with the farm’s produce that is served in an open-air dining pavilion.
Still another way to appreciate Hawaiian food sources is by visiting the Honolulu Fish Auction and Hilo’s Suisan Fish Auction, the state’s two leading fish auctions. Assembling at dawn, groups can watch the bidding action that takes place as restaurant owners and fish wholesalers vie for the daily catch coming off the fishing boats.
Tropical Plantations
While more commercial than the small farm tours, several former plantations that have morphed into tourist attractions also provide great ways for groups of all sizes to enjoy and learn about Hawaii’s agricultural heritage.
On Kauai, the Kilohana Estate offers lands planted with exotic fruits and flowers that visitors can tour onboard the new Kauai Plantation Railway, which offers a 2.5-mile excursion in historic trains once used on Hawaiian sugarcane plantations. Gaylord’s Restaurant, which is located in the former plantation mansion, features dishes that include local seafood and produce. The restaurant provides catering for special events held in private dining rooms or on the estate grounds.
In the shadow of the West Maui Mountains, the Maui Tropical Plantation has an array of event spaces and activities for groups, including narrated tram tours through its gardens and a working plantation that grows macadamia nuts, papayas, guavas, coffee, bananas, star fruits, and a host of other tropical crops.
Senator Fong’s Plantation and Gardens is a 700-acre spread of tropical flowers, fruit and nut orchards, and rare palm and sandalwood trees just below Oahu’s Ko’olau mountain range. On walking tours of the grounds, guides offer the chance to taste fruits and nuts picked along the way. Various event spaces in the gardens include a visitors center and adjoining grounds that can be tented.
Also on Oahu, Dole Plantation has a variety of agriculture-related attractions, including walking tours of eight small gardens representing a wide variety of crops grown on Oahu’s North Shore. The Pineapple Express Train provides a 20-minute narrated excursion through a working pineapple plantation, while the Pineapple Garden Maze, made from 11,400 Hawaiian plants and following a 1.7-mile course, is an option for team-building events.
For More Info
Big Island Visitors Bureau 808.961.5797
www.meetbigisland.com
Destination Lanai 808.565.7600
www.visitlanai.net
Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau 808.923.1811
www.meethawaii.com
Kauai Visitors Bureau 808.245.3971
www.kauaidiscovery.com
Maui Visitors Bureau 888.918.8444
www.mauimeetings.net
Molokai Visitors Association 808.553.3876
www.molokai-hawaii.com
Oahu Visitors Bureau 808.524.0722
www.aliikulalavender.com
Alii Kula Lavender 808.878.8090
www.meetbigisland.com
Blair Estate 808.833.4495
www.blairestatecoffee.com
Coffees of Hawaii 808.567.9490
www.coffeesofhawaii.net
Dole Plantation 808.621.8408
www.dole-plantation.com
Gourmet Cooking Hawaii 808.735.7788
www.gourmetcookinghawaii.com
Hawaiian Vanilla Company 808.776.1771
www.hawaiianvanilla.com
Hawaii Food Tours 808.926.3663
www.hawaiifoodtours.com
Hilo Coffee Mill 808.968.1333
http://hilocoffeemill.stores.yahoo.net
Kona Coffee at Mountain Thunder 808.322.9297
www.mountainthunder.com
Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts 808.545.8046
www.maunaloa.com
Maui Tropical Plantation 808.270.0307
www.mauitropicalplantation.com
Merriman’s Culinary and Farm Tour 808.331.8505
www.hawaii-forest.com
O'o Farm Tour 808.661.8422
www.iomaui.com
Senator Fong’s Plantation and Gardens 808.239.6775
www.fonggarden.net
Surfing Goat Dairy 808.878.2870
www.surfinggoatdairy.com
Tedeschi Vineyards 877.878.6058
www.mauiwine.com
