A range of flavors

For the past 17 years, members of Hawaii island’s ranching community have merged altruistic sensibility and marketing savvy to great success for Mealani’s Taste of the Hawaiian Range and Agricultural Festival. Nearly 1,000 attendees enjoyed grass-fed beef, the star of the annual September event, as well as lamb, mutton, wild boar and goat.

Mealani refers to the Mealani Research Station in Waimea, part of the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Researchers there investigate products for Big Island farmers and ranchers. Mealani’s grass-fed beef project, started in 1995, analyzes breeds and works with meat processors to refine processing. The beef is raised solely on grass without hormones or antibiotics.

The popular event, held at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, included 75 stations with 36 chefs from top Hawaii restaurants and 39 educational and agricultural booths. Presale tickets at $40 ($60 at the door) helped draw in the crowd.

But even with robust ticket sales, "we’re lucky to break even on this event," said Tom Asano, sales manager of Kulana Foods and one of the chairmen of the event.

"This is not about profits. This is about building awareness of ‘local’ and ‘sustainable.’ It features what the Big Island has to offer," he said. "What’s great about it is that 98 percent of the chefs participating already do use the products."

On Hawaii, where ranching has a long history, some families have eaten grass-fed beef for generations. But the event zeroes in on off-cuts of the product — all of which are available in Hawaii island markets — and the potential of these to be turned into delicious fare.

The event was a prime opportunity for chefs to show their chops, and they did not disappoint.

Kelsi Ikeda, working alongside her grandmother Sandy Iwashita on behalf of Sandy’s Drive In in Kealakekua, was assigned to prepare clod, or shoulder meat. It was the eatery’s inaugural appearance, and Ikeda whipped up a flavor-packed kalbi-braised clod quesadilla with pineapple kim chee relish and kochujang sour cream.

Though the dish might have seemed a tad fancy for drive-in food, it’s the kind of dish Ikeda has become accustomed to creating after attending the Western Culinary Institute in Oregon and work stints at restaurants such as Alan Wong’s and Nobu Waikiki.

"We make plate lunches, and this is a twist on local kalbi dishes," she said.

Ikeda came home to Hawaii island last December when her grandma asked her to join the family business, which Iwashita opened 46 years ago. Now 80, Iwashita is happy to have Ikeda’s help in the kitchen. But she said her granddaughter still has a few things to learn.

"She learned sushi and she got namasu already. But she still needs to learn nishime and shirae (tofu and greens mixed with ground sesame seeds and miso). And she has to learn how to cater funeral food."

An aisle away, 12th Avenue Grill’s executive chef Jason Schoonover was plating his beef tongue with red pepper spaetzle, a fresh German pasta.

WHAT’S UP WITH IPPY? One line for food at the packed Mealani’s Taste of the Hawaiian Range was particularly long, a bit strange since there were 36 food booths to choose from. But a glance at the chef behind the counter made the reason immediately apparent. Chef Philip "Ippy" Aiona, infused with star power after his run on the "Next Food Network Star" competition, was serving his interpretation of hanger meat. The executive chef of his family’s Solimene’s restaurant took a short breather to discuss life after television stardom. "It’s going real good," Aiona said. "I’ll be opening Ippy’s Hawaiian Barbecue in a couple of months." Aiona said the Hawaii island plate lunch eatery will feature local products such as pork and brined whole chicken that he will cook on a rotisserie. "I’ll have rotisserie chicken, ginger chicken, I’ll make an orange lemongrass sauce, a lilikoi tarter sauce. Everything will be made from scratch," he promised.

Schoonover is well versed in cooking tongue. His preparation was a lengthy process that involved corning (curing) and braising the meat, chilling it overnight, then peeling and slicing it. It is served with a reduced braising sauce.

"We use as much local meat as possible and whatever off-cuts we can get our hands on. I’m always happy to get tongue. It’s a great piece of meat," he said. "I think people are afraid of it, they think of it as a byproduct. But we’ve done tongue a couple of times, and though people are initially hesitant, they like it and come back for seconds."

Next door, Merriman’s Waimea delivered lamb chili spiced with Hawaiian chili peppers and served over polenta made from local corn. The dish was topped with sour cream livened up with mint grown in the restaurant garden. At Hyatt Regency Waikiki’s booth, executive chef Sven Ullrich dressed his meat dish with a side of yellow and orange jackfruit. Ullrich regularly uses various exotic tropical fruit grown at Frankie’s Nursery in Waimanalo.

Noah Hester, executive chef of Blue Dragon Restaurant in Kawaihae, created a lively bite using miniature manapua-bun cups that were filled with smoked beef braised with guava and ginger. The meat was mixed with a bok choy and tatsoi kim chee and lomi heirloom tomato with tobiko caviar.

"It’s the taste of the Big Island in one bite," he said.

As always, Ed Kenney of town restaurant impressed, this time with a mutton-filled pastry puff topped with a piping of potato-goat cheese puree. The mutton, a 6-year-old breeder sheep, came from Puuwai Ranch near the Hamakua coast, while the cheese came from Hawaii Island Goat Dairy. Kenney rendered the mutton fat and took it to the Sandwich Isle Bread Co., where the puff pastry was baked.

"I was just over in New Zealand, where meat pies are the equivalent of Spam musubi here," Kenney said in explaining his inspiration for his dish. "At places like 7-Eleven, meat pies are always in the warmer, just like Spam musubi here, and they’re always mutton."

Asano credits executive chefs such as James Babian of the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai and Roy Yamaguchi of Roy’s restaurants for setting a standard for using local products.

"All those years ago, Roy Yamaguchi was open to what the local industry had to offer. It was only the desire of these chefs to (use local) that showed it is possible," said Asano. "I call them pacesetters."

Babian uses two to three beef carcasses a month, nose to tail, as well as wild boar and goat weekly, all supplied by processor Kulana Foods, which cuts the meats to order. Kulana also ages the beef for Babian for 21 to 40 days.

"I told them, if they age the beef, I will buy the whole animal," the chef said, explaining that aging tenderizes the meat.

In fact, at Taste of the Range, all the chefs received 21-day dry-aged beef from 11 head of cattle donated by island ranchers.

"The chefs started off with good stuff," said Asano. "This event has evolved to the point that ranchers support it wholeheartedly as a token for all the research Mealani has done. It’s a tribute to the ranchers, the farmers, Kulana Foods as a slaughterhouse — the industry as a whole."

LEAN BEEF HAS HEALTHY PLACE AT TABLE Grass-fed and finished beef produced in Hawaii offers more lean cuts than grain-fed beef, as well as additional nutrients. University of Hawaii nutritionist Joannie Dobbs says grass-fed beef boasts omega-3 fatty acids, beta carotene and vitamin E, which makes it a healthy option if prepared without heavy sauces that add extra fat. While red meat has become a source of fear for many health-conscious people, “lean beef provides lots of nutrients in low-calorie form,” Dobbs said during a nutrition lecture Friday for culinary students attending Mealani’s Taste of the Hawaiian Range. What’s important to recognize is that “a healthy diet requires three things: variety, moderation and balance,” she said. One of the challenges of grass-fed beef is that it can be chewier or tougher than grain-fed. The key to tenderizing the meat is preparation. James Babian, executive chef at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, is more than familiar with grass-fed beef. He orders at least two carcasses a month for the hotel and uses the entire animal. At a demonstration a couple of hours before Taste of the Range’s tasting event began, Babian shared two techniques: slicing the meat across the grain, which cuts down on chewiness, and braising, which softens the meat. Babian prepared Braciole de Manzo, an American-Sicilian braised beef roll, and a grilled marinated tri-tip with smoked kabocha and red-wine sauce.