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If you’re headed to Maui for the Labor Day weekend, bring an appetite — the second annual Maui Chefs Invitational offers some premium dining events Sept. 1-3.
Chef Jeff Scheer of Mill House at Maui Tropical Plantation will host six chefs of national renown: Brett Cooper (Aster, San Francisco), Kenny Gilbert (Gilbert’s Underground Kitchen, Jacksonville, Fla.), Travis Grimes (Husk, Charleston, S.C.), Fabian Von Hauske and Jeremiah Stone (Contra, New York), and Brooke Williamson (Playa Provisions, Los Angeles). Joining them will be Maui chef Sheldon Simeon.
The chefs will provide a special tasting menu Sept. 1 and 2, with each one preparing a dish tableside in the plantation’s open-air Maui Chefs Table Pavilion. Cost is $250; seating is at 6 p.m..
On Sept. 3 a Chefs’ Barbecue will be held on the Orchard Lawn at 6 p.m., with the visiting chefs paired with local chefs. Cost is $75; children under age 10 are free.
Beverages are an extra charge at both events. Call 270-0303 or visit mauichefsinvitational.com.
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GoT plans for Saturday?
Hukilau Honolulu will be going all medieval on its guests from 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday, inviting them to eat like a mad king and drink like the Dornish.
The restaurant’s Feast of Thrones dinner will be served feast style, meaning all the food will be put out at the same time, said co-owner Kawehi Haug.
“Think indulgent medieval feasts with tables bursting with too much food. That’s the vibe we’re going for,” Haug said.
Dishes will reflect the Seven Kingdoms referenced in the “Game of Thrones” book and HBO series, such as bacon and biscuits, meat pie, honeyed turkey legs, onion-ale soup, dire wolf bread (made without actual wolves) and lemon cakes.
The team also is creating a menu of cocktails inspired by characters including the Mother of Dragons, the Whitewalkers and the Red Woman.
Guests are invited to dress in costume; bring props, dragons and wildlings; and to pose for pictures in the life-size iron throne.
Cost is $49, which includes a cocktail and dinner. The Hukilau is in the Aston at the Executive Centre Hotel, 1088 Bishop St. Reservations required: 523-3460.
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Truffles on Thursday
Bread & Butter introduces a series of Third Thursday Wine Pairing Dinners this week, with the key ingredient of truffles.
The five-course menu, drafted by chefs Arnaldo “Masa” Gushiken, Chris Murakame and Jared Astrinos, includes truffles in a mushroom tart, in sushi, in butter over crisp moi and in honey over a poached pear sundae. The entree is a black truffle pork chop with a honey-butter-shoyu reduction, served with Castiglion Del Bosco Rosso Montalcino.
Cost is $95. There is one seating, at 6 p.m. Thursday. The series continues with a dinner Sept. 21.
The restaurant is at 1585 Kapiolani Blvd. Reservations: alohabreadbutter.com; click on “events.” Call 949-3430.
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New in charge at Hoku’s
Hoku’s has a new chef de cuisine, Eric Oto, former sous-chef at Fish House at The Four Seasons Ko Olina.
Oto will oversee the premier restaurant at the Kahala Hotel & Resort, working with the Kahala’s executive chef, Wayne Hirabayashi.
An Oahu native, Oto is a graduate of the culinary program at Leeward Community College. He worked at Orchids at the Halekulani before joining the opening team at Fish House.
He traces his interest in cooking to the time he caught his first fish, at age 4, using a bamboo pole.
Quickbites is a weekly listing of dining events. Email items to crave@staradvertiser.com.
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