Nuggets: 2018 Hawai‘i Food & Wine Fest highlights

PURE DECADENCE

Delia Romano, executive sous chef at the Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort, came up with a beef cheek version of the chicken- and-waffle brunch favorite for a Naughty or Nice Pool Party Sunday.

She shredded braised Big Island beef and molded it into a patty, coated it in batter and deep-fried it till crisp. Then she mounted it on a square of buttermilk waffle, coated with vanilla bean butter and spicy maple syrup, made with local macadamia nut honey.

— Pat Gee, Star-Advertiser

LOCAL TO DA MAX

Chef Michael Lofaro of the Humuhumunukunukuapua‘a on Wailea, Maui, must have had the “local-est” package at the Naughty or Nice brunch.

His naughty, indulgent dish was Kanemitsu Hot Bread topped with smoke meat jam and kiawe ice cream — can you get more local? Yes, it turned out, since his nice, vegan offering was an assemblage of a tasty kabocha paiai dumpling (left) resting on a bed of preserved Hamakua mushrooms and black truffle.

But the clincher was Lofaro’s “only in Hawaii” sourcing tale — Vince Dodge, creator of the kiawe flour he also used, is father to Daniel Anthony, paiai maker extraordinaire.

— Joleen Oshiro, Star-Advertiser

WINDERLAND WONDERLAND

By now, guests of HFWF’s Hawai‘i Convention Center event — this year dubbed “Winederland” — know the drill. Grab a glass and head for the Opus One Winery display before attacking multiple small plates.

This year, guests were treated to a full raw bar stocked with sashimi, shrimp, oysters, poke, peeled crab legs and more, courtesy of Roy’s Restaurants’ Roy Yamaguchi, a co-founder of the fest.

Meanwhile, there’s nothing like fire plus meat to draw a crowd, and the glow of a barbecue grill (left) caused hungry diners to surround chef Richard Rosendale of Leesburg, Va.’s, Roots 657 cafe and market. Diners couldn’t wait to bite into the brisket, lamb chops, bacon, shrimp, hamburgers, plus rotisserie chicken being cooked up in the best of back-yard barbecue traditions.

The impatient could skip the line and head over to other tents, such one manned by Chingu’s Chris Oh, who sold diners on his inari sushi topped with uni and ikura with the promise that it is like “sex in your mouth.”

— Nadine Kam, Special to the Star-Advertiser

TEACHERS FOR THE DAY

Culinary students at Leeward Community College helped chefs prepare for Saturday’s Decadence dinner at Ko Olina. This meant they got to work with some foodie rock stars.

Marcel Vigneron of “Top Chef” fame and owner of Wolf restaurant in Los Angeles, spent the day before the event in LCC’s kitchen working on his lobster salad.

Since the Decadence event would be on the beach on a warm evening, Vigneron said, he didn’t want to offer a heavy dish. “I ask myself, what would I like to eat?”

His salad, flavored with kaffir lime and yuzu, would include bok choy and hearts of palm, an ingredient he said he always uses when in Hawaii. “It will be light, fresh, sexy and delicious.”

— Betty Shimabukuro, Star-Advertiser

A SHOUT-OUT TO GERMAN WINES

“Iron Chef” Masaharu Morimoto hadn’t planned on adding a Saturday event to his weekend, as he was set to fly to New York the next day. But, he said, “Food & Wine ask me to do wine pairing. I ask, ‘Which one?’ ‘German.’ I do!”

The session, “A Match Made in Germany,” was designed by master sommelier Chuck Furuya to show how well the reisling, silvaner and scheurebe varietals pair with Asian foods. Morimoto provided three dishes to mix and match with 12 wines.

The chef said he appreciated how well these wines worked with his food. He bowed out, singing an ode in Japanese that ended with, “German wine, thank you!”

— Betty Shimabukuro, Star-Advertiser