‘Mix’ explores conscious, creative dining

Small-kid time, when Mom said to eat nicely, that meant no elbows on the table and to chew with your mouth closed. At the Hawai‘i Food & Wine Festival, where some of the world’s finest chefs convened last week to share their talents, eating nicely meant eating well, good manners notwithstanding.

But it also meant eating consciously, thinking about where the food on the plate came from and how it reflected a larger picture.

On Friday, star chefs, cultural activists, farmers, students, food entrepreneurs, food writers and investors convened at The Modern Honolulu for "Mix with the Masters," a day of gourmet cuisine mixed with food for thought.

The event kicked off with "Building a Sense of Place and Plate," a discussion of how the tie of food and place involves relationship and community. Chef Ed Kenney gave the introductions.

Chef Mark Noguchi described how studying hula helped him understand his calling for cooking, and how Hawaiian values led him to "place-based cooking," or sourcing his ingredients from the community of which he is a part.

"I realize local food and its flavors are who I am. It’s my plate," he said. "It’s about the intangible connections with community, its people, its farmers. Place-based resourcing results in good product. When you put community first, it works."

Rancher Michelle Galimba of Kuahiwi Ranch said every individual must consider how to address the needs of an exponentially growing population on a finite planet.

Cultural activist Keone Kealoha of the organization Malama Kaua‘i, Waianae ninth-grader Daniel Corpuz and chef Josh Feathers of the Tennessee resort Blackberry Farms rounded out the panel.

Feathers discussed Blackberry Farms’ ecosystem of raising and growing the food it serves, and how sharing stories about the origins of the food with customers was vital to its success.

Corpuz’s efforts as a school gardener and work with the Polynesian Voyaging Society illustrate the potential of caring, conscious youth to sustain Hawaii’s land and culture.

And Kealoha’s group builds community around sustainability issues "through the lens of food."

In 2006, Malama Kaua‘i set up shop on 5.5 acres of land off the grid. Irrigation and a greenhouse were put in, and today there is a community garden on an acre of land.

The group runs business programs that work with 14 restaurants and six grocers, and the organization is exploring ways to get local food into schools.

"Local people are learning how to grow local food," Kealoha said. "It’s about growing healthy relationships: between people, and between people and the land."

The audience was left with much to ponder, but the day wasn’t all work and no play. Star chefs Masaharu Morimoto and Ming Tsai were next on the lineup with "Wild and Raw," each demonstrating his vision of what to do with raw fish and local produce.

Their segment had a late start, and with Morimoto having to catch a plane soon, the duo actually pitched in with the setup, moving tables and equipment to the stage.

Morimoto dazzled everyone with his Iron Chef knife skills. He removed the head of an uku with a couple of taps and one long slice of his knife, then filleted and skinned the fish with clean, singular strokes. His sashimi, cured on a large piece of dried seaweed, was mixed with a vinaigrette salad of diced red bell pepper, broccolini, radish, cucumber, cheese chunks and chilies for a refreshing, delicately balanced dish.

Tsai taught the audience how to make a curry-seasoned oil, then pounded Big Island kampachi for a carpaccio-like dish. The fish was flash-fried in the curry oil, then plated with cucumbers and chives over a vinaigrette syrup of soy, lime and brown sugar, all drizzled with yuzu.

Taro activist Daniel Anthony (Mana Ai) presented his paiai alongside a high-profile lineup of chefs who engineered Friday’s lunch on the theme "Hawai‘i in a Bowl."

Anthony said that, at age 34, he had mixed feelings about standing alongside the master chefs, feeling almost undeserving because of his youth. But the importance of sharing his traditional fare was foremost on his mind.

"Our paiai and fish are equally as satisfying as everything else here," he said. "If you look at the story of poi outside of Hawaii, it’s referred to as purple, gooey stuff that tastes like paste. Our sacred food has become the mockery of our culture."

Anthony said 90 percent of tourists who have tried commercial poi and his paiai prefer paiai.

"Paiai is a ‘gateway drug’ for culture," he said.