For Ludo Lefebvre, cooking is a passion that allows no room for compromise. Yet for most restaurateurs, the expectation that they cater to diners’ whims on a daily basis is the biggest compromise of all.

What about asking what a chef wants?

In a perfect world, Lefebvre says, "If it’s Ludo’s restaurant, I should be able to do anything I want. No substitutions."

He’s come pretty close, thanks to the traveling restaurant concept he created, LudoBites, that has expanded from Los Angeles to the nation through the Internet and "Ludo­Bites America." In the Sundance Channel series, the chef and his wife, Krissy, who manages every aspect of the restaurant except the menu, introduce the chef’s "bistronomy" cuisine to towns across America, picking up a few folksy cooking lessons in the process.

Now Lefebvre is calling the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai on Hawaii island home for a week and a half, with LudoBites Nine-0 ensconced at the Hualalai Grille through March 17. Here, the chef has free reign to create to his heart’s content.

For guests, it’s an exciting endeavor they may find themselves revisiting many times.

"I never repeat dishes," Lefebvre said. "I like when a menu is changing every day. I don’t want to be too safe, because that’s boring. I love to push myself."

Lefebvre arrived in town as a guest chef at the five-day "Made in America 2" culinary event held on the property last week. It was a celebration of Lucy Lean’s "Made in America" cookbook featuring classic American recipes updated by some of the nation’s top chefs.

In the book, Lefebvre provides a recipe for Duck Fat Fried Chicken coated with herbs de Provence and accompanied by a spicy piquillo dipping sauce that was one of the courses at a Saturday-night dinner featuring the visiting chef’s creations.

Before his arrival, I talked to him over the phone and the chef had no menu plans, preferring to make up something on the spot.

"I wanted to come here, get the inspiration and get the menu," he said.

He was even more excited once he got a taste of such area specialties as Kona kampachi, Keahole lobster, local abalone and uni.

"Good stuff!" he proclaimed, adding that he also loved the locally grown tomatoes, sweet Maui onions, Big Island goat cheese, Hawaiian honey and Hawaiian cinnamon, which he deemed "really special."

During a cooking demonstration Sunday, he prepared a lobster roll with fresh fruit and Asian-style dressing.

Among initial dishes he has planned for LudoBites Nine-0 are Vietnamese-style kampachi with palm sugar vinaigrette and Tahitian lime ($19); Hirame ceviche with strawberry papaya water, cucumber and salmon roe ($19); steamed hap‘upu‘u with crispy caramelized skin, miso cream, fennel, navel orange and tonic beans ($32); and pork belly barbecue with spicy pickle slaw, pineapple guacamole and mustard ($29).

He would not have shared any details if not for the resort’s request and diners’ curiosity about what’s on the menu.

"I don’t like to plan things. I just want it to be a surprise."

Even while Lefebvre was making a name for himself at L’Esperance in Vezelay, Burgundy; L’Arpege in Paris, studying under chef Alain Passard; then the three-star Michelin restaurant Le Grand Vefour, his independent spirit longed to be free of the constraints of the formal kitchen.

"All the time I wore the white jacket, I felt like I was in a straitjacket. That’s exactly what it was," he said.

"I was tired of doing froufrou food all my life. I just wanted a break from that. I wanted to cook in T-shirt, jeans, play the music I want, whatever I want."

A recommendation led him to Los Angeles restaurant L’Orangerie for two years before he moved on to Bastide in 2006. His cooking there won him accolades, including being named one of the World’s 50 Greatest Chefs by Relais & Chateaux, as well as a nomination for the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star award.

And just as quickly, he decided to walk away from it all. Or so he thought.

His restaurant concept began as an accident when he started looking for sites and found that landlords wanted to lock him into a 10- to 15-year contract.

He came up with an idea for a traveling restaurant, a "Cirque du Soleil" of edibles that would delight and surprise people, and LudoBites was born.

The chef commandeered various sites around Los Angeles for temporary restaurants that would remain open from two weeks to two months, offering the casual elegant fare he describes as "bistronomy."

Just don’t call any of his creations a pop-up. He hates that term.

"How about just calling it a restaurant?" he asks, in a bid for respect for the risk and work involved in starting from scratch each time. That means going through the hiring process, leasing spaces, creating menus and themes.

"The idea was to have a new menu, new location all the time, like an artist or painter doing an exhibition with new canvases, new paint.

"I wanted to cook for people, too, not critics," he said.

"When I cook for critics I make sure I get 5 stars, 4 stars all the time, but chefs who think about stars all the time forget to bring joy to customers."

It hasn’t always been easy.

"It’s like buying a new car," he said. "The first week it’s very different and you don’t know the flow of the kitchen, and sometimes it’s very limited. Sometimes you only have four burners and one stove, and that’s it, but I love to challenge myself."

In spite of his attempt to create a low-key culinary dialog between himself and diners, the critics came anyway. Time magazine named Lefebvre "The Chef of the Future" and Jonathan Gold put LudoBites on his 2011 list of 99 Essential Restaurants.

Although he might describe himself as shy, Lefe­bvre’s strong opinions and the passion he brings to his work has made him a natural for television. He’s appeared on "Top Chef Masters" and "Iron Chef America," as well as "LudoBites America."

Never one to back away from tasting any ingredient, his move to L.A. was an eye-opener.

In France, he said he grew up only knowing French food. "There was no Asian restaurants, Paris didn’t have sushi restaurants. We don’t eat too much raw fish in France," he said.

In L.A. he got his first taste of wasabi when he put a good bite-size morsel in his mouth.

"I was coughing a lot and maybe I was red and screaming, and everyone in the kitchen was laughing at me, but I wanted to cry."

Today, he loves working with fish, and especially the challenge of working with vegetables.

"These days, everyone wants to do meat, meat and meat. To me, it’s more interesting to use vegetables. I love vegetables. I love the different colors and the textures. How about making something terrific with carrots? Now everyone’s cooking with pork and lardons. Everything tastes good with pork. It’s not a challenge."