For Philip "Ippy" Aiona, being a contestant on "Food Network Star" gives him a chance to share his heritage and culture.
"The whole show, I was very into promoting Hawaii," the 23-year-old Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy and Le Cordon Bleu graduate said by phone from Hawaii island earlier this month. "That was my whole angle, showcasing Hawaii and taking people on a voyage to paradise.
"Everybody’s there for the same reason, to cook. … I’m going to surprise a lot of people."
Now in its eighth season, "Food Network Star" discovered "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" host Guy Fieri in its second season.
Led by coaches Alton Brown, Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis, 15 finalists are split into three teams — a new format introduced this season — with one winner selected to host his or her own cooking show on Food Network.
The prospect of sharing his cooking skills on camera goes back to Aiona’s small-kid time in Kamuela, where his father ran the now-closed Kamuela Deli.
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"Food Network Star"
Airs at 6 p.m. Sundays, Food Network
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"I made a series of cooking videos when I was in the third grade," he said. "They were called ‘The Little Italian.’ … I would put on my apron and tie it up to my belly, I would have the towel over my shoulder and I’d be cooking."
Aiona included some of that footage in his application to the network. While being on television "wasn’t necessarily a goal," he said the videos he made were an early sign of how passionate he is about cooking.
After watching "Food Network Star" the past few years, he was encouraged by a friend to give it a try.
"I knew I could do it," said Aiona. "I wanted to show people the … idea of Hawaiian food isn’t just luau stuff.
"On the show, I said I had a style of cooking that I call ‘Euro-Pacific,’ taking traditional European techniques and including Pacific ingredients, like pasta with furikake and a pink miso sauce made with tomatoes, miso and sake. I did a lot of fusion up there."
Aiona was picked for the team coached by De Laurentiis, who shares his Italian background. He didn’t know if she was aware of his current role as executive chef at Solimene’s, his mother’s Italian restaurant in Waimea, but "I’m very happy to be on her team," Aiona said. "They got the opportunity to hand-pick five people for their team, and she picked me.
"She’s tough, man. (She) looks really dainty, but when she wants to get something done, she gets it done.
"I’m one of the youngest to ever be on the show, and obviously the first ever from Hawaii," he said. "But I’ve been doing this my whole life. … I was born into this, so it’s all I know. I’ve been working in a kitchen my whole life. I’ve always been trying to master this."
