Items on Jacqueline Lau’s shopping list: 300 pounds of butter, 600 pounds of charcoal, 50 cases of pineapple, 50 gallons of olive oil, 300 pounds of flour. And that’s barely the beginning.
Lau, corporate chef for Roy’s Restaurants in Hawaii, is overseeing the movement of materials for the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival, four days of drinking and dining that begin Sept. 6. In its second year, the festival is hands down the biggest culinary happening of the year in Hawaii. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being potluck at your house, this event is a 17. Off the scale.
Lau provided some facts and figures that give a sense of the scope and flavor of this event.
Find a free mobile app for the festival on iTunes and Google Play. |
64 chefs
AT 6 VENUES
Their number includes two Iron Chefs (Hiroyuki Sakai and Masaharu Morimoto); such TV celebrities as Ming Tsai, Robert Irvine, Marcel Vigneron and Todd English; plus a passel who travel with the word "legendary" attached to their names — Celestino Drago, Hubert Keller, Francois Payard, Nobu Matsuhisa, Tetsuya Wakuda …
Local hotshots also are well represented, led by event chairmen Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong.
They will provide four dinners, one brunch, a cocktail party and a host of seminars, cooking demonstrations, wine tastings and cook-offs, taking place at the Halekulani, Modern, Hilton Hawaiian Village, Ko Olina Resort, Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa and the M at Waterfront Plaza.
Their presence on Oahu is a notable opportunity for Hawaii’s farmers, many of whom are donating produce and could see a considerable return in sales.
"A lot of these chefs have unlimited budgets," Lau said, "and they have no qualms about bringing in product if they like it."
$1,000 dinner
AND IT’S SOLD OUT
Tempted to attend? How healthy is your wallet?
Top ticket was the Halekulani Master Chefs Gala Sept. 7 at $1,000 per person, featuring chefs who have cooked for presidents and royalty. It sold out more than a month ago.
The remaining dining events mostly go for $200 each, except the "Girls Got Game" brunch Sept. 9 at the Hyatt — a bargain at $85.
100 pounds
OF HALIBUT
A primary aim of the festival is to use fish from local waters, but you can’t expect every East Coast chef to have a complete knowledge of beyond-the-West-Coast fishes.
"Last year the chefs are like, ‘I want halibut,’" Lau recalls. "And I said, ‘We don’t have halibut. How about monchong?’"
Lesson learned, and this year the chefs are asking for kampachi, opah and walu.
But one still asked for a single 100-pound halibut. He’s getting several very large pieces — of monchong.
1,000 cupcakes
ON THE BEACH
The Food Network’s "Cupcake Wars" comes to the beach at the Ko Olina Resort. The show recently staged a bake-off challenging competitors to design a cupcake display for this festival. The winner re-creates that display at "Cuisines of the Stars: A Magical Journey of Food & Culture" Sept. 9, an event co-hosted by Disney’s Aulani and Marriott’s Ihilani resorts.
Details are kept under wraps until the episode airs, but this much we know: The winning baker will make 1,000 cupcakes in the Leeward Community College kitchen to be trucked to a tent at the Ihilani for filming of the episode’s finale. Imagine butter-cream frosting meeting sand and heat and you’ll have an appreciation for what it will take to pull this off.
2 Roys
AND TACOS FOR 500
Roy Choi of Kogi BBQ in Los Angeles hosts "Streets of Fire," a late-night celebration of tacos and tequila on Sept. 7. Joining him with his own interpretation of the taco is Hawaii’s Roy (Yamaguchi). L.A. Roy has achieved somewhat godlike status in the food-truck world for his merging of Korean and Mexican flavors (his kalbi taco is near mythological), while Hawaii Roy’s expertise in East-West fusion is unquestioned.
Patron Spirit Co. is the sponsor, so the drinks will flow.
The event is the official after-party for all the festival chefs, but anyone with $200 for a ticket can come rub shoulders. Hubert Keller of Fleur de Lys in San Francisco will be DJ for the night.
5 charities
THOUSANDS IN CASH
The festival may be a fantasy-made-real for foodies, but it has a charitable purpose: to raise funds for the Hawaii Agricultural Foundation, the Culinary Institute of the Pacific, Leeward Community College’s culinary program, Paepae o He‘eia (a group that cares for the ancient Heeia fishpond) and Papahana Kualoa (a nonprofit that aims to replant native Hawaiian species, restore cultural sites and develop educational resources).
Last year the festival raised $250,000 for its beneficiaries — $140,000 for the Hawaii Agricultural Foundation alone.