Chef and restaurateur Chai Chaowasaree has been chosen by Pennsylvania-based Alouette Cheese USA LLC to compete against nine chefs from the mainland in a recipe competition. Alouette is a subsidiary of Bongrain S.A., which is headquartered in Viroflay, France.

"I’m the only chef from Hawaii" participating, he said after an interview with the cheesemaking company.

He surmises Alouette found him through Hawaiian Airlines, which he serves as executive chef.

"They promote me heavily," Chai said.

Alouette "just contacted me. I’m an Asian chef — we don’t use a lot of cheese," he chuckled.

Up for the challenge nevertheless, he explained that the maker of spreadable, French-style cheeses is looking for diverse recipes for this contest and an upcoming promotion for the holidays.

As the Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays rapidly approach, most Americans don’t think "Asian and holiday" as part of their planning. So, his recipes won’t be traditional, he said.

Chai rattled off a few dishes he might enter, such as a sun-dried tomato and goat cheese won ton; a turkey roulade with blue cheese, carrots, spinach and ham, "almost like a cordon bleu," for people who don’t want or need to cook a whole turkey. He also is considering a lamb pizza with feta cheese, among other dishes.

The Alouette representative gave him a list of 20 cheeses the company makes, from whence Chai can create his recipes.

The nine mainland chefs are doing the same thing, and at some point the recipes will be posted online for public voting.

A prize of $10,000 awaits the winning chef, Chai said. Alouette officials could not be reached.

ALA MOANA AWARDED

Ala Moana Center has won a MAXI Award from the International Council of Shopping Centers in the New Media-Emerging Technology category, for last year’s Fall Fashion Event.

The center’s "Buzz Control" program was awarded for engaging shoppers and the online community, and for using proprietary software that collected Twitter users’ "tweets" about the event for display on a 9-by-8-foot video screen. More than 200,000 online customers were involved from Sept. 8 through 11, 2011.

Scott Creel, group marketing manager for General Growth Properties/Ala Moana Center, had told Sam Stanton, president of software provider redbutton.tv, "If we’re finalists, he has to go with me to Florida" for the awards presentation.

However, a bit of a schedule conflict arose, and none of those involved could attend Wednesday night’s gala in Orlando, Fla.

This year’s Fall Fashion Event started Thursday evening and runs through Sunday, making a timely return from Florida impossible.

"The program that is onstage today is the very program for which we are being recognized," from a year ago, Creel said Thursday. The Fashion’s Night Out observance at Ala Moana coincided with similar events staged around the world.

A Chicago-based General Growth official accepted the award on behalf of Ala Moana Center, which also won a MAXI Award in 2005 for its Christmas Gift of Aloha campaign.

This year’s Fall Fashion Event hashtag for shopping-minded social media users is #TFFE12, and this year’s video screen is even bigger, at 12 by 8 feet.

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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.