Spontaneity has been the key to success for chef Russell Moore, proprietor of Camino’s, a top-rated restaurant in Oakland, Calif.

"The nature of the way our restaurant works, we can’t really have a set menu," said Moore, a participant in the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival. "We only use whole animals, we only use organic produce. We don’t have that thing on the bottom of our menu that says ‘whenever possible.’

"I don’t like to be tied down by a set thing, so each morning I look at what I have and I put a menu together."

Moore relies on close connections with ranchers and farmers, a network developed over 20 years of working at the groundbreaking Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., mecca of the organic, local-grown foodie movement.

They’ll supply him with whole pigs, goats, lambs, chickens, ducks, even quail, but not that much beef because "cows are too big."

Moore butchers the meat himself, examining the marbling and texture to determine the best way to cook it. "If it’s pretty fatty, we’ll probably grill it. If it’s a lamb, I like to cook the lamb legs hanging in front of the fire whole."

Despite all that attention to meat, Moore considers vegetables to be of much greater importance. For his restaurant he buys tomatoes from two growers in California, though "I could buy them from 2,000," he said. "I’ve honed it down."

Moore’s family is from Hawaii and he knows local produce well. He’s formed a close relationship with MA’O Organic Farms and especially likes the Asian herbs grown in Hawaii, such as shiso, chives, garlic chives, the many varieties of basil and the chilies.

"I like my food to be light and bright, with lots of herbs," he said.

His advice for local chefs?

"People should cook what they like to cook, not what they’re supposed to cook," he said. "We don’t make pizza, we don’t make pasta, because we don’t want to."