Plugged in for 20 years

Everyone is good at something. Ben and Jerry are good at ice cream. Mrs. Fields and Famous Amos are good at cookies. Pat Rea and Julia Cabatu are good at editing recipes.

"Pat is the champion of nitpicking," said Cabatu.

Rea admits to going over recipes "again and again" and actually enjoys the painstaking work.

"Just don’t rush me," she said.

Both agree: "We do it right or we don’t do it at all."

Rea and Cabatu are retired home economists who spent their careers at Hawaiian Electric Co., where much of their work centered on helping people achieve success in the kitchen. That included developing and editing recipes, and holding cooking demonstrations, both live and on television.

For the record, the duo said a good recipe is organized so that it lists ingredients in the order they are used, indicates sizes of cans and packages of items in the ingredient list, and provides directions that are simple and easy to follow. Good recipes have also passed a test run in the kitchen.

The pair began editing cookbooks together in retirement. Their latest project is "Celebrating 20 Years of The Electric Kitchen," filled with more than 160 recipes. The cookbook is an annual fundraiser for Aloha United Way, an employee-driven effort for the past 10 years. Themes vary from year to year.

This year’s collection spotlights "The Electric Kitchen," Hawaiian Electric’s former television cooking show that ran from 1994 to 2005. The book features recipes from the show and from Hawaiian Electric employees.

Cabatu, who started with the company in 1976, was the show’s producer for seven years until she retired in 2002. Rea "edited recipes and even ran the video camera at first — I’ve done everything at one time or another." "The Electric Kitchen" debuted on Olelo and made several moves, first to KIKU, then to OC16 and KITV. It was preceded in the 1980s by a half-hour cable-access show.

Today"The Electric Kitchen" continues as a weekly column in this newspaper’s Wednesday food section.

The television show sprang from the company’s popular cooking classes, originally held by home economists in Hawaiian Electric’s auditorium on King Street.

"We did them four times a month — at 10 a.m. Thursdays for an hour, and one noontime class Tuesdays for a half-hour for working women," said Rea.

When the classes grew, they were moved to the Hawaii International Center, now the Blaisdell Center, then to Hilton Hawaiian Village’s Coral Ballroom before returning to the Blaisdell.

"They were very popular and we held them at night," said Cabatu. "But little by little, our audience got older, and it got harder for them to come out at night, so we decided to discontinue them. Then the community complained, ‘You cannot do this!’"

That led to the cooking show, filmed in the King Street auditorium. Everything was done in-house by Hawaiian Electric employees. Even the host, Alison Zecha, worked in human resources.

"We had her practice. We pretended to be a shy demonstrator, then a talkative demonstrator. She didn’t cook at all, but she could think on her feet. We had lots of fun," Cabatu recalled with a chuckle.

Guests came from all over the community: members of ethnic groups and health organizations, firefighters and 4-H members. Hawaiian Electric employees were featured when guest slots were unfilled.

"We had chefs on once in a while, but our shows were really about local food, simple dishes," said Cabatu.

Rea and Cabatu were among the last of Hawaiian Electric’s home economists.

The position was created in the 1920s, when the electric stove arrived in Hawaii. Hawaiian Electric deployed the women into the community to educate customers on the appliance.

When Rea, 69, started in 1969, home economists were everywhere — in schools teaching home economics and safety classes, and in homes helping housewives with ranges.

"Appliance dealers would call us when someone bought a range. We got a lot of calls, for example, when Hawaii Kai was coming up in the ’70s," she said. "We also went door to door asking housewives if they needed help. Those were called ‘Safari Days.’ We knew every brand and how to work it."

The job evolved when the energy crisis hit in the 1970s, and home economists began presenting conservation programs. In later decades staff ran exhibit booths spotlighting topics such as safety, conservation and electric cars.

Rea organized those exhibits until she retired in 2001.

"It was a diverse job and it really was fun," she said.

Cabatu, 72, was the company’s last home economist. She began her career as a temp filling in for two home economists on maternity leave. When another retired, she filled the position.

Since their work involved writing, testing and editing recipes, when Rea and Cabatu retired, former colleagues called to ask for help. They wanted to continue the Aloha United Way cookbook but needed help with the recipes.

Their reputations traveled beyond the company, and other organizations also came calling. Between them Rea and Cabatu have donated their skills to edit all but a couple Hawaiian Electric cookbooks and various other collections, including a rice cookbook, a book by a group of attorneys and one for the Hawaiian Historical Society. Currently, Rea is editing a collection for the Friends of Wai