Talk to Peter Merriman for a few minutes and it becomes clear why this Pittsburgh boy who thought he’d work in Hawaii for just a year ended up staying for more than 30. The groundbreaking chef, 59, has an easygoing, friendly personality perfectly in sync with local-style culture, and his appreciation for the lifestyle led him to build a life and family — not to mention a restaurant empire — in the isles.

Merriman, of course, is a founder of Hawaii Regional Cuisine and the restaurateur behind three Merriman’s restaurants (on the Big Island, Maui and Kauai), two Monkeypod Kitchen restaurants (on Maui and at Ko Olina) and an upcoming eatery in Kakaako called Moku Kitchen, set to open in the spring. A fourth Merriman’s is slated for Ward Village in 2017.

And now the chef is also a cookbook writer. Along with his sister-in-law, Melanie Merriman, he authored “Merriman’s Hawai‘i” ($39.95, Story Farm), a 262-pager that offers much more than the 75 recipes he’s geared toward home cooks. It also chronicles in readable fashion the amazing career of an insightful man, along with profiles of Hawaii farmers and a few cooking tips.

When Merriman started his Hawaii career on the Big Island at 28, he promptly began practicing what we call farm-to-table today, sourcing ingredients locally. But he says he wasn’t trying to be visionary.

“It was all based on quality — I wanted the best quality. Most of the stuff back then was shipped in from the mainland, so the quality was not great,” he said. “Local was fresher and better.”

That led him to realize the importance of supporting local farmers, and in 1991 he and chef Roger Dikon gathered 10 other isle chefs to discuss cooking and sourcing with a sense of place. From that gathering, Hawaii Regional Cuisine was born.

“I think what a lot of people don’t realize is that Hawaii was at the cutting edge of the farm-to-table movement. It didn’t start here — that was Chez Panisse and all that — but we came along right after. Hawaii’s farmers should be proud of that,” he said.

“A big part of the economic model here was based on agriculture, and the export of sugar, pineapple and some cattle,” he continued.

“When that went on the decline, tourism was growing at the same time, so there was an increased demand for domestic consumption. That’s why you see that a lot of early farmers were on the Big Island, because land was most affordable there.”

Merriman’s book is filled with vibrant pictures of gorgeous food and picturesque settings. But it nonetheless gets most of its color from the chef’s first-person accounts of his journey in feeding Hawaii residents and visitors, from learning about local cuisine through the employee menu at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel (“Monday was kalua pork and cabbage; Tuesday was chicken long rice; Wednesday was shoyu chicken …”), to understanding the impact of sourcing locally when R.W. “Johnny” Apple Jr., the late iconic New York Times food critic, visited Merriman’s.

Yet what perhaps most reveals Merriman’s governing principles are the pieces that don’t center on the chef himself, but rather, the many farmers he’s worked with over the years.

When the chef says of his project, “I want to give farmers their respect and due,” you know he means it.

MISO STEAMED CLASS

“Merriman’s Hawai‘i,” by Peter Merriman and Melanie P. Merriman ($39.95, Story Farm)

1 dozen littleneck or cherrystone clams, live in the shell

2 teaspoons white miso

2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh garlic

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped celery

Pinch cayenne pepper

1/2 bunch (about 2 cups) fresh kale, stemmed and large vein removed, sliced crosswise into 1-inch strips

1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice cooking wine)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

In large bowl, clean clams by covering with cold water. Swirl them around and rub them clean with your hands, letting sand and dirt fall to bottom of bowl. Remove clams from water and place in clean bowl. Set aside.

To prepare broth, in pan, add miso and milk and stir to combine. Over medium heat, bring mixture to low boil. Add ginger, garlic, onion, celery and cayenne pepper, and stir to combine. Bring mixture back to low boil. Add kale, stir and cook until kale just begins to wilt.

Add clams, cover and increase heat to high heat, then cook until clams open, about 3 minutes.

After clams have opened, reduce heat to medium. (Don’t be concerned if milk looks curdled; it will come back together after adding butter.) Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove the clams to a serving bowl.

With the pan on medium heat, stir in mirin, and whisk in butter until broth is smooth and homogeneous, about 1 minute.

Pour broth over clams and serve immediately. Makes 12 steamed clams.

Nutritional information unavailable.

BOOKS FOR COOKS

Gift ideas that inspire great meals:

“Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Matrix,” by Mark Bittman ($35, Pam Krauss Books): The former New York Times food writer opens his book with, “If you can cook 10 recipes, you can cook 10,000,” then proves how anyone — even the novice — can do it. OK, maybe not that many, but enough to stave off boredom at the dinner table.

The ingenious concept: One ingredient or one dish, presented in a variety of ways. Consider asparagus, steamed and served with brown butter, aioli or fried eggs and ham. Or roasted with bacon, or carrots, sesame and soy, or blue cheese and breadcrumbs.

Bittman is a master at making cooking accessible, and here he succeeds beyond measure.

“Hawai‘i’s Food Dictionary,” collected by the staff of Mutual Publishing ($10.95 paperback, Mutual Publishing): This useful paperback, embellished with pretty pictures of yummy local ingredients and dishes, offers an extensive list of terms and ingredients involved in local cooking. Entries were culled from Mutual’s collection of more than 50 cookbooks.

Though at first glance it might seem to be for nonlocals — consider entries for Hawaiian chili pepper water or ahi — it is useful to anyone who’s interested in cooking a variety of ethnic food. If you’re not Chinese, for instance, you might not know that “wong tong” is brown brick sugar or that the Filipino name for sweet potato is “kamote.”

For the absolute kitchen newbie, some general foods (i.e., basil, coconut, semolina flour) are listed.

“100 Recipes: The Absolute Best Ways to Make the True Essentials,” by the editors at America’s Test Kitchen ($40, America’s Test Kitchen): This installment by the most meticulous bunch of cooks in one kitchen provides the final word on preparing everything from basic scrambled eggs to something exotic like tandoori chicken. That’s because Test Kitchen staffers test each recipe 30 to 100 times.

The book also presents “top five” recipe lists that serve as quick guides for the reluctant cook; tired, serious, vegetarian, budget- or health-minded cooks; anyone bored with chicken; and more.

Each recipe comes with an explanation of why it works, making this book fascinating reading as well as a practical resource.

“Kitchen Hacks: How Clever Cooks Get Things Done,” by the editors at America’s Test Kitchen ($19.95 paperback, Cook’s Illustrated): “Hacks” are innovative shortcuts, quick tips or alternative solutions to tasks and dilemmas in the kitchen, and this smart collection offers endless ideas for everything from sanitizing your sink to keeping a packed lunch extra cool.

An example: To clean a bottleneck container, add a handful of uncooked rice, water and dish soap. Cover the top and shake vigorously. Another: To spread cold butter that you forgot to soften, use a vegetable peeler to cut a thin ribbon. And: To protect the knuckles while grating a knob of ginger, stick a fork into the piece and use it as a handle.

Once you thumb through a few pages, it’s something you won’t want to live without.

“Preserving the Japanese Way: Traditions of Salting, Fermenting, and Pickling for the Modern Kitchen,” by Nancy Singleton Hachisu ($40, Andrews McMeel Publishing): This tome is much more than a how-to for the pickling geek. It’s an immersion into the world of author Hachisu, an American expat who married a Japanese farmer and threw herself into learning to produce quality Japanese food in traditional ways.

Much of the book profiles artisan makers of such products as miso, salt, soy sauce, katsuobushi (dried, fermented skipjack tuna) and more; then Hachisu provides recipes. Some are quick soups or a fast pickled veggie, but others require the patience of waiting weeks or months for the food to be finished.

What readers come away with is a sense of the deep commitment Hachisu possesses for the process of creating wholesome traditional food, and her love and reverence for other like-minded folks who have become her community.

“Mr. Food Test Kitchen Wheel of Fortune Collectible Cookbook,” by Mr. Food Test Kitchen ($21.95, Cogin Inc.): Fueled by recipe contributions by Pat Sajak (Pat’s Perfect Pizza Pie) and Vanna White (Vanna Banana Pudding), this cookbook of more than 160 fast, simple recipes is the stuff that weekday meals are made of.

Start the day with On-the-Go Breakfast in a Mug, a microwave bacon-and-cheese omelet to go; lunch on Not Your Everyday Tuna Melts that embellish the classic sandwich with havarti cheese and crushed potato chips; and bake up the quick Easy Peasy Artichoke Chicken, just in time to sit down with a plate to enjoy screen time with Pat and Vanna.

Fans of “Wheel” will love the many tidbits about the show sprinkled throughout the book.

“The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science,” by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt ($49.95, W.W. Norton & Co.): This voluminous work by Lopez-Alt, author of the JamesBeard Award-nominated column The Food Lab, offers an astounding breadth of information. From a properly stocked pantry to knife skills, the science of boiling water toboiling eggs, grinding meat and mellowing raw onions to searing Brussels sprouts or a steak — plus recipes — the MIT-schooled food scientist for Serious Eats throws ineverything but the kitchen sink. Chapters also cover the sciences of stock, roasts, pasta, salads and frying.

“A Bone to Pick: The Good and Bad News About Food, With Wisdom and Advice on Diets, Food Safety, GMOs, Farming, and More,” by Mark Bittman ($26, Pam KraussBooks): The New York Times opinion columnist, a longtime food writer and cookbook author, sheds light on the American food system in this collection of his thought-provoking columns exploring hot-button topics such as big agriculture and sustainability, issues surrounding U.S.-produced proteins, cooking and fast food, legislationand diets.

“Food & Freedom: How the Slow Food Movement is Changing the World Through Gastronomy,” by Carlo Petrini ($24.95, Random House): Some 30 years after hebegan the Slow Food organization in Italy, Petrini discusses the impact of the global movement and the ways people are revolutionizing how they grow and distribute foodto preserve their traditions, empower their communities and care for the planet.

Don’t forget these, published earlier in 2015:

>> “A Chinese Kitchen,” by Lynette Lo Tom ($21.95, Mutual Publishing)

>> “Cooking Hawaiian Style Two,” by Lanai Tabura and Frank Abraham ($17.95, Mutual)

>> “Taste Our Love for the Land,” by Denise Hayashi Yamaguchi ($29.95, Watermark Publishing)

>> “Good and Cheap,” by Leanne Brown ($16.95, Workman Publishing)

>> “Sheet Pan Suppers,” by Molly Gilbert ($15.95, Workman)