An average home cook can only dream of having a restaurant, a place where people will pay to eat your cooking. The “pop-up” dinner, a one-shot restaurant meal, has made that dream attainable — if only for an evening.

It was a thrill to be able to collaborate on my own pop-up at Mud Hen Water, with James Beard Award-nominated chef Ed Kenney and his right-hand man, corporate chef Dave Caldiero, in charge of all restaurants.

In October, when my cookbook on Chinese food in Hawaii was published, Kenney asked me if I wanted to do a pop-up dinner with them. Yikes! For someone who never attended culinary school, this was scary. So I put him off: “How about Chinese New Year?” This seemed like a good tactic because the holiday was four months away.

But in December he brought it up again, and GULP. How could I not take him up on an opportunity of a lifetime?

The restaurant scene is brutal, with some places closing after just three months of operation. It’s a strong testament to the hard work and creative juices of Kenney and Caldiero that Town continues to succeed 11 years after opening in Kaimuki. Since then the two have expanded their reach with Kaimuki Superette and Mud Hen Water restaurants.

Our Fire Monkey Meets Mud Hen dinner was held Feb. 8, the start of the lunar new year. It was an auspicious event — it sold out — with lots of energy, excitement and, if I say so myself, good food.

The dinner allowed me to share my Chinese culture and family recipes with guests. Some enjoyed old-fashioned dishes like Popo Lo’s Fried Oyster Rolls; others liked Kenney and Caldiero’s riffs on Chinese cuisine, such as Cold Ginger Rabbit.

The chefs’ passion for food and their constant innovation taught me so much. It’s one thing to have friends over to eat; it’s another to deliver an experience to 80 paying customers. Here are some of my lessons and observations:

>> Attention to detail: When we began conceptualizing the dinner, Kenney had fun remembering the Chinese food he ate with his parents. He insisted on round tables with Lazy Susans, those rotating trays that sit at the center of the table, but we couldn’t find any to rent so Caldiero cut wood and assembled parts to make them himself.

>> Food is still exciting: When Caldiero tried the fresh water chestnuts that I was peeling, he was excited by his first-time taste. “Did Ed taste this?” he asked enthusiastically as he took a piece for Kenney to try. It’s refreshing to see professional chefs still passionate about new ingredients.

>> It’s hard physical work: Delivering a multicourse meal requires extensive preparation and lots of stamina. I spent three exhausting days on my feet, working more than 10 hours each day prepping for the dinner. Erik Leong, Kaimuki Superette chef de cuisine, said I didn’t yet have my “kitchen legs.” Chefs are accustomed to standing for hours and lugging heavy loads.

>> Speed: When Leong prepped vegetables for a salad, he cut the daikon and carrots into coins, layered them on the cutting board, then cut them into matchsticks. This process took him mere minutes. He could speed through quantities that would have taken home cooks 30 minutes to chop. These professionals are efficient and have superior techniques.

>> Full staffing: How many chefs does it take to execute one collaborative vision? In the kitchen that night were Kenney, Caldiero, Leong, Mud Hen Water chef de cuisine Alika Chung and Mud Hen sous chef Chani Maunakea-Forth.

>> Taste, taste, taste: The professionals carry spoons just for this purpose. They keep checking to make sure that foods being prepared are the best they can be. They don’t ever follow a recipe blindly.

>> Service logistics: Kenney and Caldiero reviewed the order in which the dishes would be served to ensure we spaced out the protein-heavy menu with vegetables. I wanted to serve deep-fried oyster rolls on the appetizer platter, the way my popo did. Caldiero told me it would be best to serve a cold platter first. That way it would be ready to serve as soon as people got their cocktails. He was right, so we switched a raw fish salad with the fried rolls.

>> Techniques: When producing large volumes of food, chefs use different techniques to keep foods at the right temperature. Leong showed me how to warm jai in a large stockpot, then keep it hot in metal trays placed in an insulated box called a cambro.

>> Gut feel: I told Kenney and Caldiero I was having second thoughts about serving salted eggs in the appetizer platter. Perhaps they would appeal only to adventurous eaters? But there was no way we could have served four appetizers — four is considered a bad-luck number in Chinese culture. We either had to cut the appetizers down to three items or take the risk with the salted egg.

Kenney encouraged me to “chance ’em.” The next day, he laughed about my uncertainty. “Dave and I do that every time,” he said.

What an exciting milestone, to cook with master chefs!

_____

Raw Fish Salad

>> 1/2 pound firm white fish (such as papio, kajiki, mahi or sea bass), sliced sashimi style or slightly smaller

>> 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

>> 1 teaspoon lemon juice

>> 1/8 cup rice vinegar

>> 1/2 teaspoon white ground pepper

>> 1 large head lettuce, shredded

>> 1/2 cup slivered green onions, sliced long and diagonally

>> 1/2 cup Chinese parsley

>> 1/4 cup Chinese pickled cucumbers and carrots

>> 6 pickled scallions

>> 3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

>> 1 tablespoon red pickled ginger

>> 1 tablespoon white pickled ginger

>> 1/4 cup grated daikon

>> 1/4 cup grated carrots

>> 1/8 cup cha gwa (sweet pickled small squash), slivered

>> Wonton pi, slivered and fried or store-bought, for garnish

>> Chopped roasted peanuts, for garnish

>> Red ginger slivers, for garnish

>> Chinese parsley, for garnish

>> 2 ounces sai fun rice noodles, fried and drained, for garnish (optional)

In bowl, combine fish, vegetable oil, lemon juice, rice vinegar and white pepper. Marinate in fridge 10 minutes. Do not overmarinate.

In serving bowl, toss lettuce, green onions, parsley, pickled veggies, scallions, sesame seeds, red and white pickled gingers, daikon, carrots and cha gwa.

Drain fish and add to lettuce mixture. Toss with salad dressing (recipe follows). Garnish with fried wonton pi, peanuts, red pickled ginger, Chinese parsley and fried rice noodles. Serve immediately. Serves 10.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (with dressing but not including fried wonton or peanut garnish, or optional rice noodles): 120 calories, 6 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 250 mg sodium, 11 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 8 g sugar, 6 g protein