Festival puts food and culture of isles in worldwide spotlight

The annual Hawaii Food and Wine Festival generates an estimated $12 million in national and local media coverage, shining a light not only on the isles’ sun and sand, but on local food, farms and culture.

“Striving to be a world-class festival has been critically important because our master chefs and top-tier winemakers have brought major press coverage to Hawaii’s culinary scene,” said Denise Yamaguchi, chief executive officer of the festival.

The festival, held in the fall, this year introduced a spring component, a nearly $7,000 Connoisseur’s Culinary Journey of Hawai‘i that runs through this week.

“National and international media have helped us put Hawaii on the map as a top culinary destination, not just during the festival, but year-round, paving the way for our young chef talent to be recognized for the creativity and innovations they now offer statewide,” said Yamaguchi, who is married to chef and restaurateur Roy Yama­guchi, a festival co-founder.

The Food Network and USA Today have covered the festival, for instance, while Roy Yamaguchi has appeared on NBC’s “The Today Show” in New York highlighting the event.

International media outlets from Japan, China, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand also have covered the festival.

Reporters from mainland news outlets and blogs have interviewed the celebrity chefs here for the event, tasted their dishes and written about the local meats and produce they used, referring to some of the items as unusual, unique or exotic. “The entire culture here, from music to language to food, is a Polynesian/Asian/American/European polyglot,” a Toronto Sun writer posted on a travel blog.

The Dallas Morning News paired coverage of the 2014 event with that of the New York City Wine and Food Festival, in a travel piece in May 2015. San Francisco chef Nancy Oakes was quoted as saying that aside from the great food at Hawaii’s event, the setting is so relaxed that “when you come here your shoulders drop 2 inches.”

The New York Post used the 2014 festival as a jumping-off point for a piece on Hawaii’s new “wave of culinary game-changers” — Ed Kenney, Lee Anne Wong and Mark Noguchi. “They are creating a foodie tourist’s idea of heaven: authentic (but unpretentious) cuisine that’s vigilantly embracing local ingredients and sustainable practices — an adventurous leap way beyond the pineapple luau platter.”

Not all of the media outlets pay their own way here for the festival. One writer for the website Blender added a disclaimer at the end of the site’s 2013 coverage: “My attendance at the Hawai‘i Food & Wine Festival was part of a press familiarization trip coordinated by the fine folks at Maui Visitors Bureau and Ka‘anapali Beach Resort.”

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser does not accept such paid arrangements, but they are fairly typical in the hospitality industry, said Jay Talwar, chief marketing officer for the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau.

The festival has worldwide appeal, he said, “so all of the marketing contractors for the Hawaii Tourism Authority work to bring media here for that.”

Visiting chefs also receive quid-pro-quo deals for their hotel stays, often appearing at events that elevate Hawaii as not only a vacation destination, but a food and wine destination, Talwar said.

In addition to the high-value media exposure, the nonprofit festival organization raised $1.3 million for local agriculture and culinary programs in its first five years.

The Hawaii Food and Wine Festival started out as a three-day event in Waikiki but now stretches over two weeks and three islands, with more than 20 events on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island. This year’s festival is Oct. 14-30.

This week’s Culinary Journey, priced at $6,995 plus tax, opened Monday with a reception at the Kahala Hotel & Resort, continuing through the week with fish market and farm tours. On Thursday guests will fly to the Big Island to explore “The Breadbasket of Our Islands,” and the event winds up Friday with a beach cookout at the Kahala.