Seeds and what they grow into can take many forms, as proved by Maui chef Paris Nabavi, owner of Sangrita Grill + Cantina and Pizza Paradiso.
PERSIAN DINNER
The menu from Paris Nabavi’s June fundraising dinner:
APPETIZERS
>> Kashk-o-bademjoon, or roasted eggplant with whey, caramelized onion, garlic and mint
>> Tabouleh salad with bulgur, Persian cucumbers, tomato, red onion, parsley, mint, lemon juice and olive oil
>> Torshi, vegetables pickled for 10 years
>> Dolma, grape leaf-wrapped rice and herbs
>> Also: hummus, roasted garlic, Persian dill pickles, goat cheese and feta cheese with fresh herbs and flatbread
ENTREE
>> Khoresht-e Qormeh Sabzi, a stew of lamb and bean, with saffron basmati rice
DESSERT
>> Saffron ice cream, with Persian tea (below)
For years Nabavi has nurtured programs that promote childhood nutrition on Maui and food security throughout the state. The ability to sustain local residents without such heavy reliance on imports is something that local farmers, restaurateurs and organizations have worried about, talked about and worked to improve for decades. Nabavi addresses the problem at its roots, funding programs that teach children to eat better, and to grow much of what they eat themselves.
To an organizer of the Maui School Garden Network, “I asked, ‘What does it take for you to build 10 school gardens?’ And she said, ‘$4,700,’ so I wrote a check,” he said.
Those who reap what Nabavi sows are schoolchildren, culinary education students and innovation programs, as well as nonprofits including Grow Some Good, which has brought a gardening curriculum to schools.
Funding comes partly from events Nabavi stages at his own home. He started with Persian cooking classes at $100 per person for 10 people each month. That became cooking demonstrations for 15 people every two months, and now a quarterly Persian dinner for up to 20 people who pay $150 each.
Checks are written directly to Grow Some Good, he said: “Nothing goes to me.”
Nabavi was born in Tehran, Iran, graduated from the French Culinary School in London, worked his way through France and Italy, and traveled in India and the Middle East.
He worked in hotels and restaurants in Canada, and became director of food and beverage for Fairmont Hotels in California and Texas until he moved to Maui in 1989, where he served as director of food and beverage for the Kapalua Bay Hotel. Nabavi set out on his own when the hotel was sold, and established Pizza Paradiso in Lahaina, serving Italian, Greek and Middle Eastern food, and a second location in Honokowai. He opened Cilantro Mexican Grill in Lahaina in 2004, and after 10 years he sold the concept and started Sangrita Grill + Cantina in Kaanapali.
He has won awards for achievements in business and service to the community, which includes his fundraising dinners, at which he introduces guests to the food of his childhood.
Nabavi learned the importance of philanthropy from his parents, and while he was happy with the Persian dinners, “I became excited … and I thought, ‘I can do more.’”
He and his wife, Donna, have hosted the Persian dinners for more than three years, preparing many dishes for each occasion. Most of the dinners sell out; the next, on Saturday, is nearly there.
“He’s like the prince of Lahaina in that he is always looking at ways to support our community,” said Chris Speere, site coordinator for the University of Hawaii Maui College’s Food Innovation Center.
“In Hawaii we have great chefs and great produce to showcase and we talk about all the wonderful aspects of our food community, but in many ways we struggle, with some of the highest rates of obesity and diabetes and early onset adolescent diabetes in the country,” Speere said.
Tastes have become accustomed to high-salt, high-fat, high-sugar foods from the drive-thru or the supermarket freezer case, due in part to more hectic lifestyles.
“What Paris is doing is really important, so young people can … enjoy the magic of growing their own food, to educate their palates to what fresh, locally grown and healthy, tastes like,” Speere said. “You just can’t get that if (food) is being imported from the mainland.”
Nabavi’s latest efforts to support a nonprofit, Maui RSVP (Restaurants Support Vital Programs), raised $10,000 in the spring and drove extra traffic into participating restaurants during a normally slow time, according to publicist Charlene Kauhane.
Through RSVP, which is now run year-round, participating restaurants donate $1 from each sale of a particular menu item, cash that is passed on to eight groups: Grow Some Good, the Maui Culinary Academy, Maui Food Innovation Center, Maui School Garden Network, the Book Trust, Imua Family Services, Maui Academy of Performing Arts and the American Heart Association, for its Kids Cook and Teens Cook with Heart programs.
For Nabavi, the effort began simply, with a home garden, as a way to teach his daughter how to eat properly. He started offering organic seeds from his garden to the Maui School Garden Network, and “became quite interested in the idea of a garden program on each school campus,” said coordinator Lehn Huff.
Nabavi pledged a portion of his restaurants’ earnings to purchase organic seeds for all Maui County’s schools, then started hosting lunches for visiting teachers who sought to create gardens at their own schools, Huff said.
“When he first started, we had about 2,500 students involved. Five years later, we have close to 8,000 students and over 300 teachers involved in the movement.”
“There is no greater legacy than to pass on the keys to better health by teaching our children how to grow their own food,” Huff said.
Produce from the school gardens cannot be incorporated into a school’s food service program due to federal regulations, but it can be sold at farmers markets, said Kirk Surry, coordinator for Grow Some Good.
At the end of the year, the kids harvest their produce and have their own little pop-up cafe in the garden, he said.
“It’s amazing to see these kids. When they started out they wouldn’t even look at a vegetable without an upturned nose.” After growing the vegetables themselves, “they’re putting beets and carrots and zucchini on vegetable pizzas at harvest festivals.”
The American Heart Association became a beneficiary of the Nabavi Legacy Fund after placing a phone call to Nabavi seeking his help.
A donor offered to contribute $200,000 to bring cooking classes to public schools in Lahaina on the condition that Nabavi be involved. “For me it was like the best gift that I can have,” Nabavi said. “Now the gardening and the school program and the cooking is going to tie the knot. The cycle is good, because I love kids and want to make sure I have an impact on their lives in the future.”
