KCC instructor leaving TV show

After some 20 years of teaching future culinarians and home cooks, and winning an international cooking competition, Kapiolani Community College chef-instructor Grant Sato is about to shoot his fifth and final season of “What’s Cooking Hawaii,” a weekly show on KFVE-TV. Further, he will wrap up his tenure as an instructor in the college’s culinary arts program in June 2018.

Sato will join the private sector, though in what capacity is yet to be determined.

“I’m in negotiations to be the creative director, or corporate chef for an international corporation,” two of which are currently wooing him, he told TheBuzz. He didn’t name the companies as no deal is yet finalized.

“What’s Cooking Hawaii” has been a partnership between KFVE and KCC, and once approached by the station, Culinary Arts Chairman Ronald Takahashi instantly chose Sato to be the host.

Sato “had both the wealth of cooking knowledge and the personality of an entertainer,” Takahashi said.

The show was not to be pure entertainment, Takahashi told Sato. Rather, there had to be an educational component, and as much as possible, it needed “to feature our students, get their faces out there,” he said.

Sato will be a hard act to follow, said KFVE General Manager John Fink.

“Putting each show together has been his brainchild, and Grant has been able to secure sponsors because he is so well thought of in the industry,” Fink said.

For his final season, debuting March 8, Sato will take the show in a slightly different direction. Each episode will focus on one of the major agricultural products in the Pacific region, such as various types of rice and breadfruit. It will cover how to check for quality, storage recommendations and history about how indigenous people used the product. Then Sato will demonstrate a contemporary dish.

“I also want the younger generation to be able to connect with the product, to understand how their grandparents used it, as well as how to cook it in modern times. It’s just a way of connecting the past and making sure that we continue to revere the product,” he said.

The show is the most visible aspect of Sato’s position at KCC. He has also been a chef instructor and served as sous-chef for the Commercial Enterprise Unit, which started Kulia Grille at the John A. Burns School of Medicine. Sato has taught home cooks everything from basic knife skills to whipping up fancy hors d’ouevres and Korean dishes.

It was his preparation of Korean food that won Sato the international “Global Taste of Korea” competition in 2015, representing Hawaii as well as the U.S.

Sato will look back most fondly on his time spent as an instructor, “because you really are able to try to instill the passion of culinary arts to the students … and during my tenure we’ve had many talented students go through the program and graduate, and they have become successful chefs. The most wonderful thing about my time here is to see that I’ve made a positive impact upon many chefs’ lives.”

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