The locally produced, Emmy Award-winning series “Family Ingredients” returns to PBS at 7:30 Wednesday for its second season of travel, food, culture and family. Chef-host Ed Kenney, owner of Mahina & Sun’s, Town, Mud Hen Water and Kaimuki Superette, travels with well-known local guests to explore a special dish tied to their roots.
The series, directed by Ty Sanga and produced by Heather Giugni and Renea Veneri Stewart, won an Emmy in 2014 for its pilot episode about chef Alan Wong’s trek to Japan. This year, the show was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for cinematography.
Watch this season’s installments at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays on KHET. Episodes repeat at 11:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 4:30 p.m. Sundays.
To accompany the series throughout the season, special screenings and dinner events are planned.
Wednesday
The season opener centers on musician Jack Johnson, above left, and the smoked fish his dad made during Jack’s childhood in California. The show follows Kenney and Johnson on a road trip along the California coast.
Oct. 18
“Top Chef” finalist and Hilo native Sheldon Simeon takes his first trip ever to the Philippines, where he and Kenney enjoy pork adobo. Simeon now runs Tin Roof restaurant on Maui.
>> Screening and panel discussion (5 to 7 p.m. Thursday; Campus Center Room 308, University of Hawaii at Manoa): As part of Filipino Heritage Month, a panel discussion features Kenney and Simeon alongside Prometheus Brown and Chera Amlag, the husband-and-wife team behind Seattle’s popular Filipino pop-up dinner series Food and Sh*t.
>> Episode screening (7:30 p.m. Oct. 18, Mahina & Sun’s at the Surfjack Hotel): The event is the culmination of Mahina & Sun’s pork adobo recipe contest. Judges: Kenney, Simeon, Reinior Simeon (Sheldon’s dad), Erik Leong and Lynette Eastman. Guests can vote for fan favorite. At 8:15 p.m., Kenney and Sheldon Simeon will hold a Facebook Live Q&A.
Oct. 25
Kauai hog farmer Valerie Kaneshiro, a Native American raised on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe reservation in Wisconsin, tells her touching story while sharing a cultural dish made from fiddlehead fern (known locally as hoio and warabi), an ingredient common to both Hawaii and Wisconsin.
>> Episode screening (7:30 p.m. Oct. 25, Mud Hen Water): At 8:15 p.m., Kenney and Kaneshiro will hold a Facebook Live Q&A. Reservations recommended; ask for “Family Ingredients” seating.
>> Wild Foods (Oct. 27, 5:30 and 8 p.m. seatings, Kaimuki Superette; $65, purchase tickets at eventbrite.com): Family Ingredients Collaboration Dinner, a five-course Native American meal (BYOB) featuring dishes by Kenney and indigenous food advocate and forager Tashia Hart.
Nov. 1 and 8
In a two-parter, chef Andrew Le, owner of the Pig and the Lady and Piggy Smalls, visits Vietnam. There, he and Kenney explore the national dish of pho. In Part 1, they visit Ho Chi Minh City, the place Le’s parents fled in 1975 just prior to the fall of Saigon. They visit Hanoi in Part 2.
>> Part 1 episode screening and dinner (6:30 p.m. Nov. 1, The Pig and the Lady; $50, $10 drink tickets, purchase at eventbrite.com): 6:30 p.m. dinner featuring pho and 7:30 p.m. screening. At 8:15 p.m., Kenney and Le will hold a Facebook Live Q&A.
>> Part 2 episode screening (7:30 p.m. Nov. 8, Mud Hen Water): At 8:15 p.m., Kenney and Le will hold a Facebook Live Q&A. Reservations recommended; ask for “Family Ingredients” seating.
Nov. 15
Hula dancer, cultural practitioner and sustainable hunter Anela Marie Kawehikulaonalani Evans, who treks the hunting grounds of Lanai and takes the stage at the Merrie Monarch Festival.
>> Episode screening (7:30 p.m. Nov. 15, Mud Hen Water): Venison laulau will be sold. Proceeds from each dish will benefit Ka Pa Hula o Kauanoe o Wa‘ahila and the Lanai Culture and Heritage Center. At 8:15 p.m., Kenney and Evans will hold a Facebook Live Q&A. Reservations recommended; ask for “Family Ingredients” seating.