The 2020 Hawai‘i Food & Wine Festival concluded Saturday night with a dinner by five all-star chefs held at Roy’s Hawaii Kai restaurant.
That sounds like a description that could have suited many festival events held over the last 10 years, premium foodie affairs designed to bring celebrity chefs to town and put fresh local ingredients in their hands. But this year, COVID-19 changed everything.
A festival that last year drew 10,000 guests over three weeks had to be scaled far back. Diners this year bought tickets by table and ate in socially distanced bubbles. A total of 817 people attended 10 dinners; another 72 competed in the annual Roy’s Golf Classic on Maui. Last year, ticket sales yielded $400,000 in donations to community groups; this year’s take, once all the numbers are tallied, will be far less.
Still, almost every event sold out. For the three that didn’t, it was just by a matter of a couple of late-night seatings.
Festival CEO Denise Yamaguchi, reflecting as Saturday’s final dinner wound down, said the event remained true to its mission to promote the local food scene, from farms to restaurants.
“Considering the challenges,” she said, “it went very well.”
That last dinner, called “Let the Good Times Roll,” brought together five chefs who’ve known each other for years, Dean Fearing of Dallas, Nancy Silverton of Los Angeles, Jonathan Waxman of New York and Hawaii’s Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong.
“Old dogs rule” was Roy Yamaguchi’s depiction of the theme. All the chefs are age 60-plus and proud of it (Waxman had turned 70 just a few days before).
Nothing left to prove, Fearing said.
And as old dogs, they reflected on today’s unprecedented challenges to their industry. Although they may have made their marks years ago, the pandemic has proved “evolution is everything,” Waxman said.
“This is a huge course-correction. Everybody has to reinvent themselves, you can’t sit on your laurels.”
He’s had to reinvent many times himself. The usual reason, he laughed: “Failure.”
Denise Yamaguchi (the chef’s wife) isn’t sure what next year’s festival will bring, whether there can be a return to large-scale events with hundreds of people circulating among dozens of food stations.
If not, Fearing said, dinners like the one at Roy’s, with each chef preparing one elaborate dish as part of a leisurely meal, are the answer.
“If that’s the way the new world is going to roll, I like it.”
More might have been said, but pandemic reality intervened again. At 10 p.m., under the city’s restrictions, no more liquor could be served. Roy Yamaguchi, watching the time, pointed to a couple of just-filled wine glasses. “Chug it down.”
FOODIE FEASTS AT FOODLAND
A trio of holiday-themed gatherings is the next project of the Hawai‘i Food & Wine Festival, a partnership with Foodland supermarkets. Tickets are on sale for Holiday Cheer: A Weekend of Culinary Events, Dec. 11 to 13, at Foodland restaurants.
Tickets are $150 to $500 for groups of two or four (no single tickets). Visit hfwf.me or call 738-6245. Proceeds benefit culinary and agricutural programs.
>> Making Spirits Bright: Four-course dinner paired with spirits; Dec. 11, et al. restaurant at Kahala Mkt. Colin Hazama rejoins his former sous-chef from The Royal Hawaiian, Colin Sato, now chef at et al. Each course served with a cocktail by mixologist Kenny Lum.
>> One Fish, Two Fish: Three-course lunch; Dec. 12, Redfish Poke Bar, Salt at Our Kakaako. Andrew Le of The Pig & The Lady joins Redfish’s Reid Matsumura.
>> Brunch Is Maika‘i: Dec. 13, Mahi‘ai Table at Foodland Farms Ka Makana Ali‘i, Kapolei. Mahi‘ai’s Jonathan Donoghue hosts Darryl Shinogi of Roy’s Ko Olina for three courses fueled by mimosa and bloody mary carts.
