When Richard told me about the heirloom tomato sampler that Hilo Bay Café serves—it’s made with several types of Hamakua Springs heirlooms—I had to see it for myself.
If you don’t live around here and haven’t eaten at Hilo Bay Café, the restaurant itself a good enough reason to come visit. Classy but casual, full bar, great food with an emphasis on local produce, local, free-range grass-fed beef and organic ingredients (even the bottle of Heinz ketchup on the table says “organic”—who knew!). It’s an easy-going, elegant and delicious place to eat.
But not only are the ingredients above par, so are the resulting dishes. Joshua Ketner, executive chef since the restaurant opened three years ago, struggled to describe the food in only a few words.
“It’s an eclectic blend of Island ingredients,” he told me, “as well as American and French, with undertones of Japanese. The dishes themselves are more new age. Some are traditional with a new twist. We call it ‘Good Food.’” 
Richard and June, who like “good food,” are regulars. One time they brought in samples of their heirloom tomatoes and Chef Joshua loved them.
He ordered more and started serving them, very simply presented, as a sampler platter. “I didn’t want to disguise the flavor of the tomatoes,” he said, “because they’re so good. I tasted them straight, and they were just great by themselves. I like to bring out the flavors instead of putting in a lot of ingredients to mask the vegetables.”
The special appetizer, normally served at dinnertime (but thank you again, Chef Josh, for making it for me yesterday at lunchtime) consists of thick wedges from different heirlooms—all beautiful, different and very tasty. They are served on a platter with a small mound of deep red ‘alae salt from Kaua‘i, for dipping, and another of cracked black pepper.
It’s a beautiful presentation. The thick cuts of the very different tomatoes are capped off with a couple Hamakua Sweets—the tiny, tear-shaped tomatoes from Hamakua Springs that are, truly, so sweet they taste like they have sugar on them. In a very, very good way.
I brought Emma Rose, my 2-1/2 year old tomato aficionado, along with me to the restaurant to help me taste. This girl knows her tomatoes. You might remember her eating a Green Zebra heirloom like it was an apple back when she was much younger.
She did not disappoint. She pulled that platter over to her side of the table and got busy. She dipped tomatoes in the salt and ate, sometimes with one tomato in each hand. She tried every piece, and made them look as delicious as they were. I finally realized I needed to stop taking pictures and get in there before they were gone. I’m glad I did.
From the yellow tomato on the end, that’s the Striped German variety, the Red Brandywine, the Purple Cherokee, the Lemon Boy and a Green Zebra. The tiny red tomatoes are the Hamakua Sweets.
Chef Josh said he also serves the Hamakua Sweets in his tofu dish. The tofu is baked in balsamic vinegar. Then he caramelizes some Kekela Farms fennel, then adds the Hamakua Sweets, some spinach and some basil pesto. That’s served with the tofu and topped with some feta cheese. Sounds like I’ll have to go back.
Richard, an heirloom tomato enthusiast who just returned from a whole festival devoted to them, loves that Chef Josh presents the heirlooms so simply. 
“He has enough confidence in his ability to just let the tomatoes do what they do,” he said. “To let the tomato just sit and shine by itself. I thought that was great. I think a lot of him. I think he’s a real artist.”
An older Japanese woman, who told me she used to have a guava farm at Hakalau, not far from Pepe‘ekeo where Hamakua Springs is located, sat at the table next to us with her granddaughter and marveled at our platter of beautiful tomatoes. I told her I was taking photos for Hamakua Springs, who grows the heirlooms, and she knew about Hamakua Springs: “Their tomatoes are just beautiful,” she said. “Tell them we like their produce.”
Richard, they like your produce. Emma Rose and I, and a lot of other people, do too. — posted by Leslie Lang
we grow the tomatoes that we like to eat rather than the ones that yields the most.
Its fun to come to work. The Hamakua Sweets grape sized tomatoes although not an heirloom, is one of our favorites. It can be found at Foodland.
Heirlooms are especially fun, because they come in such a wide variety of sizes, shapes, colors and tastes.
Sonia;
When you came to visit and we gave you some heirloom tomatoes, you said that you sliced them and had it chilled with sea salt and ground pepper. We thought, “Sonia, would really appreciate the way Chef Josh did his heirloom tomato sampler.”