Category Archives: Alan Wong

Alan Wong, Food and Drink

Smoke Meat

Richard Ha writes:

Chef Alan Wong visited the farm recently. He was taking his chefs and other personnel from his restaurants on a tour of Hamakua farming operations. They visited farmers whose products they use in their restaurants.

We knew Alan was interested in seeing how Portuguese sausage was made, traditional style. And he was interested in seeing how to make smoked meat and pipikaula, so I asked Kimo if he would demonstrate.

Smoked Meat
     

 

 

 

 

Tracy and Kimo stuffing sausages; that’s Alan Wong and Charlotte Romo observing

Kimo said yes, and he made a portable smoke house at the farm. He had it built in a flash with iron, a steel frame and some iron roofing we had around. They used ‘ohi‘a wood for the fire.

Over the weekend, Tracy marinated the meat and stuffed most of the sausage. Before when people used to hang meat in a smoke house, they would use iron, or a piece of hanger, that they bent with a hook on the end. But nowadays they use large paper clips. Kimo said, “You can tell—the guy wearing camouflage clothing who walks into Office Max looking for paper clips and looking lost, he’s a hunter and it’s probably the last time he ever goes into Office Max.”

Smoked Meat
Attaching meat to the paper clips

Alan Wong was right in there with his hands, putting the paper clips on the meat. He jumped right in.

We smoked pig—the long strips in the front are the pork—and Portuguese sausage, which is behind. We also smoked tomatoes and some of our jalapeno peppers.

Smoked Meat

 

 

 

 

 

 
Kimo learned how to do all this from Alvin Jardine, who’s on the right (below). He’s Kimo’s mentor in terms of stuff like this. We’ve known Alvin for about 14 years. He used to come and trap pigs at the Kea‘au farm. He must have caught hundreds of pigs over those 14 years. Now he has about 50 wild pigs at his place.

Smoked Meat

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kimo with Alvin Jardine

Sometimes they dig out under the fence, but he feeds them so well the wild pigs always come back at night. He waits until it’s dark at night and they’re home, and then he fixes the fence. He starting working at the sugar plantation when he was 14 years old—he plowed the fields with a mule and plow. He’s been hunting since then and is still hunting today.

He spoke to our guests and gave pointers about preparing meat for sausage. It was interesting to listen to him. One of the people asked how much salt you use and he said, “Just enough.” The guy asked, “But how much?”

Alvin said it again, “Just enough.” I glanced over at Alan Wong and he had this big grin on his face because he understood exactly what Alvin was saying.

Kimo lit the ‘ohi‘a logs with a propane torch and in five minutes they were ready to go. We took everybody on a farm tour, and when we got back to the smokehouse the meat was already ready to taste.

Smoking meat is really second nature to Kimo and Tracy. They do it so often. I was happy to see that everybody got to see it through the whole process. It was real fun because it was something different.

Alan Wong, Losing Weight, The Good Life

Reward

Richard Ha wrote:

On Jan 7th I started on a program to lose a half pound per week.

Weight on Jan. 7, 2007: 204.5
Weight today, Jan. 28, 2007: 201.0
Scheduled weight: 203.0

I am 2.0 pounds ahead of schedule.

Resting heart rate today: 54 beats per minute.

Months ago, in a previous incarnation of my weight loss program, I got down to 200 pounds and planned to reward myself by having dinner with friends at Alan Wong’s Restaurant in Honolulu.

This past Saturday night, June and I, along with Linda and Dan Nakasone, finally went. For appetizers I had an ‘Opihi Shooter. Here’s what is in that fluted, two-ounce shooter glass, from the bottom up: An olive, a couple slivers of scallion, a couple pieces of fennel, a slice of basil and a slice of shizo leaf, an ume plum, four pieces of diced tomatoes, two more slivers of scallion, an ‘opihi, a wasabi pearl and a sprig of chervil. When you down all this in one shot you get a sensory short-circuit.

We also shared a dish of three different tomato salads. The flavors were incredible. This is not just “eating”—it’s an experience. I stuffed myself.

For my entrée, I had Ginger-Crusted Onaga. It was prepared perfectly. It had a nice crispy crust and sat on a bed of Nozawa sweet corn with Hamakua mushrooms, surrounded by a miso sesame vinaigrette. For an instant, my memory flashed on when Dad used to go fishing and would bring home moi, and Mom would steam it in ti leaf with Hawaiian salt and ginger, then pour hot spattering sesame oil and then shoyu over it.

The dish does not look like that at all, nor are the ingredients the same. It just brought on that memory flash for a moment. That added to the experience for me.

For dessert, June and I went for the Five Spoonfuls of Brulee, which consists of macadamia nuts, Waialua chocolate, Ka‘u orange, Kona Mocha and Liliko‘i brulee, each served in an individual saimin spoon. Then, Michelle, the pastry chef, brought out four variations of Wailua Chocolate truffles for each of us. We were so full we didn’t think we could eat another bite, but they looked so good we had to try. They were just delicious.

But we were totally full, so we asked for a doggie bag. The truffles came back in two little gift-wrapped boxes. Incredible. June protected her treasures all the way back to Hilo.

And it turned out that wasn’t enough of Chef Alan’s creations, so on Saturday June and I went to The Pineapple Room for lunch. The food was delicious and the staff incredible. Again, we indulged.

And this is why I am so happy. In spite of trying so many of Chef Alan’s creations, I lost more weight this week than was my goal. My strategy? I made an effort to eat a little less before our splurges and a little less after. This, along with my exercise program, worked and I was able to continue losing weight.

Maybe I should reward myself with another trip to Alan Wong’s when I hit 200 lbs. again. I think everybody would be game.

Leslie’s note: Wait a minute, Richard—You’re not supposed to keep gaining and losing the same couple pounds over and over so that you keep getting to go back to Alan Wong’s!

Alan Wong, Company News, Sustainability

Kids in a Candy Store

When The Hualalai Grille by Alan Wong, over in Kohala, was closed for renovations last week, Alan Wong brought his staff over for a tour of the farm.

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Charlotte, Alan and Richard in the tomatoes

Richard said he always enjoys showing and explaining all that goes into making our produce so flavorful, safe and consistent. This visit also gave him a chance to tell the people working at the Hualalai Grille how much their support means to us here at the farm, and how it helps keep local farming a sustainable occupation.

“When they present our products in the best light possible, as they do,” he explained, “it raises the reputation of our product in the retail trade. And this helps us to price our products so we can be sustainable.

“I don’t think they had thought much about how much their support helps local farmers.”

Charlotte Romo, the farm’s hydroponic crop specialist, helped with the farm tour. “We showed them our little round yellow cucumber,” she said. “It was our first one; we’d just harvested it. They’re like tennis balls.”

“One of the first things Richard did when Alan came,” she said, “was to give him two seed catalogs so he could go through them and think about all the fun things we can grow.” She said the three of them are like kids in a candy shop with all the possibilities they find in seed catalogs.

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Alan Wong in action

One thing the chefs and other staff members got to see was our new Variety Garden, where we grow a lot of vegetables in close collaboration with Chef Alan.

The Variety Garden has purple carrots, golden beets, colored radishes, different colors and shapes of sweet bell peppers, numerous varieties, colors and shapes of eggplants, at least 15 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, poha and tomatillos and even more.

Charlotte described the samples they set up in the packing house for the group to taste. “Tracy put out some of the new stuff we’re growing,” she said, “and a selection of the heirlooms and the Hamakua Sweets (tomatoes). Alan was eating a melon. We have started growing some really sweet, good melons, and we send him a few at a time.”

She said Alan is passionate about his produce. “He gets really excited,” she said, “which is nice for us because we don’t usually see that. I mostly work with plants, and pruners, so it’s fun to see somebody who appreciates it.”

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Charlotte and Tracy, briefing the troops

She said he also asks a lot of really good questions. “He had me stumped at one point,” she said, “and I was embarrassed because I’m pretty knowledgeable about tomatoes. He asked if I knew the compound responsible for the smell of the vine. You know how with the T.O.V.’s, the Tomatoes-on-the-Vine, you can smell that very strong aroma of the vine, and that’s how you know it’s so fresh? I didn’t know the answer.

“So I called up one of my old professors,” she said. “She’s one of the top tomato physiologists, and she didn’t know either. It’s actually a bunch of compounds. I sent him some more information about it.”

She explained that most of the new products we grow for Chef Alan Wong are experimental at this point, while we perfect how to grow them. “We like to try new and different things,” she said. “It’s fun for us. Hopefully in the future these veggies will be in the stores at some point. That’s the whole idea—to provide more local, sustainable food instead of having to have everything shipped here.” – Leslie Lang

Alan Wong, Community, Contest

Partnerships

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Richard Ha writes:

Sometimes Hawaii Community College is overlooked in favor of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, but it shouldn’t be. The school gives students some excellent opportunities not otherwise available here.

My son Brian took the community college’s carpentry and electrician courses and now he’s an Apache helicopter pilot. The machine he flies costs more than our entire farm.

Several years ago I mentioned to Allan Okuda, director of the Community College’s food service program, that we were starting hydroponic vegetable production and wanted to do something with his culinary program. He was very receptive to the idea.

The Hamakua Springs Tomato Recipe Contest is our first opportunity to work with the culinary school. When I called Allan Okuda about doing something with them re: the tomato recipe contest, he said he’d been waiting for us to get back in touch. He liked the idea of having the program’s students prepare the recipes for final judging. Students will get the opportunity to use the skills they have learned to prepare the recipes for judging, he said.

Foodland Super Markets helped to make this event a reality by publicizing the Hamakua Springs Tomato Recipe Contest in their mailouts, as well as with point of purchase instructions next to their tomato displays.

As an added bonus, internationally renowned chef Alan Wong, who often visits us at Hamakua Springs and who treats us farmers like his partners, said he’d be happy to talk to some of the food service students.

In addition to being an internationally acclaimed chef, Alan Wong is a teacher at heart. He makes people comfortable and he also makes everything seem possible. I truly believe that for some of the students it could be a pivotal moment in their lives.

I asked Allan Okuda if he would select a few students to meet with Chef Alan, and he was happy to do it. He thinks this will be a unique opportunity for students to meet one of the best chefs in the world.

In Hilo, the “culinary backwoods” where we live, we will be so happy to help bring something like this about.

Alan Wong, R&D

Germinating

A couple of days ago an idea just came to me: Why don’t we dedicate a couple of our growing houses solely to Research and Development for our partner-in-good-food Chef Alan Wong?

Most of the time we focus on growing what we think might be popular in the supermarkets. But here we will plant things strictly for fun; just because we’re curious and because Chef Alan might be able to use them in his restaurants. He will make suggestions and we’ll try other new and interesting things as well. He is excited about this project and so are we. This is going to be great fun.

Today we started looking at what we could plant. How about long, short, round, striped and mini eggplants to start? What’s a tomatillo, exactly? Let’s try all the types. What about peppers—hot, sweet, long, mini, chocolate, white, whatever. Colored beets. Asparagus—thin, stout, purple, green and white. All things bean. Different colors and textures. Whatever else strikes our fancy.

Tomorrow we start germinating seeds. I’ll post here periodically about how our Chef Alan Wong R&D project is coming along.

Alan Wong, Awards

We Already Knew It But Now It’s Official: Alan Wong’s Restaurant is Great

Richard Ha writes:

Gourmet magazine has just ranked Alan Wong’s Restaurant in Honolulu as the Eighth Best Restaurant in America. That’s on its most recent list of the America’s Top 50 Restaurants, which it publishes every five years.

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That’s pretty impressive, but Chef Alan—who uses Hamakua Springs tomatoes and lettuces at his restaurants—treats his farmers like they are the ones who are the celebrities. When Tracy and Kimo, the next generation of Hamakua Springs farmers, went to eat at his restaurant on O‘ahu recently, they were treated like celebrities.

The respect Chef Alan shows for the farm products we provide his restaurants has a big impact around here. Our people on the farm want to do a better job knowing that Chef Alan will handle our products in such a spectacular way.

When June and I attended the Tomato Fest in Carmel recently, we brought back some incredible new varieties of heirloom tomatoes. We cannot wait to harvest them and bring them to Chef Alan.

Recently, Chef Alan invited me to sit in on a product development meeting with his staff. They were discussing lettuce, and I learned a lot about how important every lettuce leaf is. I pay attention now to each leaf in every salad I eat, and all because of the attention that Chef Alan pays to our products. He truly makes us better farmers.

We know that being named Eighth Best Restaurant in America is a big deal. And we know that Chef Alan makes us farmers want to do the best job we can do. For that, he’s number one in our book.

Alan Wong, Lettuce, Our Employees

Employee Spotlight: Susie White

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Richard told me a story about something that happened several months ago, when the hydroponic lettuces were new and he asked Susie White—at the time, she was the Hamakua Springs tomato packing house supervisor—to come see what they were doing with lettuce.

Susie_first1_1“I could tell that she really wanted to get her hands on the lettuces,” he said. “The clincher was when I handed her one. She held it really gently, like it was a baby bird, and I thought to myself, ‘She’s the one.’”

He asked her if she was interested in taking on the lettuce project and she said she couldn’t wait. Susie is now Lettuce Production Supervisor at Hamakua Springs Country Farms.

Susie says that she used to drive by the farm and see the greenhouses. She wondered what was growing in there, and when she saw a job opening she applied.

“I really needed full-time and benefits, and that’s what they were offering. I thought, I don’t want to work on a banana farm. But it turned out to be so much more than I expected. I just love it.”

She was hired to work in the greenhouse, pruning tomatoes. Less than two weeks later she was put in charge of the packing house, becoming the first tomato packing house supervisor. Together, says Richard, they developed the processes they use today.

She says it’s great fun learning about hydroponics and greenhouses. “Plus it’s all new—his greenhouse operation is new and he’s cutting edge. We’re learning as we go. I’ve never been bored since I worked here. Plus it’s close to my house; I live just up the road. And I get to use all my experience.”

Her experience is extensive and fitting. She studied at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo’s Department of Agriculture, and also used to grow vegetables at home—lettuce, herbs, corn, asparagus and watercress—for restaurants (Rosie’s Boathouse, Harrington’s) where she worked as a bartender.

Before coming to work at Hamakua Springs in early 2004, the self-described “aggie” worked for the Hawai‘i Agriculture Research Center, and for the Research Corporation of the University of Hawai‘i, doing forestry research for both.

“I use all that research in the job now. For instance, with the tomato yield it was a lot of data collection, and out here in the lettuce it was how to set up little trials, spacing, how many seeds. We were doing a lot of Alan Wong research, trying to get all the lettuces the right size and shape for him, and how long it takes to the time of harvest, different times of year….”

She says Richard’s fun to work for because he “tries things that people don’t think can be done, mostly because they just haven’t been done before.”

“And he’s always trying new things and is open to new ideas,” she says. “He asks all of us, wherever we’re working. He’s always looking for feedback.”

She speaks highly of both Richard and June, who she says “approach things very business-like, but are very down to earth. For instance, all Richard cared about working with tomatoes is how they tasted, not the yields. And Kimo and Tracy, too. They are making very thought-out decisions, plans, and everything they do they have a reason for. You might not know what it is at first but after awhile you see it.”

“I like working for all of them,” she says. “I trust them.” Susie2_1

Richard speaks equally highly of Susie. “The thing that first got my attention,” he says, “was how Susie cared for her fellow workers, especially the ones who could possibly get overlooked because of not understanding the language as well as others. She was like a mother hen to all those workers and we appreciated that very much.”

He says he saw that she noticed if somebody—especially someone new, who didn’t know the routine yet—didn’t know it was break time.

“Or if there’s a meeting,” he says, “some of the new people might not feel comfortable and they’ll hang back. She’ll bring them to the middle and make them feel welcome. That’s what we want to do here at Hamakua Springs—take care of the most defenseless. And that’s what she does.”

Susie says her job has kept her “challenged beyond belief”—in a good way. “We went from six greenhouses of tomatoes to over 100,” she says. “Now I’m challenging my way back up over here in the lettuce. It’s kept me on my toes a hundred percent. This job just turned out to be the dream job I never knew it would be.”

“I love it,” she says. “I’m having a ball.” — posted by Leslie Lang

Alan Wong, Losing Weight

There Goes Another One

I lost 1.1 lbs. this week.

My goal: To lose one pound per week for 39 weeks
Starting weight on 5/23/06: 214.6 lbs.
End goal, on 2/18/07: 175 lbs.

This week’s target weight: 204.6 lbs.
Today’s actual weight: 201.8 lbs. 7/23/06

I am 2.8 lbs. ahead of schedule

Since 5/23, I have lost 12.8 lbs.
On 5/23, my resting heart rate was 65 beats per minute

Today’s resting heart rate: 55 beats per minute.*

* This goes down as one gets into better shape. Lance Armstrong’s is said to be 32. George W’s was reported to be 47 beats per minute. Out of shape, mine is in the 70s. My best was 52 many years ago.

***

I ran across this article in Web MD: Moderate amounts of regular exercise might delay Alzheimer’s disease in older adults.

The findings are based on more than 1,700 adults, aged 65 and older, who didn’t have dementia at the study’s start. Those who reported exercising at least three times per week were nearly a third less likely to develop dementia—primarily Alzheimer’s—over six years.

To me, this seems like a good reason to exercise.

Lately I’ve been having a tougher time than usual losing my one pound per week. I missed two exercise sessions this week. I’ve decided I need to do more than 500 calories per day to anticipate times when something comes up. Three thousand five hundred calories equals one pound, and it usually takes me a little more than 30 minutes to achieve the 500 calorie per day goal. My new plan is to do more calories per day in the early part of the week and build up a credit, in case something comes up and I have to miss an exercise session. 

I’ll work myself up to 50 minutes per day, which at my rate is the equivalent of 800 or so calories. To make it easy on myself, I will either break it into two 25-minute sessions, or else do one session but get off the elliptical trainer every 10 minutes to walk around. This is much easier than just powering through 50-minute sessions every day. It will also allow my body to adapt to the increased work load without too much mental strain. I always like to take the easy route.

I have been weight training off and on for more than 30 years. A little more than five years ago, I was a competitive powerlifter in the 54-59 age bracket. I entered 16 sanctioned powerlifting meets and several state championships and won my class in most of the meets I entered.

My best result was at Sonny Ronolo’s first annual Bench Press Contest held at the Windward Mall on O’ahu. I benchpressed 341 lbs. and won the best lifter award in the “Raw” category, which means without the stretchable bench shirt and other aids.

So I have a bit of knowledge as to what works for me as far as training is concerned. And the older I get, the wiser I become.

Several things I have learned:
   
1. It really is the journey that is the reward. I’ve been on this weight loss/exercise journey for two months now, and although it may seem that the main goal is to lose weight, another real benefit is that my resting heart rate has been in the 50s for two months. That means that my heart is getting stronger and working more efficiently, which hopefully will help me in the long run. As a bonus, the journey is even more fun because I am setting goals and giving myself rewards. The weekly goals are not too high, but the rewards are very good. For instance, when I break 200 lbs. soon I plan to take June to eat lunch at The Hualalai Grille by Alan Wong.

2. Overtraining causes injuries, even if your last name is Man and your first is Super. Injury causes one to abandon the journey. This is not good.

3. Set small achievable goals and reward yourself for hitting them. The idea is to set your self up for success. It’s always better to smile than frown.

4. Be realistic about what you can achieve and go ahead and do it. It’s better to successfully achieve 95% of what you hope to achieve than to fail while attempting 105%. Ninety-five percent of a big grin is still a grin.

5. It’s all in the mind. When you’re young and inexperienced, you may actually slap your own face for motivation; when you’re old and wise, you only think about slapping your own face for motivation; you don’t really have to do it. All that face-slapping did not make up for what I didn’t accomplish in the gym in the weeks and months prior to a powerlifting contest. Because I am older and wiser I don’t slap my own face for motivation anymore. Instead I go to The Haulalai Grille by Alan Wong for lunch.

I believe that half the battle in my attempt to lose weight has been planning my weight loss program in advance. 
    
I’m approaching the big “200 lb.” mark and I don’t want to get stuck there. I think that I’ll creep up close and then speed pass and not look back.

Alan Wong, Food and Drink, Hamakua Coast, The Good Life

The Day The Chefs Came Over and Cooked For Us

Richard Ha writes:

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Chef Alan Wong is featured in this week’s MidWeek magazine. Jo McGarry, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s Restaurant Specialist, writes about Chef Alan’s commitment to island-fresh products grown by local farmers. I’m in the picture with Chef Alan.

In the article, she mentions his bringing some of the staff from his Hawai’i restaurants to visit Hamakua Springs. Let me tell you about that visit, and about them cooking for us.

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First, it’s pretty amazing how Alan Wong treats his farmers. When our farm personnel visit his restaurants, they are treated like royalty. To Chef Alan, the farmers are the celebrities. He keeps telling us that he cannot make products better; that he is limited by what he has to work with. Although we don’t know if we believe that, it’s starting to sink in. Knowing this, we try to do the best we can.

Once Kimo and Tracy went to the Pineapple Room, unannounced. Restaurant Manager Barbara Stange recognized them and notified her staff that the people from Hamakua Springs Country Farms were in the house.

Kimo and Tracy both said they had never experienced anything like it: It seemed like they were assigned extra wait staff. They were brought extra dishes to sample. People were saying, “Try this, it’s made with cocktail tomatoes.” And, “Here’s another dish.” I’m sure Chef Alan does this for all his farmers. But it makes us want to take special care of all the products we supply him.

A few months back he brought some of the staff from his Hawai’i restaurants to visit the Big Island farmers on the Hamakua coast. He said it helps the staff describe his creations when they know the farmer who grow the product.

When he visited us, we showed him several things we were testing. A few months before, Chef Alan had expressed interest in creating a dessert with a specialty melon cut in half and served with a scoop of ice cream.

Alan_and_melons_1So we have been testing melons. That picture is of Chef Alan checking the melon for aroma. He gave his approval, and so we are now proceeding on to production. The next step is to get the melons to his restaurants and to make sure everything is right. After that we will bring it to the supermarkets. But first things first. We need to prove that we can deliver sweet melons each time, all the time.

We took everyone on a tour of our farm, where I explained our sustainable farming philosophy and how it drives our decision-making. They saw how we use high-tech monitoring of environmental conditions inside of a low-energy-consuming growing house.

We run the irrigation controllers with a few D batteries. We don’t use electricity at the tomato houses and all our water is free. We leave the tomatoes on the plants to ripen naturally for as long as we can. We continuously monitor sugar content of the tomatoes so we are sure they are sweet. I demonstrated how we take leaf samples, which we send to a lab to assess the plant’s nutritional status. Then we make up a custom fertilizer that helps to give it a rich and sweet flavor.

We are mindful of the effect our farming might have on the environment, so we are careful not to over-fertilize. Our tomato houses are surrounded by strips of vegetation that help prevent any excess fertilizer from reaching any streams.

Chef Alan gave us pointers about what he looks for in the various crops we grow, and we showed him how to drive a bulldozer. He and Kimo went in the back and pushed some soil around. Chef Alan got to make a pile and level it off, pack it down and then back blade it for a nice finish. He learned that you steer the bulldozer by locking one brake or the other. In that way you can even spin the machine around in one spot. He had an ear-to-ear grin when he cruised by on his way to park the machine. Now that we know his weakness, we’re going to trade lessons on the backhoe for another cookout.

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We put up a tent so we could do this and keep the farm running. Besides the immediate family, our supervisors came. Leslie Lang, our neighbor and future Chief Blogger, was there. Bob and Janice Stanga (of Hamakua Mushrooms) brought their Hamakua mushrooms, Lesley Hill and Mike Crowell (Wailea Agricultural Group) provided heart of palm, Dick and Heather Threlfall (Hawaii Island Goat Dairy) provided goat cheese, we supplied tomatoes and greens, and the chefs brought li hing mui/ume dressing with them, and wine. (We got to keep the extra li hing mui dressing). They also bought loads of stuff from the Hilo Farmers Market.

When they all started into action preparing the dinner, it looked like there were 50 things going on at once. Barbara Stange and Leigh Ito, also of Alan Wong’s staff, were making different kinds of salads that were so nice to look at. The head of the wait staff and Chef Alan’s front-of-the-house personnel were busy doing the finishing touches on dishes never before seen at Hamakua Springs Country Farms.

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Then they fired up the grills and started cooking. Grandma Ha was thrilled that Chef Alan was cooking for us. She told him, “Give me the recipe, okay?” Mom can do that–she has seniority. (That’s my mom and Alan Wong on the right.) Chef James of the Hualalai Grille was on one burner, Chef Neil, Chef de cuisine from the Pineapple Room was on another, and Executive Chef Lance was on another.

The food was delicious and we tried everything. They brought beer and wine and there was animated conversation going on all around.

Chef Alan, Dan Nakasone and I have pineapple-picking stories in common. Tracy and a small audience cornered Chef Lance, who was at a burner demonstrating the finer points about preparing risotto. (You have to keep your eye on it.)

Some of the guys were trading pig hunting stories with the Hualalai Grille staff. Why was I surprised that they would know anything about pig hunting, just because they are associated with a restaurant that has won nine ‘Ilima awards and is the quintessential Hawaii Regional Cuisine restaurant?

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We realized that they are all normal, everyday people, like you and me. But they are incredibly good at what they do. We like to think that we are kind of like that, too. We all live here in Hawai’i, with all of the local influences. At the end of the evening we were like good old friends. And, can you imagine–we got to give all our people take-home plates of Alan Wong’s creations.

Life on the farm will never be the same.

Now we know what happens to the products we grow and how important it is to provide the best quality possible. We used to be concerned about our products until they left the farm’s loading docks. Now we worry about everything that goes on after they leave our farm and until they reach Chef Alan’s door. And that makes us better farmers.