Local chef Mark Noguchi is bridging the gap between farmers and consumers through carefully crafted meals.
Noguchi, who is often referred to as "Gooch," led a one night "Town and Country" dinner on Oʻahu's North Shore earlier this month, connecting urban tastes to a rural landscape. His goal was to elevate the expertise, work and experience of the agriculture workers across Hawaiʻi who helped make the dinner possible through their farming.
The five-course meal featured local ingredients ranging from kalo, to lilikoʻi, to hamachi, to ʻulu. One starter was inspired by one of Queen Liliʻuokalani's favorite snacks — a small patty made from kalo leaves.
Event organizers made it a point to sit the farmers at the center table to celebrate their work and "give them the spotlight," as Noguchi stated before the main courses.
"That center table is filled with a lot of heavies of people that show up for our community on the daily," Noguchi told HPR. "Most of their work is unseen, even by us, but for sure by the majority of people who eat what their hands produce."
He said it's important to remind Hawaiʻi residents of their direct connection and relationship to the land and food, adding that it has become much easier to forget where our food comes from.
"It makes me happy to see that chefs and the cooks look satisfied, and they look like they're proud of what they accomplished," he said. "I know I'm proud, but how I feel is third, fourth, fifth place to what's really important, and I think that all the hands that put together the dinner is what's most important."
The proceeds from the dinner sales and the event's silent auction were donated to Chef Hui, a local nonprofit that supports farmers, producers and agriculture partners across Hawaiʻi.
Stacy Sproat is the executive director of the Waipā Foundation, one of the organizations that's supported by Chef Hui. She said the group was a massive help after Hurricane Lowell hit in September, providing both boots-on-the-ground assistance and financial help.
"We partnered after the hurricane, and they really helped us to launch and stand up a project where we were able to provide meals to our community, and ramp up to providing hundreds of meals," Sproat said.
Chef Hui has been largely focused on post-storm repairs and getting farmers back on their feet since the hurricanes swept through the islands.
"We really needed the support in all of those areas, both physical, logistical, and and funding because those are the things that it takes," Sproat said. "That's what they're so amazing about, is that they can provide all of those networks and all of that support all the way around."
The dinner was held at the Alaia Restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton Turtle Bay. Noguchi said he believes establishments built on Hawaiian land have a special responsibility to give back to the people and communities that support it.
"Big properties like this have this kuleana, because most hotels sit on an ahupuaʻa," Noguchi said. "Our kūpuna lived within an ahupuaʻa and intimately knew how to thrive. So now, we have this ability to gather farmers and family and friends and malihini and visitors all in one place, sharing this meal. So a place like this offers us the chance to have a platform that we usually wouldn't."
