Chuck and his son Kale Furuya celebrated Father's Day differently than most this year. The pair worked the dinner service at Mara — a new Mediterranean restaurant across from the Ala Moana Center.
They collaborated on a Father's Day four-course dinner and wine pairing.
"I was like the bear at the state park," said Chuck Furuya who was Hawaiʻi's first master sommelier. "The bear just goes to the picnic table and sits there with them, and then, like, trying to shoo the bear away. That was me. I was Yogi Bear. And that's what that night also was about. Kale had created these stories, and so I just wanted to walk around and make sure that those stories were told from as many different perspectives and as succinctly as possible."
Kale, Mara's in-house sommelier, recalled how his dad inspired him to become a sommelier as well.
"(Chuck is) very much about teaching fundamentals," Kale Furuya said. "And for our sommelier, one of the fundamentals is working the floor. The other two fundamentals, among many, are clean glassware and serving wine at the right temperature."
The father-son duo also created a podcast called "Chuck Furuya Uncorked."
"When we started doing that podcast, that was Kale's vision. And he was always talking to me, so I started learning things from his generation's perspective, as opposed to just how I've done things for 45 years," Chuck said. "So it was a breath of fresh air for me to kind of recalibrate what I do, how I do it, etc."
This interview aired on The Conversation on June 19, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
