It was all about eating the way most of us would want to eat every day if we had the resources — fresh, local, and perfectly prepared.
The lineup of famed chefs didn’t hurt either.
Mealani’s Taste of The Hawaiian Range marked two decades of fine eating Friday evening at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. Herds of residents and visitors queued up for that annual taste of pasture-raised beef, pork, lamb, mutton, goat and even wild boar.
With grills blazing and delectable smoke wafting, chefs from 31 restaurants singed and broiled and brazed their way through the 100 pounds of meat allotted to each team, grown by 20 of the island’s farms and ranches. The idea was to make use of the entire animal, including the less-than-choice cuts. As it was so aptly put by those who have been part of the event for successive years: “Everything from tongue to tail.”
The gala included educational presentations by two founders of Hawaii regional cuisine, Roy Yamaguchi and Peter Merriman. Chefs making delicacies of Big Island meats included Bravo’s “Top Chef” Sheldon Simeon of Maui’s Migrant Restaurant and Ed Kenney of Honolulu’s Town Restaurant, host of the television show “Family Ingredients.”
Yamaguchi remembered the event from the early days in a small venue in Waimea, “jam packed,” with a quaint feel. His chef Connor Butler served up pierogis, or Polish dumplings made from beef brisket from Waimea, slowly brazed for 10 hours in red wine, shredded and mixed with a sweet dry Chinese sausage, smoked onion, coconut and Okinawan sweet potato.
“For me, serving out 800 to 1,000, it’s all about how I can get out the bold flavors and something we can serve smoothly and consistently,” he said.
Some 40 exhibitors showcased Big Island products ranging from honey to bratwurst and sweet potatoes originating from New Guinea. Chef Jason Schoonover of 12th Avenue Grill in Honolulu was tasked with making beef oxtail a delicacy.
“There is no wrong end,” he said.
The key is a slow braze, Schoonover said, an overnight marinade, searing, “lots of red wine, a ton of herbs — lemon grass, bay leaves, thyme.”
The first Taste of The Hawaiian Range had 16 participants back in 1996, and it all began at Waimea’s Mealani Research Station, part of the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.
At Kuhio Grille from Hilo, the Taste was all about family and history. Erin Araki, daughter of the restaurant’s founder Sam Kuhio, has been part of the restaurant’s participation in the event since the beginning. She and her sister Lauren remembered rain and mud as inescapable aspects of those first Waimea events.
“It was smaller, more intimate,” Lauren Araki said.
Erin Araki, who lead off the cooking of “Suki” burgers with wasabi mayo, remembers ribs baked with a guava glaze from an earlier event. And taro leaves. In the early days she went down into Waipio Valley to farm the crop with her family. When the restaurant opened, it was a relief; there was air conditioning and a break from the labor of farming. Her uncle, Derrick Araki, still farms the leaves the restaurant uses today.
Mauna Lani resident Colleen Huebner found the Taste a good way to sample the offerings of a lot of area restaurants in one room. Originally from Seattle, she remembered a lot of food events there that she passed on because they were too big. Last year, 1,100 people showed up for Taste of The Range.
Event organizers didn’t yet have a firm number for this year, but said the turnout was comparable.
“It seems like a good balance,” Huebner said. “Just the right size.”