Farm Fresh Takes Root in Hawaii

If the sleepy island of Lanai seems like an odd place to find some of Hawaii’s best--and most urbane--dining, credit executive chef John M. Farnsworth, Jr., who last month was named one of the country’s best new chefs by Food & Wine Magazine.

Until Lanai’s first upscale resort, The Lodge at Koele, opened in April, 1990, life on the island had continued almost untouched by modern times--and modern food. Even now, following the May opening of the second resort, The Manele Bay Hotel, life on the rest of the island remains unpretentious.

So what are these grand hotels--both run by the prestige-hotel management firm Rockresorts, both replete with English butler service--doing on this primarily working-class island? Attracting the rich and the powerful--people who demand quality in all things, including their meals. And that was one lure for the lanky, 41-year-old Farnsworth, a veteran of Rockresorts in the Caribbean.

Since his arrival on Lanai, he has earned a reputation for regional Hawaiian cooking that combines classic European culinary techniques with local ingredients.

As one might expect, high-class food like this comes with high-class prices. An average dinner for two in the formal dining room of The Lodge is $120, not including wine. At Manele Bay’s casual restaurant, Hulopoe Court, the price will be $85, without wine.

Rice waffles with passion fruit, coconut chutney ($9), tiger prawns in tangerine olive oil with garlic cloves and Italian parsley ($26.75), and charred, locally farmed pork with black bean sauce and corn cakes ($26) are just a few of the creations that have put Lanai on the culinary map.

At the two dining rooms of The Lodge at Koele, patrons feast on Farnsworth’s breakfast bread pudding with cinnamon berry sauce ($8.25), grilled striped marlin pastrami on tomato-fennel salad ($8), and grilled duck breast with macadamia spaetzle ($28).

At Manele Bay’s three restaurants, some of the most popular menu items are sage-rubbed pork chops with stone-ground mustard sauce ($24), and for breakfast, pineapple macadamia strudel ($4.50).

The man who created these delicacies is a Connecticut native who was slinging fast food on Cape Cod and harboring two life goals: He wanted to learn more about cooking and he wanted to live on a tropical island. So he enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America in New York and graduated with honors in 1975.

Then he took care of his second wish: He spent 14 years working for three Rockresorts in the Caribbean. Carambola Beach Resort on St. Croix was one. There, by using produce from an organic farm planted for the hotel dining establishments, Farnsworth learned to create menus based on easy access to fresh ingredients.

In a sense, it was that garden experience that made Farnsworth a logical choice for Lanai. In 1988, a Dole Food executive called Farnsworth and asked him to move to Lanai to be executive chef for the two resorts. The executive told the chef that Los Angeles developer and Dole chairman David Murdock, who owns the hotels, was determined that they be self-sufficient enough that Farnsworth could serve food harvested or raised on the island. “When I got the offer, I thought I had died and gone to heaven,” Farnsworth said.

Today, Farnsworth keeps a watchful eye over an organic garden, a hen house, a pig farm, a fruit-and-nut orchard and a hothouse.

“I always wanted to harvest vegetables in the morning and serve them for dinner that night. Now I can,” he said. “All I have to do is walk through the garden and see what’s at its peak of maturity and flavor. Then it’s in my kitchen and on guests’ tables.”

Unlike most restaurant gardens, his is no tiny patch of land squeezed behind the kitchen door. The 10-acre plot, about six miles from both Rockresorts, is so large that one almost needs a tour guide. In fact, guests at both The Lodge and The Manele Bay Hotel can make arrangements through the concierge to stroll through it (and even to steal a tomato off the vine).

Tomatoes are only one of about 24 crops. Perched on a hill overlooking the ocean about six miles from both hotels, the garden includes Japanese eggplant, two kinds of okra, chile peppers, ung choy (Chinese water spinach), fava beans, kohlrabi and baby leeks.

The garden also produces a minimum of five varieties of lettuce, including anuenue , a Hawaiian version of Boston lettuce.

Herbs are also in abundance. Lovage, cilantro, four kinds of basil, garlic, chives and chamomile top a lengthy list. Edible nasturtium flowers brighten the garden.

Or, if Farnsworth needs more to spark his creativity, he can head to the hothouse, about four miles from both hotels. Half the size of a football field, it is home to organic beefsteak tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers, pumpkin and green beans--any crop that fails outdoors due to pests or strong sunlight.

Then there’s the chicken house, where nearly 2,000 fowl produce fresh eggs daily, and the pig farm, where some 200 porkers are raised for chorizo, Canadian bacon and breakfast sausage.

“Since we make our own sausage, we can minimize the fat content. We also make slab bacon with kiawe (a Hawaiian wood similar to mesquite) and ham smoked with guava wood, which imparts a slightly sweet, smoky flavor,” Farnsworth said.

An organic fruit-and-nut orchard produces papayas, five kinds of bananas and Tahitian limes--thick-skinned fruit with a high juice content and intense flavor.

And since Lanai is “The Pineapple Island,” Farnsworth is privy to the choicest of the golden crop. “The local terminology for the sweetest pineapple is ‘third growth,’ ” he explains. “Pineapple doesn’t bear fruit until its second year. In the fourth year, you have what’s called ‘third growth,’ which I love to serve for breakfast. I use the ‘second growth’ for pressing fresh cider.”

Most food from Farnsworth’s kitchens is made from scratch. Pastas, such as black olive or lobster roe fettuccine, are served at The Manele Bay Hotel; sourdough, semolina, olive oil, shiitake herb and fresh apple cider breads are found at The Lodge at Koele. Farnsworth even makes his own granola, breakfast pastries, desserts, salsas and catsup (including one made with avocado and served with hamburgers and club sandwiches at The Lodge).

Farnsworth’s hotel restaurants also serve unusual seafood. “Our hotels are small, so we have access to fish which many resorts can’t serve because they can’t obtain large quantities,” he said. “We serve taape (blue-striped snapper) with truffle mayonnaise and grilled gindai , yellow-striped snapper.”

Despite these riches, Farnsworth seems more comfortable focusing on what he hasn’t achieved. “We’re about 40% self-sufficient. We have more work to do.”