Home-Grwon but Haute

Just eight years ago, a corps of youthful, talented chefs banded together under a corporate-sounding moniker, the Hawaii Regional Cuisine group. Mainly, they had two things in mind: Their cooking would feature the produce, meat and seafood increasingly being farmed in the islands and not exported--everything from strawberries, hearts of palm, herbs and exotic fruits to crawfish, escargots, abalone, shrimp, fish, grass-fed veal, lamb and beef. And they wanted to incorporate flavors and cooking styles from all the immigrant cultures--Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Philippine, Portuguese, Puerto Rican and others--that have sat at the Hawaiian table.

The only problem for those of us who live here in the capital was that most of these star-dusted chefs presided over restaurants on neighbor islands, especially Maui and the Big Island. But the fickle finger of foodie fame has moved. Metropolitan Honolulu and Waikiki Beach seem on the verge of becoming the new center of culinary action.

As a food writer, I’ve tracked several new restaurants in the city in just the last year, four of them in the last six months--with more to come. Two of the newest are decidedly French, comparable to the best restaurants on the U.S. mainland. Opening within weeks of each other last December, their traditions are in haute cuisine, but the Frenchness doesn’t drown out their very Hawaiian flavors.

When Chef Mavro’s opened, I knew what to expect: Chef George Mavrothalassitis’ plates always feature clean flavors and few frills. The former chef of Seasons Restaurant and the Four Seasons Resort Maui likes well-stated flavors and contrasting tastes and textures

in his Provence-inspired take on Hawaii regional cuisine.

My favorite example is the chef’s huli huli-style chicken--a local specialty cooked over an open barbecue, flavored with soy, garlic and ginger, often sold for school fund-raisers. But in Mavrothalassitis’ hands it becomes extraordinary: Reduced Chinese plum wine and demiglace form the basis of the sauce, finished with huli huli sauce and sesame oil, all gently spritzed on a plump island-grown chicken that hangs in an oven to roast. The flavor is soft, the skin is crisp and the magical moment comes when you take a bite of the succulent chicken along with creamy super-sweet Kahuku (Oahu) corn and braised red Swiss chard.

Paired with a glass of Joseph Faiveley’s 1995 Bourgogne--every dish on the menu is matched with a glass of wine--the dish is simply ono, delicious, as we say in the islands.

With tasting menus at $48, $57 and $76 without wine, $62, $77 and $106 with wine, this is not an every-night kind of place. But when you realize how picky the chef is--his chickens are plump because he’s been to the processing plant, where the birds are selected for him--you can appreciate the underlying value.

Besides, I like the coziness here: marbled pink walls appointed with island-motif paintings that create a refined ambience. Still, it’s pretty casual; after all, this is Hawaii, where jackets and ties are rarely required except for lawyers going to court.

Residents often shy away from Waikiki, but I’d make an exception to dine in Padovani’s Bistro and Wine Bar, tucked in the Alana Doubletree Inn at the edge of Waikiki. Chef Philippe Padovani, who has returned to Honolulu from the Manele Bay Hotel on Lanai, has created a French outpost by way of elegant ambience, a refined French Mediterranean-inspired menu and attentive European-style service. I love the inlaid lei encircling the cherrywood floor of the subtly lighted dining room.

The restaurant’s menu belies its bistro name: Food here is not about pommes frites and steaks, as I supposed when it opened. Yes, there’s a confit of duck, delicately crisp and moist, its richness well balanced by lentils in a vinaigrette. There’s also grilled John Dory, braised veal shanks and sauteed lamb chops. But mostly there are carefully orchestrated dishes with surprises.

Gently poached moi, a delicate, soft-textured fish once reserved for alii (chiefs) in Hawaii, now farm raised, is gently accented with aioli. And I was impressed by the chef’s rendition of chicken long rice, a traditional Hawaiian luau dish featuring clear glass noodles and ginger. Padovani’s version is a splendid poached medley, made more interesting by shiitake mushrooms, snow peas and cilantro.

Wine at Padovani’s is a serious affair. There’s an amply stocked wine cellar and, upstairs in the wine bar, a 48-bottle Cruvinet system (it keeps oxygen out) for serving wine by the glass.

My husband and I like to stop in for a snack from the European-style service carts filled with terrines, a nice selection of cheeses and other morsels to accompany a glass or two of wine that may be difficult to find elsewhere. Oh yes, there is a dress code: no jeans, shorts or flip-flops.

Dinner entrees run $16 to $34; a three-course business lunch is $32, and a five-course dinner sampling menu is $85. French outposts in the islands are not inexpensive; no food is. Attribute it to shipping costs and the high cost of land and labor for locally grown products. It’s the price we pay to live in paradise.

Venturing to David Paul’s Diamond Head Grill is another reason for me to go to Waikiki. From this suave venue of brushed- metal columns, mahogany paneling, plyboo (bamboo plywood) floors mixed with travertine tiles and spiraled sun-patterned carpeting--all designed by Los Angeles architect Steve Jones--I can see Diamond Head up close.

Chef David Paul Johnson’s “new American cuisine” is worth the visit too. There are the usual macadamia nuts in an elegant chocolate macadamia flan. But macadamia shells also are used as a smoking medium for salmon, which is served as an appetizer with Yukon Gold hash browns, horseradish creme frai^che and salmon caviar. Kona coffee is used to infuse a roasted rack of lamb, served with Kona coffee-port wine sauce and mashed sweet potatoes.

Housed in the recently renovated Colony Surf Hotel, the grill also is a hangout for jazz enthusiasts. It’s our late-night-out-on-the-town spot, a place to be seen, if you will, among the younger and want-to-be-younger set. Sweeping marble-topped bars--one of them especially wonderful for grazing on appetizers while observing the pantry chefs--are perfect for people-watching.

David Paul’s will be serving breakfast starting in August. Dinner entrees are priced from $25 to $35; appetizers, soups and salads from $6 to $12.

At the foot of the downtown Honolulu financial district, the recently revived Aloha Tower Marketplace welcomes cruise ships and visitors. Big Island Steakhouse and Gordon Biersch Brewery offer tasty bites and terrific harbor views. But the real food jewel, in my opinion, is Chai’s Island Bistro, an indoor-outdoor cafe whose chef approaches Pacific Rim cooking from the direction of the East rather than the West.

A native of Thailand who grew up in his family’s Bangkok restaurant, Chai Chaowasaree, along with sisters Joy Chaowasaree and Nicki Garcia, has been serving authentic Thai specialties for more than 10 years at Singha Thai Restaurant at the edge of Waikiki.

Late last year Chaowasaree opened Chai’s Island Bistro, where he could parlay his Thai-flavored repertoire into a distinctive take on Hawaiian regional cuisine. He’s having a good time creating new flavor sensations such as kataifi (a Greek shredded filo dough) and macadamia-nut-encrusted jumbo black tiger prawns, served with fresh pineapple and pineapple vinaigrette. It’s a standout; so is his Asian-style osso buco served with locally grown green-skinned kabocha pumpkin.

Expect prices at Chai’s to be a little more moderate than the other venues. Top price for a dinner entree is about $25; lunch is a few dollars less. It’s an informal kind of place where my husband can even get away with some dress-up shorts.

The indoor-outdoor seating always makes me wonder why we don’t have more places like this in Hawaii, with its year-round perfect weather and balmy air. There are island musicians on some nights. Or, after the signature poached pear Melba at Chai’s, head to Don Ho’s Grill a few steps away to take in the local entertainment scene.

The recent culinary revolution in Hawaii is not just about chefs from other corners of the world finding a niche in this isolated island chain. Home-grown chefs are making their impact, too, most notably Alan Wong.

Wong’s rise to culinary stardom began at the Canoe House at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and Bungalows on the Big Island. At his 4-year-old restaurant in Honolulu, in a nondescript office building, visiting chefs inevitably end up at the counter sampling the flavors of down-home Hawaii transformed into witty concoctions.

In September, Wong is scheduled to open a new restaurant in the flagship Liberty House department store at Honolulu’s Ala Moana Center. The venerable department store has fallen on hard times lately (they are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy), but hopes for a boost are pinned on Wong’s presence in the former Garden Court restaurant.

Wong’s new Pineapple Room (he grew up in the pineapple town of Wahiawa and spent high school summers picking them) will focus on breakfast and lunch for hungry shoppers. In the evening there will be appetizers, wine by the glass and a few dinner specials--rustic comfort food like roast chicken, meat loaf, pot roast--all with the Alan Wong twist.

Twisting is what Wong is all about. The idea of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich becomes a martini glass filled with yellow and red chilled tomato puree, served with a grilled sandwich of kalua (Hawaiian pit-roasted) pig and melted mozzarella studded with morsels of foie gras.

Soon after the Pineapple Room opens, Wong will launch a Hawaii Regional Cuisine Marketplace and Deli at Liberty House. I can hardly wait to get my hands on some of the Hawaii-grown products that, up until now, have mostly been available only to restaurant chefs. Pastry chef Mark Okumura and his team will be turning out breads, pastries, ice creams, sorbets, chocolates and other treats for resident foodies.

* More restaurants worthy of a mention, on L19.

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GUIDEBOOK

Hot Cuisine in Honolulu

Chef Mavro’s, 1969 S. King St.; telephone (808) 944-4714. Dinner Tuesday-Sunday. Fixed-price menus: three courses, $39 until end of summer; six courses, $76. A la carte entrees $27-$34.

Padovani’s Bistro and Wine Bar, 1956 Ala Moana Blvd.; tel. (808) 946-3456. Breakfast, lunch, dinner daily. Dinner entrees $16-$34; five-course dinner degustation, $85.

David Paul’s Diamond Head Grill, 2885 Kalakaua Ave.; tel. (808) 922-3734. Breakfast, lunch, dinner daily. Dinner entrees $25-$38.

Chai’s Island Bistro, Aloha Tower Marketplace; tel. (808) 585-0011. Lunch Monday to Friday, dinner daily. Dinner entrees $13.95-$32.95, a couple of dollars less for lunch.

The Pineapple Room (scheduled to open Sept. 7), Liberty House at Ala Moana Center; tel. (808) 949-2526. In the meantime: Alan Wong’s Restaurant, 1857 S. King St. (third floor); tel. (808) 949-2526. Dinner daily. Entrees $15-$30.