Nadine Kam photos
Restaurateur Chai Chaowasaree at the bar of his new restaurant with some of his crew, from left, Cody Kalua, Kevin Malama and Anthony Murata.

Chai Chaowasaree marked the grand opening of his new restaurant, Chef Chai, with a celebration that took place March 9 at Pacifica Honolulu, 1009 Kapiolani Boulevard.

The restaurant has elegant, sophisticated appeal, and though it looks just as spacious as his former Chai's Island Bistro digs at Aloha Tower, he said it's an illusion. The new restaurant seats 100, but appears larger because of its horizontal layout.

There's also a private dining room that seats about 16 to 18, though if you have a couple more guests, where there's a will there's a way I always say.

The menu makes a more healthful departure from his previous menu, as the chef acknowledges Honolulu's graying population. I grew up with the original "name" chefs who got their start in the late '80s, so we're all in the same boat and looking for food that tastes great, with less salt, sugar and fat than the typical restaurant menu.

That doesn't mean there's any lack of flavor, and anyone walking in cold would not miss a thing, as the dishes he served that night proved.

This particular stretch of Kapiolani is rapidly becoming Health Row, with the raw vegan Greens & Vines leading the charge at 909 Kapiolani, and organic-oriented Blue Tree Cafe also in the Pacifica building. They make it easier to start eating healthier.

Space heaters outside keep diners toasty when the mercury dips.

Gorgeous interior.

The private dining room.

Gravlax salmon roulade with cream cheese and crab meat on cucumber.

Ahi tartare in mini waffle cones.

Escargot in pastry cups.

Chicken satay.

Oysters with lemongrass-garlic mignonette.

Garlic gochujang shrimp and apple kimchee summer rolls.

Hamachi!

Chai's signature kataifi-wrapped shrimp with pineapple.

Miso Chilean sea bass over steamed coconut milk-ginger brown rice.

Sun-dried tomato and Puna goat cheese wontons with spicy relish.

Alaskan king crab leg crabcakes were presented with roasted garlic aioli. The full dish also features tomato-mango salsa.

Grilled Mongolian lamb chops.

Have bottle will travel! A passerby just stopped in to check out the new restaurant en route to a party at one of the Pacifica condos.

Thai-style oxtail soup with lemongrass broth.

Nadine Kam photos
Chef Peter Merriman, right, with Aloha United Way marketing director Jay Park, and Monkeypod Kitchen manager Erica Dunn.

Chef Peter Merriman and his business partner Bill Terry celebrated the opening of Monkeypod Kitchen at Ko Olina, with a blessing and benefit party on Feb. 1.

Guests could help themselves to all the food they wanted while their drink purchases throughout the evening benefited Aloha United Way.

Although it's never easy to get townies to drive out to Ko Olina at rush hour, the room was packed with foodies, restaurateurs and farmers eager to see Merriman's newest project. I believe that he and Roy Yamaguchi are now the only big name Hawaii chefs with restaurants on four islands.

The first Monkeypod Kitchen opened in Wailea, Maui, so named, Peter explained when addressing the crowd, because the monkeypod tree is a non-native that has nevertheless thrived in Hawaii, just as he has, as a transplant from Pennsylvania who arrived on Hawaii Island in 1983 and went on to become a leader in the Hawaii Regional Cuisine movement. Monkeypod also fixes nitrogen in the soil so is good for the land and sustainability, and is versatile as a wood used prominently for craft. As an artisan in the kitchen, Merriman said he could identify with that as well.

The restaurant covers two stories at Ko Olina Station, 92-1046 Olani St., in Kapolei, and is a welcome addition to the resort community, where there are few stylish places to simply hang out. (Is this a no-brainer or what?) The Monkeypod Kitchen bar is huge, no doubt in anticipation of great happy hour business, when drink specials include $6 Ocean Vodka cocktails, $6 white and red wines by the glass and $4.75 drafts for beers originally $9 or less, and $7 for those more than $9, and food specials include 50 percent off most appetizers, and $9 pizzas (except the lobster-topped Bourgeois).

You can take a look at some of the dishes here, as presented at the opening:

Peter is blessed by kahu Neddy Tiffany, with his business partner Bill Terry looking on after his own blessing.

Wood-fired Hamakua wild mushroom pizza with white sauce, truffle oil, Parmesan and thyme. It's $17.95. Add chunks of Big Island lobster and it becomes the Bourgeois, at $24.95.

Garlic truffle oil fries with a quarter burger in the background.

Bulgogi pork tacos were really spicy, and not just because of the jalapeños, so you couldn't just pull them out and leave unscathed.

A different kind of saimin, with dashi soy broth, kalua pig, broccoli, green beans, bean srouts, red onion, cilantro, mint, peanuts and tofu over Iwamoto family noodles.

One of my favorite dishes of the evening: Pumpkin Patch Ravioli with kiawe-roasted squash, chevre, spinach and sage brown butter. Butter good!

Gnocchi with Swiss chard, sauteed mushrooms, tomato coulis and chevre.
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Nadine Kam photos
Root fall vegetables (carrots, turnips, radish and winter squash) from Otsuji and MA'O Farms, prepared and plated by Prima, on earthenware by artist Steve Martin, was among the dishes served at the 3@the Table event at Fishcake.

How much more beautiful would your table and meal be if you were able to eat off works of art? That was the question proposed by architect Wendy Tsuji, the woman behind "3@the Table," which aims to bring together artist, farmer and chef. It's her hope that more restaurants, especially those in Waikiki, will pick up on the idea to enhance the visitor dining experience and promote more of Hawaii's talent.

We already know what can happen when farmers and chefs collaborate, and at an introductory event that took place Oct. 18 at Fishcake, an art and furnishings gallery, chef Peter Merriman said 3@the Table reminds him of the start of the Hawaii Regional Cuisine movement that began more than two decades ago, in which he was also involved.

Those who came of dining age after that time probably don't remember a time when chefs were held hostage to the handful of ingredients farmers knew how to grow. It took a group of about a dozen chefs to take their requests to farmers, suggesting produce they would like to introduce to their tables, which led to the explosion of flavors we have today.

He said that chefs believed people would pay more for locally sourced products, not just because they want to help support farmers, but also because the ingredients taste better, and people just may want to see art at the table because a beautiful visual aesthetic can also enhance a meal.

Artist Mary Mitsuda, left, with Wendy Tsuji, architect of 3@the Table.

This is something already seen at the Japanese table, most strongly at Nanzan Giro Giro on Piikoi St., a collaboration between a restaurant company and the artist Nanzan, who creates all the earthenware that provides the backdrop for the restaurant's seasonal and nature-inspired kaiseki. The artist  is rooted in the way of tea, rituals encompassing all of tea's history, philosophy and implements. The restaurant also houses a mini ceramic museum.

If diners are to become more mindful of what they are eating, this is one path. It is easy to get caught up in the flavors, intensity and beauty of a meal in a place like Nanzan Giro Giro, which encourages focus.

Honestly, at Fishcake, where the mood was celebratory, such focus was in short supply. It was hard to get people to stop socializing for a while and listen to what Tsuji was saying.

Toward that end,  3@the Table brought together three teams, each with a potter, a chef and a farmer, for a collaboration that mixes food with art. Daven Hee was paired with MA‘O Organic Farms and chef Ed Kenney of town, while ceramist Steve Martin teamed with Otsuji Farms and Prima. Big Island artist Clayton Amemiya teamed with Hirabara Farms and chef Peter Merriman. Also featured was work by artists Jered Nelson, Trent Burkett and Scott Parady.

Then the beauty of dishes prepared that night, and the scent of pork cooked up by Ed Kenney, encased in clay by Hee, was too irresistible to focus on the plates and platters beneath them. It's only when I got home and looked at the pictures I'd taken that I experienced that aha! moment.

Funds raised from ticket sales and ceramic sales will benefit Hawaii Potters' Guild's youth ceramics program at Palama Settlement, to help bring the concept to a new generation and the community.

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Fishcake is at 307c Kamani St. Call 808.593.1231.

Ed Kenney's kiln-fired Shinsato Farms pork, prepared with the help of ceramist Daven Hee, below, with the pork encased in clayware. The process wasn't easy, and also included a scary, stinky moment as you can read in a story by Joleen Oshiro that appeared in the paper.

More of Daven Hee's work for the table.

Grilled local octopus with lima beans and citrus, in ceramic-plated version above, and self-serve portion on aqua platter, below.

The same octopus dish served for mass consuption on an aqua platter evoking the ocean. (more...)

Nadine Kam photos
The first course from Ryan Manaut's Chaîne des Rôtisseurs' Jeune Commis International Competition menu at Oahu Country Club: ahi tartar with tempura asparagus tips, prawn ceviche, lime gelee and wasabi foam. Guests were to mix the accompanying ogo, green onion, white onion and kukui nut in with the fish. This was paired with Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc, 2011.

Ryan Manaut, a young chef that joined the staff of executive chef Alfred Cabacungan at Oahu Country Club, was a winner in the prestigious Chaîne des Rôtisseurs' Jeune Commis International Competition, and tomorrow is the last day members can sample the menu he presented in Berlin—with a few tweaks, considering chefs are constantly trying to improve their work— along with fantastic wine pairings by sommelier Randy Ching.

After winning the Hawaii competition, followed by the national competition in May, he traveled to Berlin last month, and in his first international competition, placed 4th among entrants from 22 countries. This marked the first time that any young chef from Hawaii has competed in the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs' Jeune Commis International Competition.

Like the cooking shows "Iron Chef" and "Chopped," chefs in the competition were presented with mystery baskets full of ingredients from which they were to create their meals. After winning the Hawaii competition, Manaut was coached by Kapiolani Community College Culinary Arts associate professor Alan Tsuchiyama, who also sent him several lists of ingredients weekly to prepare Manaut for anything that might come up.

At the competition, chefs—working alone in the kitchen—had a half hour to come up with their menus, and three hours to cook. Manaut said Tsuchiyama had tried to stump him with ingredients like sauerkraut, Jerusalem artichoke and pike, but in practice, he said he was able to come up with a menu in less than half an hour each time.

In competition, the ingredients may have stumped other chefs, but most turned out to be daily fare for any local chef. All chefs were given the same ingredients, and they had to incorporate all in a three-course meal: two racks of Irish lamb, 12 shrimp, 600 grams of ahi, raspberries, blueberries, kalamansi, baby spinach, Thai asparagus, mini carrots, mini zucchini, snow peas, Kenya beans, 12 eggs, 11 Tablespoons of cream, and chocolate. Typical pantry ingredients were also made available to them.

Before entering the competition kitchen, all chefs' belongings were checked to ensure no one sneaked in any secret ingredients.

Ryan Manaut in the Oahu Country Club kitchen with his dessert of chocolate-raspberry layered cake with blueberry semifreddo, candied kalamansi and Chambord whipped cream.

The challenges, he said, were that "all the stove top burners were electric, not the standard gas burners we use. That made temperature controls very hard when trying to make my dessert. I ended up overcooking the semifreddo once, wasting valuable time doing it again.

"I also wasn't used to their little combi-ovens. These are great little ovens that can both bake and steam your product. However, all the directions for the oven were in German so I had to just press buttons and hope for the best. That tactic resulted in burning my cake, so once again, I had to waste time remaking it. Even retrieving spices from the pantry was a chore since they were all labeled in German. I had to open each container to see what was inside."

But, it all turned out well, and considering that prepping and completing the competition has filled three-quarters of his year, he said he's taking a break from thinking about any more contests for now.

In the meantime, I was fortunate to be able to sample the menu as a guest of Chaîne Honolulu chapter Vice Charge de Missions Dr. Thomas Sakoda and his wife Ryuko.

The OCC dinner began with pork gyoza with kabayaki glaze.

Following the appetizer at top of page, we were presented with the entree of roasted balsamic crusted rack of lamb roulade with lamb jus, roasted peppers and basil, and mashed potatoes, baby courgette (zucchini) and carrot. This was paired with Gigondas, Les Pallieres "Les Racines," 2008.

Ryan plates the semifreddo. The experience of the chocolate-raspberry layered cake and blueberry semifreddo were enhanced by Randy Ching's pairing of Banyuls, Domaine La Tour Vieille, 2010.

Ryan's grandmother Alison Manaut said she was always happy to be one of the guinea pigs for his cooking experiments when he was growing up.

Dinner ended with OCC's Belgian chocolates.

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The dinner marked my second visit to OCC in a week. Earlier, I'd been invited to lunch by a member, and we tried one of the newer items on the menu, a lobster-avocado sandwich.

Amuse bouche of fried prosciutto with avocado puree.

Pasta with mushrooms and basil.

The lobster sandwich.

Nadine Kam photos
PR woman Kristin Jackson, left, in her other life as Kiss My Grits restaurateur, with Kim Oswald. Kiss My Grits was a double winner in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser's 'Ilima Awards. The public voted it "Best New Restaurant," and critics gave it one of 22 Critics Choice Awards.

Work on the annual Diamond Head Theatre and Honolulu Star-Advertiser 'Ilima Awards officially begins in June, but the work actually continues all year as we eat our way through many, many restaurants and take notes on what was memorable and what we liked best.

June is when I and fellow food and entertainment writers—Joleen Oshiro, Nina Wu, Elizabeth Kieszowski, Jason Genegabus and Betty Shimabukuro—start comparing notes in advance of the October announcement of award winners, and soon after, we start fanning out to make sure the restaurants are continuing to perform well.

We try to include mix of restaurants high, low and spots in between for diversity that reflects the entire dining scene. Of course, for the restaurants, it helps to have a visible profile throughout the year to remind us who's out there. There are many more restaurateurs who go about running their restaurants in a low-key way, and I admit we always miss a few of these. I already have a few in mind that didn't make the book this year but deserve another look next year. And, of course, it helps to open before August, when our decisions are finalized.

Click book for a look inside.

If you're wondering why I disappear from Facebook and Twitter all summer, it's because of the extra task of helping to write the book. The reward is the annual 'Ilima Awards ceremony that took place Oct. 8, a benefit for the theater, that begins with cocktails and a DHT song and dance performance honoring the award winners.

This year marks the 17th annual awards, which started in partnership with the Honolulu Advertiser before our papers merged.

On stage, Loretta Ables Sayre—straight from her star turn in "South Pacific" on Broadway—joined the cast and cracked up the audience with a particularly suggestive number sung to the tune of "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You," which had her getting up close and personal with a few of the representatives from Kiss My Grits, Prima, Lahaina Grill and Amasia, which included the Lahaina Grill rep burying his head in her bosom.

Other highlights included "Funny Girl" star Isabelle Decauwert singing about food to the tune of the musical's "Don't Rain on My Parade," and Tricia Marciel bringing hilarity to the otherwise bittersweet tune of "The Way We Were," sung as "The Way We Dined."

And, a representative from 3660 on the Rise provided one of the most entertaining moments of the night during the finale, when the members of the youth ensemble Shooting Stars got him to his feet and he joined in, rather well, on matching their dance moves.

Then, it was all about tasting, and the ultimate reward was hearing from guests that they enjoyed sampling from restaurants that they hadn't heard of prior to that night.

Kiss My Grits offered a generous combination of catfish, okra and black-eyed peas, along with grits and hush puppies, below, that all threatened to fill a diner up before hitting any other booth. I missed the bread pudding that came later.

Alan Takasaki, left, is the chef-owner of this year's Critic's Choice of Best Restaurant, Le Bistro. He was cooking up shortribs, below:

Azure executive chef Jon Matsubara with his inspired sambal clam banh mi and liquid brandade.

Diners accustomed to grabbing a plate were caught off guard when Matsubara placed the cracker-style "banh mi" in their hands, instructing them to take a bite, then follow with a sip of the chowdery salt cod brandade.

The stack of small brandade cups caught the eye of our 'Ilima Awards book page designer Joe Guinto, who admired their architectural form. (more...)