Homegrown Hawaii - The Westin Ka`anapali Ocean Resort Villas

Destinations
Homegrown
Sushi created with local catches redefines fresh fish
at Bistro Molokini.
Photos by Carol Nuckols
During
his weekly
farm visits,
Grand Wailea
executive chef
Eric Faivre
walks through
the fields to
see what’s in
season. “The
wheels are
spinning” as
he considers
what to put on
the menu.
in Hawaii
130 March 2014 www.360westmagazine.com
O
Chefs are embracing the
farm-to-table movement on Maui,
where visitors can see, smell and touch
their food at the source.
By Carol Nuckols
cean breezes waft over the
outdoor tables at Ko restaurant, at the Fairmont Kea Lani in
Maui. Basking in the light of tiki torches, I sip a Maui mojito, a
refreshing, off-the-menu beverage concocted of passion fruit,
mango puree and white rum, splashed with soda and muddled
with mint. It’s a perfect prelude to the meal to come. Vegetable
tempura: heirloom carrots, tender asparagus, purple sweet potato
from neighbor island Molokai, kabocha pumpkin and Maui
onion in a perfect, delicate batter. The fish of the day, opa, in a
crisp macadamia-nut crust, with bok choy propped against a pile
of mashed purple sweet potato. Portuguese sweet bread, made
from taro.
The meal epitomizes my experience of Maui’s cuisine, with its
Polynesian, Asian and European influences; tropical fruits and
vegetables; and emphasis on seafood. It’s full of global flavors
with a local twist — an increasingly local twist.
The farm-to-table movement on this Hawaiian island is hitting
full stride, with growers and other producers supplying fresh,
local fare to fine restaurants and popular casual spots. Visitors
accustomed to such quality at home will find it in Maui-made
comestibles. Diners can enhance their appreciation of the food by
visiting some of the facilities that produce the ingredients.
That’s what I do on a visit to the western side of Maui, where
menus list Ho’o Pono Farm arugula, upcountry vegetables,
Kumu Farms mixed greens, Surfing Goat Dairy cheese, Maui
Gold pineapple. Beef, honey, eggs, coffee, even vodka are
produced here.
I spend one day on the western slope of Haleakala, a dormant
volcano in Maui’s upcountry. With its sunshine and relatively
cool weather, the island’s mountainous core lends itself to
agricultural endeavors, and some of these operations are open to
the public.
The day starts at Ocean Vodka, where sugar cane is grown
on 80 stunning acres overlooking the Pacific. The fermented
cane juice is combined with ocean water taken from 3,000
feet deep, trace minerals of which lend character to the
“ultrapremium” vodka.
I’ve been enjoying Surfing Goat cheese, with its mild flavor and
creamy texture. At the 42-acre dairy, I get to meet some of “the
girls” — 100-plus goats, mostly Saanen and Alpine. Their milk,
up to a gallon a day, is made into fresh and aged cheeses, soap
and truffles.
I’ve also been eating Maui Gold pineapple and consider it the
best I’ve ever had — until company president Darren Strand sets
a whole new standard.
Strand and other former executives took over 1,200 acres from
Maui Pineapple Co. when it closed in 2009, with the aim
Once the source of vast sugar and pineapple plantations, Maui has diversified.
Culinary herbs are grown here, as well as fruits, vegetables and edible flowers. Below,
farmer Dave Horsman, kneeling, grows fruits and vegetables for Westin hotel chefs.
Photos courtesy Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas
www.360westmagazine.com March 2014 131
Destinations
THE DETAILS
Dining
Bistro Molokini and
Humuhumunukunukuapua’a Grand
Wailea, 3850 Wailea Alanui, Wailea;
808-875-1234, ext. 4900 or
grandwailea.com
Homegrown
in Hawaii
Hula Grill 2435 Ka’anapali Parkway,
Ka’anapali Beach at Whalers
Village, Lahaina; 808-667-6636 or
hulagrillkaanapali.com
Ko Fairmont Kea Lani 4100 Wailea Alanui,
Wailea; 808-875-2210 or fairmont.com
Pulehu The Westin Ka’anapali Ocean
Resort Villas, 6 Kea Ala Drive, Lahaina;
808-667-3200 or westinkaanapali.com
Relish Burger Bistro The Westin Maui
Resort & Spa, 2365 Ka’anapali Parkway,
Lahaina, 808-667-2525, westinmaui.com
Maui Gold pineapples are touted on the breakfast buffets of luxury resorts.
Each plant produces two fruits over three years.
Photo courtesy of Maui Gold
Ahi tostadas at the Westin Maui’s
Relish Burger Bistro
Photo by Ryan Siphers
Farms and more
Kumu Farms Maui Tropical Plantation
Farm stand, 1670 Honoapiilani Highway,
Wailuku; mauitropicalplantation.com
Maui Gold Pineapple Co.
pineapplemaui.com; for tours:
808-665-5491 or mauipineappletour.com
MauiGrown Coffee Retail store,
277 Lahainaluna Road, Lahaina, Maui;
808-661-2728 or mauigrowncoffee.com
Ocean Vodka Organic farm and distillery,
tours and samplings with an ocean view:
4051 Omaopio Road, Kula; 808-877-0009
or oceanvodka.com
Surfing Goat Dairy Tours and tastings,
3651 Omaopio Road, Kula; 808-878-2870
or surfinggoatdairy.com
132 March 2014 www.360westmagazine.com
of growing better pineapples for the local market.
While driving me around, he gets out of his dusty
pickup, selects a pineapple from the field, lops off
the prickly skin with his machete, slices it and serves
it right there, using the core of the fruit as a platter.
Sun-warm and sweet, that’s the best I’ve ever had.
In Lahaina, on another day, Jeff Ferguson talks
about volcanic soil, overripe coffee berries and
machine harvesting. Then, the vice president of
MauiGrown Coffee inquires about my schedule. “I
could talk all day,” he explains, his blue eyes ablaze.
“Would you like another coffee?”
Hmm. Wonder if it’s the caffeine.
But of course it isn’t caffeine that fuels his zeal.
It’s the same passion for homegrown products that
ignites every farmer and chef I meet.
Ferguson and MauiGrown founder James
“Kimo” Falconer explain that the island’s warm,
dry conditions lend themselves to growing several
coffee varieties, including the rare Moka (sold
as Maui Mokka), with its chocolate overtones. I
sample flights of different varieties and roasts at the
gingerbread-trimmed company store and later take
a self-driven tour of the company’s 400-something
acres of trees just up the coast. Coffee roasted and
ground within a few miles of where it’s grown —
that’s fresh.
I visit with farmers, too, for background on the
farm-to-table movement.
At Ho’o Pono Farm near Kapalua, Dave Horsman
grows organic fruits and vegetables on 61 acres,
with fine views of Molokai and the Pacific. In
these former pineapple fields, a chemically based
monoculture resulted in “terrible soil,” he says. You
can still see black plastic, which was used to block
weeds and later plowed under, sticking out of the
ground. “The way they farmed pineapple was an
atrocity against nature.”
Three years ago, he planted cover crops to prevent
erosion and started companion planting, mulching
and rotating crops, while working with chefs to
supply produce they couldn’t get otherwise.
At the bustling Hula Grill in Lahaina, I dine
on grilled ono and a salad of Kula (upcountry)
tomatoes, Maui onions and Surfing Goat cheese,
while chef-turned-farmer James Simpliciano
relates his efforts to restore the land. He farms 75
acres scattered over west Maui, using cover crops,
compost and other sustainable methods. “It takes
about three years to see results,” he says.
He mentors youngsters, as do Horsman and others
I meet. Simpliciano hopes to teach them that “it’s
cool to be a farmer. The reward is when you eat.”
Dealings between farmers and chefs are based
133
Thomas and Eva Kafsack moved from Germany to Maui to open
Surfing Goat Dairy, drawing on German, Austrian and
French cheesemaking traditions.
Photo courtesy of Surfing Goat Dairy
on trust, says Grand Wailea executive chef Eric Faivre over lunch
at the hotel’s Bistro Molokini. “Lots of farmers are afraid at the
beginning,” because they could invest in a certain vegetable and
spend months growing it, only to find that the chef has moved on
to something else. Instead, he establishes ongoing relationships.
“We’re not there to dictate what they’re growing. [Rather,] let
me see what I can do with kale. I can tweak my menu any way
I want.”
I’ve just come from Kumu Farms, which Faivre visits once a
week to select produce. “They have beautiful eggplants,
kale, chards.”
The eggplant is indeed beautiful — and delicious — breaded
and fried on my sandwich, layered with portobello mushroom and
Surfing Goat cheese.
Tylun Pang, executive chef of Ko, remembers when all the
produce arrived by slow boat. Thirty years ago, “you couldn’t
find a local tomato,” the Honolulu native recalls in a telephone
conversation before my trip. Back then, strawberries were brought
in from the U.S. mainland; now they’re picked the morning they’re
delivered. He can tell by their fragrance: “The strawberries
are here.”
Like other chefs, he values the quality. Among diners, he says,
“expectations are high.”
At Pulehu, the Westin Ka’anipali’s Italian-style grill, executive
sous chef Wes Holder considers the future. “It’s scary to think
about if the boats stop coming,” he says. On an island where
pineapple and sugar cane were industrially farmed, people are
asking, “What are we doing with our land?” He talks about
nurturing the land, supporting small businesses, paying farmers
fair prices. “It’s the right thing to do.”
Meanwhile, I feast on locally grown heirloom tomatoes with
melted mozzarella, lobster carbonara, sweet potato gnocchi and
chocolate macadamia semifreddo with raspberries. The lobster
comes from the island of Hawaii, the purple sweet potatoes
from Molokai.
All along the way, dining oceanside or poolside, watching
sunsets or just inhaling the refreshing salt air, I find the food
fresh and flavorful. Local tomatoes, tasting like tomatoes should.
Steak and locally caught spiny lobster at the Grand Wailea’s
Humuhumunukunukuapua’a. More raw seafood than I’ve ever
attempted, in tostadas at the Westin Maui’s Relish and lobster roll
at Bistro Molokini — still not my cup of tea, but the best I’ve ever
had. And just about everywhere, I follow chef Pang’s suggestion
for assuring a fresh, local main dish: I order the fish. 360
Carol Nuckols is a freelance writer and editor. Email her at [email protected].