![]() Hawaiian food - poi, Kalua pork, sweet potatoes, loco moco, that’s pretty much what many people still think Hawaiian food is all about. “In the old days, there used to be a joke that if you wanted good food when you went to Hawaii, you should bring your own. One challenge has been redefining the image of Hawaiian food. If 20 people tell me I’m wasting my time, it doesn’t matter.” “I remember chatting with Wolfgang Puck a long time ago and I told him I was going to work with an airline and he goes: ‘Sam, I would not even put my coffee on board because those guys can’t even do that right.’ But I like challenges. Prior to that, he had worked with another airline. ![]() He first got involved with American Airlines six years ago, designing menus for the carrier’s inbound and outbound Hawaii routes. The chicken is already plucked and cleaned.” ![]() A lot of chefs today get everything through the back door. My dad taught me how to clean chicken and prepare pork. “I was really blessed at a very young age to be exposed to food at that level. Every New Year we have a big bang at our house and this year we had 250,” Choy says of his background. “Growing up, we cooked every day at home. He has a TV program in Hawaii, called “Sam Choy’s Kitchen,” and is considered one of the founders of “Pacific rim cuisine” – a fusion of cooking styles brought by immigrants to Hawaii. He opened his first restaurant in 1995 in Waikiki, and the Breakfast, Lunch and Crab in 1997 in Iwilei. The Haneda flight is a challenge to design Asian-fusion breakfast and brunch items for because it leaves at 6:30 a.m.”Ĭhoy, whose father was Chinese and mother German-Hawaiian, has been cooking professionally since 1971. So I thought a potato cake would be better. “Because food is prepared about two hours prior to flights and then put into the plane’s heating units, English muffins can become like a hockey puck. The Eggs Benedict dish adds an interesting touch, using a potato cake instead of an English muffin. So what is making passengers on the new AA service happy? For starters, there is Tahitian crabmeat soup – a hearty, creamy soup with coconut milk, spinach and crabmeat seafood pasta salad with dill dressing Kalua pork Eggs Benedict – tender pork shoulder, scrambled eggs and sautéed spinach on top of a fresh potato cake with hollandaise sauce accompanied with caramelized apples and salmon moco with shiitake mushroom sauce. You have to provide cuisine that makes them happy, just as if they were in your restaurant," says the genial Choy. The passengers couldn’t care less if the meal in front of them was designed by Wolfgang Puck, Neil Perry, Sam Choy or Roy Yamaguchi. However, it's not about the chef, he says. In recent years, airlines have put a lot more effort into their meal service, enlisting celebrity chefs like Choy. Choy, an award-winning restaurateur, best-selling cookbook author and TV host, also designs in-flight meals for first and business class on American Airlines and was in Tokyo recently to oversee a new menu for the launch of airline’s Haneda-New York service. When you chat with Hawaiian chef Sam Choy, don’t be too hungry, otherwise your mouth will start watering and you’ll be begging him to prepare something for you.
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