Profiles

Sean Kinoshita of Sansei Seafood Restaurant got most of his experience on the Mainland and prefers a North American cooking style. Gregory Yamamoto The Honolulu Advertiser

• Born: Honolulu

• Culinary background: Degree in culinary arts from California Culinary Academy, San Francisco. Has worked in the kitchens of Park Avenue Cafe and Lespinasse, New York City; Cypress Club Restaurant and Silks in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, San Francisco.

Cooking style: "With the majority of my experience on the Mainland, my cooking style is North American, using seasonal produce, fruits, seafood, shellfish and meats. I love to cook with mushrooms because there are so many varieties and they taste so good with just about everything."

Favorites

Meal: Rice, caramelized mushrooms, Kahuku supersweet corn and a nice fat pan-seared rib-eye steak

Comfort food: Chicken cutlet

Cookbook: A tossup between "French Laundry Cookbook" by Thomas Keller and "Terra" by Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani

Cooking show: "'Iron Chef' — it's like a real kitchen; it's exciting."

Kitchen tool: Japanese mandolin

When I'm really hungry I grab: "Anything. You only live once, so you should eat whatever makes you happy, even though it may not be the healthiest thing. At work, I usually eat salmon-skin tataki; at home, I eat whatever is left over in the fridge, but I have to have rice. I dip my dry leftovers in a sambal mayo."

When I'm not working, I like to: "Sleep; watch boxing and play pool"

When I go out to eat, I like to go to: "Kirin for Chinese food"

If I could invite any three people to dinner, alive or dead, I would invite: "Freddy Girardet and Gray Kunz (executive chef and sous chef of Lespinasse, New York, when I was there) and Roy Jones Jr., boxer. I would barbecue steak and chicken, corn and vegetables; it would be casual, not formal."

My dream job is to be: "A chef at a very fine French restaurant"