• Age: 45

• Culinary background: Kailua High School graduate; worked as wine manager at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel on the Big Island and maitre d' sommelier at Silverado Country Club in California. Has been with the Halekulani for years and is most often seen in La Mer.

• Likes to cook: " 'Local kine,' especially smoked salmon, using a Weber. I serve it with a chive cream sauce and a wilted spinach salad."

Favorites

• Wine: "All wines that are true to type and honest; most beers. I really love pinot noir."

• Comfort food: "Vietnamese soup"

• Cookbook: "Larousse Gastronomique"

• Cooking TV show: "Iron Chef"

• Kitchen tool: "My knife"

• When I'm hungry I grab: "Homemade boiled peanuts"

• When I'm not working I like to: "Bike, run, bodysurf and go to the gym"

• When I go out to eat I go to: "Pho Tri for Vietnamese soup, L'Uraku for oysters and butterfish, and 3660 on the Rise for tempura catfish"

• If I could invite three people to dinner I would invite: "Audrey Hepburn, my son and my daughter"