QUICK BITES
Orchids planning a cherry of a fete
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
The Halekulani's Orchids is trying something new: a Presidents Day brunch on Monday for those who have the day off and want to celebrate. (The usual sumptuous Sunday brunch will go on as usual). Pastry chef Franz Schaier has been working on a line-up of cherry desserts to honor that old "I cannot tell a lie" story about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree. Among the specialties: pineapple-cherries jubilee, a Puna goat cheese cherry tart, cherry flan and a cherry cobbler. Brunch is from 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; $38 adults, $24 children 12 and under. Reservations: 923-2311.
Also at Halekulani, Sandor and Amanda Palmai, of the acclaimed Landhaus Restaurant in Australia's winemaking Barossa Valley, will be guests for a week while their restaurant, in a 150-year-old shepherd's cottage, is under renovation. They will supervise two days of cooking classes and present a contemporary Australian regional cuisine menu including a prix-fixe dinner at Orchids Saturday through Feb. 23 ($38 per person), and executive luncheon Tuesday through Feb. 23 ($21 for two courses, $25 for three). Finicky Robert Parker included his experience at their restaurant among his Most Memorable Meals of 2001. Cooking classes Sunday and Monday, at $120 per person per day, including lunch, are filling up. Reservations: 923-2311.
Valentine's Day special food events
Most fine-dining restaurants will offer special Valentine's Day menus tomorrow night and a few are extending the celebration into the weekend, since some couples may elect to put off the celebration rather than stay out late on a weeknight. Check with your favorites as there are too many to list here.
A couple of unusual events deserve a mention, however:
• The Plaza Club will open to the public 6-10 p.m. tomorrow only with a five-course dinner and a drawing for a Hyatt Regency Waikiki Resort & Spa getaway and a limousine ride downtown to enjoy a six-course gourmet wine dinner at the club at a later date. (The drawing is at 8:30 p.m.)The social and business club is on the 20th and 21st floors of the Pioneer Plaza Building, 900 Fort St. (entrance on Merchant Street). Reservations: Kathy Best, 521-8905, Ext. 30.
• Camp Mokule'ia Episcopal Camp and Conference Center is sponsoring a Valentine's Day dinner-dance from 6:30-10 p.m. Saturday at Rick's by the Reef, with Latin dance and ballroom dance demonstrations. This is a nonsmoking, nonalcoholic, drug-free event; cost is $20 for adults, $17 for children (there'll be a special program for young people). Information and reservations: 941-3927 (in English or Japanese) or 637-6241.
Two Lana'i chefs move to Mauna Lani
Chef rounds: The Orchid at Mauna Lani has named Etsuji Umezu chef de cuisine at the resort hotel, with primary responsibility for Brown's Beach House; Umezu was most recently at Manele Bay Hotel on Lana'i. Also making a move from Lana'i, where he supervised the kitchens at both the Lodge at Ko'ele and Manele Bay Hotel, is chef Edwin Goto, who officially starts tomorrow as executive chef at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel & Bungalows. Also at Mauna Lani, since July, is executive sous chef Ben Takahashi, formerly of the lamented Seasons restaurant at the Four Seasons Resort in Wailea (that restaurant became the new Spago). Both Goto and Takahashi will be at the Canoe House restaurant, once Alan Wong's home. ... And Thomas Ho, a line cook at Alan Wong's, got a mention in the "Where are our grads now?" column in the newsletter of The French Culinary Institute in New York. Ho graduated in 2000. ... Chef Shane Sutton of Le Guignol is one of six finalists in the Top Boursin Cheese Chefs Cook-Off here Tuesday at the Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki Hotel.
Food editor Wanda Adams welcomes tidbits of food news for Quick Bites, published Wednesdays in the Taste section. Reach her c/o The Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu HI 96802 or at 535-2412 or taste@honoluluadvertiser.com.
