Cooking class makes the clean life a tasty choice

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

When 300 kids in the 'Ewa Beach area were asked what they'd like the Police Activities League and Weed and Seed program to offer this summer, many said they wanted to cook, much to the surprise of the officers involved.

Shiro Matsuo, 84, purveyor of Shiro's Saimin Haven, volunteered to head a cooking class for 'Ewa Beach children. Here, he shows Tasha Corcino, 16, how to prepare a chicken dish. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Lt. Frank Fujii was assigned to put together a summer cooking class. He started making calls and asking for donations. No one said no. Sam's Club gave donations of bulk items such as cooking oil. Daiei gave 20 kitchen knives. Star Market gave a gift certificate for incidentals.

"As police officers, much of our interaction with people is in conflict," Fujii says. "We see the bad side of life all the time. To work with people like this is so refreshing."

But when Fujii approached Shiro Matsuo, the 84-year-old purveyor of Shiro's Saimin Haven, he didn't get what he asked for. "I thought he might lend us one of his cooks," Fujii said. Instead, Shiro volunteered to teach the entire summer course himself.

"To eat is the most enjoyable thing," Shiro says. "And if you're a good cook, you can get a job anywhere."

Shiro planned his lesson and menu for each class. He picked such local favorites as chili, beef curry and sweet-sour spareribs. The students meet twice a week at the Campbell High School food-sciences classroom for 4 1/2 hours. They prepare entire meals, not just the main dish, and spend at least 30 minutes of each class practicing chopping techniques. "The prep work is the hardest part," Shiro says. "If you prep well, the cooking part is easy."

There are other drills as well. About two hours into class, police officer Juan Quintanilla calls out, "Flipping oil! Let's go!" The students push the tables aside and spread newspaper on the floor. Each takes a turn with a frying pan full of oil. They flip the pan as if turning a pancake in mid-air. "If you can control the oil, you can control the egg," says Shiro. "Flipping an egg is the hardest thing for a breakfast cook."

Shiro's classes are full of those practical lessons. "We don't have a temperature gauge to use, but I can stick a chopstick in the hot oil and look, and then I know whether it's 325 degrees or 350 degrees — 400 degrees (is) too hot for frying — and I show the students that."

He also talks to the kids about life, about working hard, being honest and taking care of people.

The first day of class, there were seven students. By the second day, enrollment in the free class had risen to 23. "The word got out," says PAL officer Ernie Pascual, who helps teach the class. "We even had to turn some kids away."

That first class was magic, according to those who were there. Shiro taught the students how to make hamburgers. At the end of class, they all sat down — Shiro and the kids and the officers — and ate together.

"I can't even explain it," says Jeff Thomas, 17. "It was the best hamburger. I've never tasted anything like that in my whole life. We were talking about it for hours after we ate it."

Says 16-year-old Tasha Corcino, "I really don't know why it tasted so good. Maybe because we made it ourselves."

Several mahalo meals have been delivered to Dean Tonokawa, general manager at Marujo Market and one of the biggest supporters of the program. Tonokawa called all of his vendors to ask for donations of ingredients for the kids. Every morning of class, Tonokawa meets one of the officers at his store and they "go shopping" for ingredients. "They came one afternoon after class with chicken katsu. Oh, that was good," he says.

The unstated goal of the class, of course, is to keep kids busy doing something productive so they don't have the time to get into trouble. Becoming good cooks and perhaps starting a career in culinary arts are bonuses. Pascual says police officers in the area believe that their juvenile case load goes down whenever PAL leagues start up.

It just so happens that both Weed and Seed officer Art Takamiya and PAL officer Pascual worked as chefs before starting careers in law enforcement. This class allows them to be cops and cooks at the same time.

Even though Pascual is a kitchen veteran, he says he's learning new stuff from Shiro. "He has some different techniques, and I'm trying to pick up the secret to his fried noodles."

As for Shiro, he's already talking about next summer. He'd like the classes to meet four days a week instead of just two, "so I can teach them more stuff," he says.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.