QUICK BITES
Lodge at Koele staff re-energized
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Staff Writer
Brad Czajka, executive chef at the Lodge at Koele on Lana'i for about six months, dropped by the other day to talk story along with sous chef Adam Pangan, a Lana'i native who has worked at the lodge since 1997.
Advertiser library photo
The two talked about their excitement at the new menu they recently premiered, with Pangan noting that after a period of transition and even some stagnation, the staff is re-energized by Czajka's steadying presence and his ideas.
Shoyu poke and other raw-fish concoctions will be featured at the Coors Light Honolulu Poke Festival today, 4:30 to 9 p.m., in the Ward Warehouse parking lot.
Czajka, for his part, loves working in a place where the concept of 'ohana doesn't seem like just a romantic idea. And, he jokes, he's happy to be "home" again. It's a joke because, although he was born at Tripler Army Medical Center, he left Hawai'i while still in diapers. It's been a running gag in his family that he'd come back someday.
It was the military, in a broad sense, that brought him back here: He worked in a mess while he was serving in the Air Force and hated it, thought it was the most boring job in the world. But a mentor of his challenged him to push himself further and he was allowed to do an "externship" in a hotel kitchen. "It was a jazz," he recalls and, when he got out of the military, he used his GI Bill money to put himself through the prestigious Johnson & Wales culinary program and began a path that eventually brought him to Lana'i.
His is a menu that brings together the two themes that make the Lodge unique: a New England-style inn in the tropics and a rack of lamb with toasted hazelnut spoonbread, seared foie gras with mango-croissant bread pudding, Lana'i venison with root-vegetable hash. Czajka will be hosting chef Michael Cimarusti of the Water Grill in Los Angeles July 14-15 in one of four culinary presentations that are part of the Lanai'i Visiting Artist Program this year. Information: www.islandoflanai.com or (800) 321-4666.
Cooking series, camp coming soon
Readers often lament the lack of cooking classes here, but Kapi'olani Community College has joined forces with area chefs and foodies to create two out-of-the-ordinary opportunities in the coming weeks:
• A four-part Friends of Italy cooking series offers a chance to learn a recipe from a master — Donato Leperfido of Donato's prepares lamb shanks with polenta May 19; Eugenio Martignano of Nick's Fishmarket does fish soup and seafood antipasto June 2; Sergio Mitrotti of Cafe Sistina prepares gnocchi with gorgonzola June 9; and Joey Julian of C & C Pasta Co. makes vegetarian lasagna June 23. All classes are at 6:30 p.m. at KCC; cost per class is $60 for Friends of Italy members and $75 for others.
• Cooking Camp is a weeklong course, from 3 to 6 p.m. daily June 9-13, during which people 16 to 21 years old will be exposed to the sort of basic cooking skills that first-year culinary students learn; participants get a knife set and bag, chef jacket and hat, food and supplies within the $475 fee.
Registration: 734-9211.
Test your poke recipes at Ward
For years, the Sam Choy Poke Contest has been the measure by which all raw-fish concoctions were measured — but it's held all the way over on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island. Now comes the First Annual Coors Light Honolulu Poke Festival, which takes place 4:30 to 9 p.m. today in the parking lot of Ward Warehouse, mauka side near the Executive Chef store. Representatives of fish markets, restaurants and grocery stores will compete against just folks to create award-winning recipes in a variety of categories. Admission is $3 per person with $1 scrip to be sold to purchase poke samples. A portion of the proceeds benefits the Kapi'olani Children's Miracle Network.
Quick Bites is published Wednesdays. Send tidbits of food news to food editor Wanda A. Adams, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802; 525-8069 or taste@honoluluadvertiser.com.
