Posted on: Monday, October 20, 2003
EDITORIAL
Time to think big on a farmers market
Hawai'i has come a long way from the day when food options were limited, by and large, to formal hotel dining rooms offering European-style menus or neighborhood okazu or saimin stand fare.
Nothing wrong with either of those options, certainly, but clearly Hawai'i was and is capable of more.
Today, we have an explosion of local growers harvesting exotic fruits and vegetables as well as produce such as strawberries and asparagus and artisan greens that were formerly available only from the Mainland.
The restaurant scene has boomed, with a critical mass of innovative chefs developing our own unique brand of Pacific Rim or Hawai'i Regional cuisine that has influenced restaurants from Tokyo to Paris.
And now, the latest step in the evolution of Honolulu and Hawai'i as a food or culinary mecca has begun to emerge.
Advertiser Education Writer Beverly Creamer reports that, from a variety of angles, interest in both culinary tourism and of creating an attention-drawing farmers market has taken off.
It could be the launch of yet another niche — an important one at that — for Hawai'i's visitor industry. And unlike some other ideas, "food tourism" offers an ideal opportunity to ramp up the interaction of visitors and local residents.
Almost everyone in the tourism industry says a happy and vital interaction between travelers and local residents is a key to keeping the business fresh.
To be sure, we have had farmers markets on a smaller scale for years. As many as 75 other such markets are, or have been, in operation across the state.
But now, culinary tourism is about to jump into the big time. Destinations such as New Orleans, San Francisco and Napa Valley have made food and agriculture central parts of their tourist appeal. There is no reason Hawai'i cannot join the club.
Much of the energy for this springs out of the respected and still-growing Culinary Arts Institute of the Pacific at Kapi'olani Community College at Diamond Head.
Here, a new generation of chefs, restaurant managers and food specialists is being developed to serve not only Hawai'i's needs but the global tourism industry.
The institute is an active partner in an upscale farmers market that operates every Saturday morning on the shady KCC campus. Officials at the school are also preparing culinary tour experiences for visitors that would range from one-day experiences in farm-to-table events to full-fledged culinary tours.
Through the Department of Agriculture, consultant James Hollyer has prepared a study on a proposed large-scale farmers market attraction known as the Gathering Place at the Honolulu waterfront in Kaka'ako.
There is great excitement about this proposal, which might eventually put Honolulu in the same league as Seattle or Vancouver, B.C., with their wildly popular markets Pike Place and Granville Island.
This would be a combination food, shopping and learning experience that would draw local residents and visitors from nearby Waikiki, who might arrive by ferry or via a shorefront promenade that links Waikiki with downtown.
The report cautions that the Gathering Place concept would not immediately pay for itself. There would have to be some upfront subsidy.
Still, there is huge potential here, if done right with energy and broad vision. The future of culinary tourism, in all its facets, deserves strong support from the agricultural industry, from government policy-makers and from the existing visitor industry.
