Events include: a cooking demonstration by Sakai at 1:30 p.m.; a lecture/demonstration on truffles by Bob Passarelli, corporate chef of U.S. Foods and owner of the country's only truffle orchard, at noon; displays of the competitor's creations from 11 a.m.; plus ice-carving demonstrations, food booths and a blind wine-taste test. The event opens at 10 a.m. on the KCC campus; tickets are $10. Information: 734-9483.

Speaking of KCC, chef student Angela Thibaut of the Maui Community College's culinary program won the Hawaii Medical Service Association's Five a Day Recipe Contest with Lemongrass Mahi with Green Beans and Butternut Squash. Her recipe will be in an HMSA-distributed booklet.

Mavro's staff back from their sabbaticals

Hiromi Okura

He sent line cook John Mailo to Marseilles, France, for a "stage" ("stahzjh" — a very brief internship) with Gerald Passadat at Le Petite Nice, a seafood restaurant on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean, and pastry cook Hiromi Okura to New York City to learn from Jehangir Mehta, formerly of Jean Georges, now pastry chef at the much-heralded Aix (Mavro, in New York for a charity event, visited Okura there).