This weekend's Ko Olina Taste at Kapolei will showcase culinary creations from 20 restaurants, beer and wine stations, a silent auction and country market. The benefit for Leeward community groups and culinary and digital media scholarships begins at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Ulua, the fourth lagoon at Ko Olina Resort & Marina. Stick around for the display from Fireworks by Grucci. Tickets: $75 ($35 for ages 7-12, free for younger children); 545-2772 or www.hawaiisbesttickets.com.

COOKING DEMO CATCH 'IRON CHEF' CHALLENGER AT MACY'S

Hawai'i-born and -raised Tony Liu, executive chef of New York's trendy Morandi restaurant, is offering a free cooking demonstration. At 5 p.m. Monday at Macy's Ala Moana, level four's demonstration kitchen, he'll whip up Raw Squash Salad and Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe. The University of Hawai'i grad was also seen challenging "Iron Chef America" Mario Batali, whom he served as executive sous-chef at Babbo.

- Advertiser Staff

FINAL WORD

Cocktail-making is like tea-making, an "adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony. The mystery of mutual charity. The romanticism of the social order."

- Kazuo Uyeda , Of Tokyo, in Bon Appetit magazine