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Hawai’i Food & Wine Fest hosts ‘Viva la Vino’ at Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach

By Photos and text by Betty Shimabukuro

Nov. 9, 2020

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The opening event of the 2020 Hawai’i Food & Wine Festival was an Italian celebration, “Viva la Vino,” held Friday at Splash Bar, an open-air poolside venue at the Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach. It launched a series of 10 collaboration dinners at restaurants around Oahu.
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Festival events are usually huge galas on resort properties with dozens of all-star chefs serving several hundred diners each night. This year’s events are socially-distant affairs, with tickets sold by table to keep diners in individual bubbles.
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Sign of the times: Each place setting included a list of pandemic safety requirements, and party favors were a souvenir festival face mask and bottle of hand sanitizer.
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A strolling accordianist added to the Mediterranean flavor of the event.
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First course: Smoked Kanaloa Octopus Farm Octopus with Hawaiian ‘Ulu Co. breadfruit, Ho Farms tomato and olives. By chef David Lukela.
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The pasta course: Pasta Pomodoro Moderno, Gragnan spaghetti, tomato water infused with tomato leaf, Early Girl tomato sauce, blistered cherry tomatoes, crisped garlic root and basil leaves and bits of black garlic. By chef Michael Chiarello.
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Third Course: Pistachio-Crusted Rack of Lam with Moroccan-Spiced Big Island Bees Honey, over bulgur wheat studded with Okinawan sweet potatoes and Turkish apricots by chef Alex Stratta.
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Dessert: Limoncello Ricotta Cake with almond olive oil crumble, by chef David Lukela.
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As always, students from the Culinary Institute of the Pacific assisted at each station with assembly of dishes. A bed of bulgur wheat is arranged on plates awaiting chef Alex Stratta’s lamb chop.
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Along David Lukella’s line, putting the finishing touches on his appetizer. Normally, service would be far more hectic, with a constant stream of plates having to be prepared through the night. This year, it’s just a few diners per table at a time.
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Components of chef Michael Chirello’s pasta dish are arranged for assembly: blistered cherry tomatoes, crisped basil and garlic root, tomato water and mounds of spaghetti from the Italian hill town of Gragnano.
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The official event shot with the chefs is usually a crowded affair with a dozen or so chefs lined up to take a bow. This year’s chef lines will be much shorter — and masked.
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A moment with masks off as sunset colors the sky: chefs David Lukela, Alohilani host chef; Roy Yamaguchi, co-chair of the festival; Michael Chiarello, from Bottega Napa Valley; and Alex Stratta, Stratta Kitchen, Scottsdale, Ariz.
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The Hawai’i Food & Wine Festival continues through Nov. 21. Each collaboration dinner pairs the host restaurant chef with one or two guest chefs, based on shared relationships or cooking philosophies. For a schedule and tickets go to hfwf.me.
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