Save the date: the James Beard Foundation’s 2021-2022 Taste America culinary series is coming to Hawaii Dec. 8. Taste America, presented by Capital One, will feature events in 26 cities across the United States, bringing chefs and diners together to celebrate local restaurants and support efforts to rebuild a more sustainable industry.
The Dec. 8 event will feature a collaboration dinner by executive chef Bao Tran of Mad Bene and chef-owner Robynne Maii of Fête. Guests will enjoy a multi-course meal with beverage pairings created specifically for this night through a unique chef collaboration curated by the foundation.
To kick off the evening, guests will be greeted with signature welcome drinks by local beverage sponsor Kona Brewing Co., along with national sponsors Rabbit Hole Distillery and White Claw Hard Seltzer.
The evening’s menu includes Breadshop’s mushroom focaccia with truffled Kerrygold butter; Kualoa-grown shrimp fritti with her-bed marinara, arugula pesto, green garlic aioli and lemon; spaghetti frutti di mare with wild-caught Oahu slipper lobster, Samoan crab, tako, opihi and pipipi; roasted dry-aged duck with Kahumana Farm’s parsnip and stuffed cabbage; and the Chunky-Misu, a Bianca Gianduja mascarpone mousse with St. George NOLA Coffee liqueur-soaked Savoiardi, brûléed apple bananas and hazelnut Florentine cookie for dessert.
Tran is especially excited to see guests experience the pasta course of the evening.
“Spaghetti frutti di mare will feature only fish and shellfish that have been wild caught on Oahu,” he explains. “There will have been countless hours of intense fishing and harvesting done by friends and family of the restaurant by the time of the dinner. We wanted to capture the magic of this humble dish: locally caught, fresh seafood that has been cooked and presented simply.
“I wanted to strike a balance between offering comforting classics while, at the same time, pushing ourselves to source some more luxurious ingredients and treat them with the time and attention they deserve,” Tran adds. “For example, we are working with Mary’s duck farm out of California and sourcing specific-sized ducks, which we are going to age in-house. These ducks require a lot of preparation in order to get that perfect-aged flavor and super crispy skin that we’re looking for, and we hope our guests that evening can taste all of the hard work and love that has gone into preparing these birds.”
According to Maii, using local ingredients as much as possible was essential when creating the menu.
“For our savory dish, we are featuring the sweet, succulent shrimp from Kualoa Grown,” she says. “These small shrimp are best eaten whole — head and shells, too. The shrimp are lightly dredged and flash fried, then served with an herb-tomato compote and arugula pesto then finished with a drizzle of charred green garlic aioli and a wedge of lemon to squeeze over everything.
“All of the dishes have something special and we are excited for the guests to experience all of them,” Maii adds. “We love collaborating with chef Bao because we think similarly in terms of creating and executing our dishes. It’s our responsibility to honor the ingredients we are so lucky to work with, teaching our teams to be present and cook thoughtfully instead of being robots.”
Tickets for this one-night only event at Mad Bene can be purchased at jamesbeard.org/tasteamerica and are offered by tables of two, four and six. Two seatings are available at 5 and 7:30 p.m. Since Taste America supports local chefs and restaurants directly, while also driving philanthropic support toward industry-wide relief, 65% of proceeds from all tickets sold will go directly to Mad Bene and Fête to support their business, with 35% of proceeds supporting the foundation’s national programming. Both Mad Bene and Fête decided to pay a portion of their funds raised toward the local nonprofit Chef Hui.
“It’s been such a strange last two years, and we are excited and honored to be part of Taste America,” Maii says.
“I’m excited to work with chef Robynne to create a truly unique dining experience for our guests,” Tran adds. “Local chefs have not had a lot of opportunities to collaborate or throw special dinner events during the pandemic, so being able to do so now with the backing of the James Beard Foundation and Chef Hui makes me feel like we are taking one huge step toward normalcy in the hospitality industry.
“I would like to personally thank all guests attending. Proceeds from this event will go directly to locally owned restaurants across the United States. These restaurants need our help more now than ever before, and we appreciate everyone coming out to support such an important cause.”
