Kudos to Jody Kjeldsen of the Poipu Beach Resort Association, Stacie Chiba Miguel and Helaine Perel of The Shops at Kukuiula, and all those vendors from the Kauai Culinary Market (where was Johnny Gordines, Bill Spitz, Laurie Ho and the Kauai County Farm Bureau gang?) on a great mystery ingredient (crickets never got so much attention) cookoff!
Kudos to Jody Kjeldsen of the Poipu Beach Resort Association, Stacie Chiba Miguel and Helaine Perel of The Shops at Kukuiula, and all those vendors from the Kauai Culinary Market (where was Johnny Gordines, Bill Spitz, Laurie Ho and the Kauai County Farm Bureau gang?) on a great mystery ingredient (crickets never got so much attention) cookoff!
Celeste Rogers (she used to do farmers markets here!), a winner of the Food Network’s “Chopped” competition, did a masterful job as mistress of ceremonies for the cookoff that served as one of the anchor events for the Poipu Food &Wine Festival, where Sabine Dumais of the University of Alberta (yes, it’s in Canada!) brought her family (check out “The Traveler Baby” on social media!) to see the excitement.
Kudos to Chef Martina Hilldorfer, Steve Nakata and Mark Oyama (he was one of the judges!) on getting the Kauai Community College culinary arts students (Kyle Garma and Shelby Taogoshi were doing the mobile grilling station outside the One Stop Center for lunch!) together to help chefs Fetulele Taala from the Dolphin and Esteban Alicea from Merriman’s Fish House try to figure out whose ulu was better.
OK, time to see how they’re going to top this at the Flavors of Poipu that will watch the sun go down at The Shops at Kukuiula.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
