A pineapple bowl filled with fried rice, garnished by what else — fresh pineapple — was announced the winner of a holiday recipe contest on Monday during the Pau Hana Market, a partnership with the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau and Kukui Grove Center, at the mall.
Winning in the main-dish category, the dish created by 10-year-old Cazpian France went on to take the best overall recipe award in the contest presented by KGC, KCFB, Corteva Agriscience and the Kaua‘i Grown program.
The combination win made France the big winner, getting gift cards for both of the winning categories.
En route to the dual win, France’s dish had to overcome several other entries, including the carrot cake submitted by Bev Pang that ended in the runner-up position for her entry into the dessert category.
An ube lemon cheesecake submitted by Ishiwa Baker earned the prize for best recipe using the most Kaua‘i Grown ingredients.
“It wasn’t calling too loudly,” said KCFB’s Laurie Ho. “But he had a source for almost everything he used in the dish. If you look at his recipe, there was a local source on almost all of the lines. This category was not originally scheduled, but Ishiwa did such an amazing job with using local, his efforts needed to be acknowledged.”
The holiday recipe contest was part of the make your holidays “merrier” campaign encouraging shopping at the Pau Hana Market, and had a goal of celebrating creativity in using locally grown Kaua‘i produce and fruits during the holidays, celebrating whatever crops are in season.
The planning committee settled on contestants having to develop their recipes using four products that are readily available from vendors at the Pau Hana Market. These included carrots, lemon, ginger and pineapple. Adding to the challenge, the recipe could not be served at any restaurants.
Participating chefs did not have to purchase any of the ingredients. Once a recipe and category were decided on, participants turned in their requests that were filled by market officials.
Judging was led by Kaua‘i Community College culinary-arts instructor Steven Nakata, who had help from representatives of the four presenting organizations. Nakata draws on produce from the market to fulfill some of his projects at the college, and occasionally sends students to shop in order to learn more about items they use in their projects.
The holiday merry-making continues Dec. 27 (that’s the Monday following Christmas) when the final market of 2021 welcomes Elvrine Chow of Heavenly Haku and her brother Hank Zevaat, who will demonstrate kadomatsu, the traditional Japanese New Year’s decoration, as well as have a limited amount available for purchase.
The Pau Hana Market opens from 3 p.m. and continues until 5 p.m., or when vendors’ supplies are exhausted, in the south parking lot fronting Kalepa Road.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
