LOCAVORE, HAWAII-STYLE
On the islands, where most food is imported, a chef makes a case for going local
White beaches, green mountains and bubbling lava may be top attractions for visitors to Hawaii, but for Patrick Heymann, it’s a tomato from Hawaiian B Natural Farms. “They’re absolutely the most perfect tomatoes you’ve ever seen,” gushes the executive chef of Kohanaiki, a private residential community that opened on the Kona Coast in 2013.
The tomatoes, which are grown roughly 50 miles away in Honokaa, are featured at Kohanaiki’s two restaurants. They’re part of a culinary program that emphasizes organic, sustainable and local ingredients.
In California, the locavore approach has become standard, but not so in Hawaii, where more than 85 percent of the food is imported. Heymann, along with other key players from Kohanaiki, recently visited Cavallo Point Lodge in Sausalito to show off his culinary philosophy at a dinner party for current and prospective members. For those who can afford the $100,000 membership fee and homes that range from $2.7 million to $25 million, Heymann cooks to impress. His daily changing menus are as thoughtfully conceived as the property’s championship 18-hole golf course.
An on-site biodynamic farm in the process of undergoing organic certification produces roughly 175 crops that range from papaya to green onions to passion fruit ( lilikoi), which grows so rampantly that Heymann must constantly devise new uses for it. He blends it into jams, cheesecake and even lemonade.
Kohanaiki built the farm to compensate for the lack of organic produce available on the island.
“It’s really tough to buy enough product to run our restaurant,” says Heymann. And importing from mainland United States isn’t satisfactory. “You can’t pick something in California, like an organic heirloom tomato, and expect it to get to us seven days later in good shape.”
Kohanaiki recently sold the farm’s 1-acre plot and plans to reopen it in space twice as large, where Heymann hopes to grow 50 percent of the produce that supplies his restaurant. The farm will also host culinary events like field tours and cooking demonstrations.
What the farm does not provide, Heymann sources from producers elsewhere on the Big Island. He uses tomatoes from Hawaiian B Natural Farms for everything from gazpacho to burgers. Lettuces come from Kekela Farms in Waimea, owned by Paul Johnston, a retired physician. “His lettuces are the best I’ve ever tasted in my 35-year career,” says Heymann.
The farm grows a variety of what Johnston calls “teenage heads,” bigger than baby greens but smaller than large heads. Their colors range from bright red to lime to deep forest with distinctive flavors that move from sweet to bitter. “I have never seen this kind of lettuce for sale on the mainland,” says Johnston.
Like many restaurants in Hawaii, Heymann’s menus are seafood-driven — what he calls “coastal cuisine.” Koha-
Chef Patrick Heymann calls his modern, seafood-centric cooking “coastal cuisine.”
naiki employs an Adventure Team to take members on snorkeling and fishing excursions, and whatever the group reels in goes to the restaurants. Ono and mahimahi are common, though the team doesn’t net something every day. “But that’s why we call it fishing and not catch-