I just returned from Honolulu Tuesday night, after a week away for the Les Dames d’Escoffier annual conference and a few days of vacation. Les Dames is an organization of women leaders in the food, beverage and hospitality industries and membership is by invitation. The Hawaii chapter staged a brilliant conference that included a luau at the Bishop Museum and a trip to Kualoa Ranch, where we toured the gardens, learned all about poi, and boated in the ancient native Hawaiian fish ponds. This is land familiar to fans of Jurassic Park, LOST and other productions.

During any downtime, I was busy getting my fix of local foods — saimin, shave ice, plate lunch, malasadas, laulau and a Hawaiian breakfast — Portuguese sausage, eggs and rice drizzled with soy sauce. I also needed to fit in breakfast on the veranda of the historic Moana Hotel, tropical drinks with paper umbrellas, dinner at Alan Wong and 3660 on the Rise, and time for family and Honolulu friends.

But this isn’t a story about my trip. It’s really about a thoughtful presentation by the conference’s keynote speaker, Rachel Laudan, a culinary historian and author of The Food of Paradise, a book that had been recommended to me 12 years ago by Zanne Stewart, who was then executive food editor of Gourmet magazine. Laudan’s speech aligned perfectly with my craving for the local foods of my Hawaiian culinary heritage. [more…]

The San Francisco Bay Area is fortunate to have a diverse group of very talented chefs specializing in Asian and Pan-Asian cuisines. But getting recognition for their talents isn’t always so easy. Like food products and everything else, there’s active competition for media attention and it’s tough to stand out from the crowd.

It’s all the harder for those who grew up in an Asian culture where calling attention to yourself and promoting your achievements are considered inappropriate. So, as an Asian person in public relations, I recommended and volunteered to orchestrate a media session for the Asian Chefs Association. [more…]

People are usually surprised to find that I wasn’t born with a wooden spoon in my hand. That I was not interested in cooking — no I actually detested cooking — until I became food editor of Co-Ed, a now-defunct teenage magazine for students in home economics, published by Scholastic in New York City.

It just goes to show, anybody can become a foodie. [more…]