Culinary Students Assist Culinary Icons at Annual Food Festival

Every year Hawaiʻi culinary students have the opportunity to volunteer at Hawaiʻi Food & Wine Festival to learn from and network with top industry professionals. (Photo by Sarah Burchard)

By Sarah Burchard | Staff Writer

On the evening of Nov. 8, over 900 guests entered the Hawaiʻi Convention Center to find human hands reaching through wreaths made of grape vines to pass them a wine glass. Up ahead, 17 of the country’s most revered chefs, amid a crew of culinary school volunteers, prepared delectable bites alongside eight award-winning mixologists and 22 of the world’s greatest winemakers (including three master sommeliers) at the 14th annual Hawaiʻi Food & Wine Festival’s Behind the Cellar Door event.

The Hawaiʻi Food & Wine Festival is not only for food and wine loving patrons, it is a time of gathering for industry professionals to reconnect and celebrate each other’s work. More than that, it is an opportunity for culinary students around Hawaiʻi to meet, and work alongside, some of the world’s most revered chefs, offering them an entryway into the next phase of their careers. 

“This event just gives us, as students, something that we don’t get the opportunity for all the time,” said Constance Mehaffey, a 43-year-old culinary student from the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College (UHMC). “It’s fun, it’s happening and, plus, honestly, the stress is good for people who haven’t worked under pressure, or haven’t worked under stress, to get that under their belt.”

The festival has donated a portion of its proceeds to Hawaiʻi culinary programs at KCC, Leeward Community College, Kauaʻi Community College, Hawaiʻi Community College (Hilo and Kona), and UHMC, since its inception in 2011. Denise Yamaguchi, co-founder and CEO of Hawaiʻi Food & Wine Festival, said that when she was envisioning the festival with chef co-founders Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong, it was to help raise funds for the  for culinary programs across the state. This includes KCC’s Culinary Institute of the Pacific, which appointed Roy Yamaguchi as its culinary director in January.

Additionally, the festival has a scholarship fund that sends students to Hudson Valley Farms in New York, the largest foie gras farm in the country, and accepts donations at the events to send students on a week-long culinary exchange program in Japan. 

“I always think, the one way that chefs get better is they travel,” Denise Yamaguchi said. “Because you can’t really experience the food of that culture until you go there. We’re trying to work with the schools to help them offer more of that, and not just with KCC, but all the schools.” 

In the past 14 years, over 405 chefs from around the world have participated in the festival and 2600 Hawaiʻi culinary students have volunteered alongside, according to Denise Yamaguchi. She said the feedback she has received from culinary students is that they appreciate culinary school for the connections they make and for the travel opportunities they receive. 

“They want the opportunity to go stage (try out) in someoneʻs restaurant after they finish,” Denise Yamaguchi said. “We have chefs from all over the world that come and participate [at the festival] and that becomes an opportunity for them.”

Mehaffey assisted chef Michele Belotti this year at the Vita La Vino event on Maui. Belotti, originally from Italy, is a master pasta-maker and the co-owner of Belotti Ristorante e Bottega in Oakland, California. 

“I believe if I was going to California for a month or two, I could absolutely join chef Michele,” Mehaffey said. “He would absolutely allow me there.”

Peyton Dix, age 20, also a culinary student at UHMC, has volunteered the past two years. She said last year she was lucky to work with chef Sheldon Simeon, owner of Tin Roof and Tiffany’s on Maui. 

“I was able to talk to his sous chef,” Dix said. “He’s like, ‘If you ever want a job, just let me know.’”

Marilyne Pinto, a 33-year-old KCC student enrolled in the pastry arts program, volunteered with MW restaurant – owned by husband and wife team Michelle Karr-Ueoka (pastry chef) and chef Wade Ueoka (executive chef) – at the Behind the Cellar event. She said she was happy she got to exchange phone numbers with Wade Ueoka so she could schedule a stage. Her goal is to make pastries at MW.

“Chef Michelle Karr is amazing,” Pinto said. “She’s one of my idols.”

While connecting with chefs is a major draw, another perk of the festival is the opportunity to build relationships with peers. Cyan Utley, a 19-year-old culinary student at KCC, just transferred from Korea. At the Nov. 6 Roots event on Oʻahu, Utley took time to get to know some of her new classmates.

“I’ve only been here two months,” Utley said. “So to me it’s interesting just to be able to learn and get to know everyone, especially locals, because it’s a new culture, new way of life. So I’ve personally been enjoying it a lot.”

Visiting chefs also find ways to connect with students outside the festival too. James Beard Award-nominated chef Chris Cosentino from San Francisco will be opening his new restaurant KOAST in Wailea on Maui early next year. The day after he participated in the Backcourt BBQ event on Oct. 27, he conducted a cooking demonstration at UHMC. His demo taught students how to prepare underutilized parts of fish in honor of Hawaiʻi’s Sustainable Seafood Month. It was an opportunity for students to learn from a chef famous for championing nose-to-tail cooking as well as open the door for possible future employment. 

That night, at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center, some of TV’s most celebrated chefs, such as Rick Bayless – winner of Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters” and star of the award-winning television series, “Mexico: One Plate at a Time” – posed for pictures and shared their opinions and knowledge to inquiring fans. For the students who enjoy volunteering at the festival for its peek into show business, chef Anita Lo – who has appeared on numerous television shows and films including “Top Chef Masters” and “Iron Chef America” and participated in this the Culinary EmpowHERment event on Nov. 10  – said to get a good foundation students should start their career working in a restaurant kitchen. 

“I think the restaurant business is the place to learn how to cook,“ Lo said. “I think a lot of kids these days want to go directly into TV, but you can’t without knowing how to cook.”

To volunteer at next year’s Hawaiʻi Food & Wine Festival, inquire with any one of KCC’s culinary instructors.