Grow Hawaii Iron Chef Competition: Next Generation

The Iron Chef Next Generation teams were scrambling around the room choosing all their ingredients to use in their cook-off. Kabocha was the "secret" ingredient of the day.



The displays were incredible of all the fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients.







And on the judge's panel.... that's ME, with Ed Kenney, Alan Wong, and Roy Yamaguchi signing autographs at the end of the day. Yeah baby!! I was one of the very few female chefs there representing.




(this photo is from Honolulu Magazine's twitpic.com account.)
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Article on Hawaii News Now

Monday November 8th, 2010 - The Hawai‘i Association of Independent Schools (HAIS), Sheraton Waikiki and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Hawai‘i presents the GROW HAWAI‘I Challenge. Fifteen public charter and independent schools across Hawai‘i have been selected to participate in HAIS’s innovative Grow Hawai‘i pilot program to incorporate locally grown produce into their school cafeteria menus. Breakout sessions will celebrate local success stories and heroes making a difference in sustainability. Chefs from Starwood’s Hotels and Resorts across the islands and local celebrity restaurateurs will team up with the school chefs and students in a School Garden Cooking Challenge. Attendees will enjoy a delicious Farm-to-Table lunch prepared by Sheraton Waikīkī chefs before the awards are presented.

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Article on Grow Hawaii's website:

Over the next three years, Grow Hawaii will use a variety of strategies to significantly enrich the educational dialogue in all private and public schools statewide concerning the urgency for growing food in the islands. Beginning with the belief that the betterment of humankind is inherently possible and that schools are a prominent force for good, Grow Hawai’i and its partners aspire to create lifelong “buy local, eat local” consumers by engaging students, starting in elementary school, in exploration, experimentation, and action-oriented problem-based learning that will foster consideration of the origins of and their relationship with island grown food and the social systems and values we will need to create a more sustainable way of life. Simultaneously, we aspire to document this story and share it with all who are interested, allowing the voices of students to chart a course to the future and be in the vanguard of those leading the way. http://www.growhi.org/?page_id=2