Kahala Wine & Food Classic
Courtesy Christine Perez
Cindy Pawlcyn’s farm-to-table philosophy helped earn the attention of Bravo, which selected her for the first season of its “Top Chef Masters” competition.
HONOLULU PULSE STAFF / staff@honolulupulse.com
Think Napa Valley and front of mind is the declarative statement: “They make wine there!”
But they also make food — famous food, and lots of it.
For the chef, Napa has got to be heaven, surrounded as you are by wineries and farmland, so you can experiment with flavors and wine-food pairings while remaining locavore. And Cindy Pawlcyn knows she’s got it good. She’s well settled in the valley, with three restaurants: Mustards Brill, Go Fish and Cindy’s Backstreet Grill.
Pawlcyn showcases her wine-country cusine at the the Kahala Wine & Food Classic, which begins tomorrow at the Kahala Resort & Hotel. Each year the fine-dining celebration features a guest chef for two days of dinners, a cooking class, wine tastings and cigar seminars.
At a reception on Thursday, Pawlcyn said her Kahala menu will feature “stars” from her restaurants, such as a Baby Octopus Salad with Chile Relish, Oysters Bingo and Grilled Squab with Dijon Mustard Sauce. “I really wanted to bring a taste of Napa to Hawaii.”
Pawclyn’s Baby Octopus Salad, foreground, and duck sliders.
She will also “bring coals to Newcastle” with a couple of Hawaii-inspired dishes that have been best-sellers at her restaurants since the beginning — a pineapple upside-down cake and a salad of avocado and papaya with papaya-seed dressing.
Pawclyn’s dishes are paired with wines from Napa’s Pride Mountain Vineyards, grown at the 2,200-foot elevation on Spring Mountain, where the soil is volcanic and rocky. Some of the grapes were planted in 1869, struggling in this harsh growing environment, which by the way is good for wine grapes as it means low yield, small fruit and intense flavor.
Pride Mountain Vineyards is know for its No. 1 grape, merlot.
Owner Suzanne Pride ran through the many accolades Pride Mountain wines have collected, but said her family takes no credit for them: “It’s our dirt.”
For reservations to any Classic event call the resort at 739-8888, or visit www.kahalaresort.com.
The Kahala‘s Wayne Hirabayashi, left, is host chef for the Kahala Food & Wine Classic. Fred Schrader of Schrader Cellars is master of ceremonies. Cindy Pawlcyn of Napa Valley is the featured chef.
2011 Kahala Wine & Food Classic Schedule
Friday, April 22
Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen Gourmet Dinner, 6:30 p.m.; $150
Saturday April 23
» Cooking Demo with Chef Cindy Pawlcyn, 10 a.m., $80
» Wineology Seminar with Suzanne Pride Bryan and Stuart Bryan of Pride Mountain Vineyards, 1 p.m., $50, includes food by Kahala chef Wayne Hirabayashi
» Cigar Experience with Davidoff Cigar’s Michael Herklots, 3 p.m., $30
» Mustards Grill Gourmet Dinner, 6:30 p.m., $150
» After Dinner Cigars Under the Stars, 10:30 p.m., $50
