Benjamin Henion

We are looking to bring in some new dishes to the resort menus, and here is one we are currently working on. It is our house smoked salmon app. This one is a flavorful, colorful, and light appetizer. It has well rounded flavors, and great eye apeal. Our salmon is cured over night in a pretty standard sugar, salt and spice blend. After it has been rinsed thoroughly the following day, we cold smoke it with nice kiawe (light mesquite). It is served with a fresh mango pico de gallo, kaffir lime cilantro puree, chile Hawaiian rock salt, and Molokai Purple Sweet potato chips. Although it may change some before hitting the menu, this is not a bad starting point.

Check out the video on Maui Aquaponics above, or follow the Maui Aquaponics link for a larger version.

Here are the local, organically grown lettuces that were grown here on Maui ( Kapalua ) specifically for our hotel. These photos were taken Thursday and were being served in our restaurants Friday morning. These are the same lettuces from the previous post, now being harvested. I believe its about every 4-6 weeks that the lettuces are ready to harvest, and with virtually no travel time to get here, its as fresh as you are going to find.

As our resort transitions into a whole new operation, our Culinary team is in for a great ride. With many food trends, you see things happening in the food world that are cool, unique, and yes, of course trendy. The molecular gastronomy, the meals that require dozens of tiny portions, the fads that practically wipe out entire species like Chilean Sea Bass. One of the more recent ones, I don't think is going to fade out or disappear like many of its previous trends. Local ingredients, grown organically, and where the chef has a more intimate knowledge of where his ingredients come from. With many vendors I have dealt with over the years, this is the first time I have ever had them send me photos of the products I intend to buy, as they are growing so delicately on the hillside overlooking the Pacific. This photo was taken 4 weeks ago, and I was delighted to see the beautiful lettuces arrive today. This is the first step in a direction for our resort that I believe is just a brush s...

Raku is our new Japanese Restaurant at Makena Beach and Golf Resort which takes this kitchen back to its roots. After a few changes, this beautiful restaurant is bringing classic Japanese food and tradition back in full force. With a great team of chefs with a real passion for Japanese food, Raku is making a major impression on Kama'aina and travelers alike. With the Raku Bento Box, Sukiyaki and Shabu Shabu, accompanied with 1/2 price sushi in our opening hours daily, you can count on this place catching on. With beautiful views and incredible decor, we are very proud of the direction we chose for this outlet. We had a Grand Opening celebration on Friday that brought in a nice crowd. We served the entire menu half off, including drinks. We had an overwhelming turnout, and expect to see business booming soon. For those of you located on Maui, and those who plan to visit, you have got to make it to Raku. Enjoy!

' Tis the season, as they say. We are in that time of year that we gather with family and friends to celebrate another holiday season, and the joys of our little world. Today we used that feeling as the theme to our already popular Sunday Brunch. We took a little part of many cultures here in Hawaii and showcased their food in a "Joys of the World Brunch". Naturally we used many of the fresh fruits that you find here on Maui, many of which were brought here from other parts of the world as people migrated to the Islands. We Incorporated the Cantonese style fried rice with Char Sui Pork, Chinese style roast duck which we sliced and made mini sandwiches with steamed kau yuk buns, Portuguese bean soup, huli huli chicken, macadamia nut crusted sweet potato fries and so on. We set up the portable sushi bar, making sushi rolls to order, chicken pot stickers , shrimp shumai , and pork-filled steamed buns. We had shrimp and pork gyozas , lau lau style steamed mahi mahi ,...

This light, refreshing dessert turned out nice. Very simple preparation . Crisp, clean flavors as well. I did a simple guava ice, using guava juice and sugar. It turned out nice and fluffy, with lots of guava flavor. The starfruit is used 2 ways, fresh slices and dried slices. Although the dry slices didn't crisp as well as I would have liked, they preparation concentrated the flavor for a really nice component to the plate. I elevated them and added some color with a couple fresh raspberries, which complimented the fresh starfruit really well. The moisture came from the passion fruit-orange-strawberry coulis that glistens from underneath . In the process of making this dish, I changed direction a few times, but in the end, I decided simple, clean and flavorful was the way to go. I am just glad to make good use of some of the starfruit we picked up today, and it doesn't get much fresher than that.