Here's a photo of Ryan helping out (photo credit: Ed Morita, Hawaii Food & Wine Festival Facebook page). He is always the first to put up his hand, so he wound up cutting green onions for several hours, while those who were left got to actually work with the famous chefs.
Photo credit: Linawati Towne, his classmate, from his Facebook page.
Here's his reflection on the event. He told me not to include it because he says he sounds whiny for not being able to do anything fancy, but I like what he wrote:
During our second week of class in Intermediate Cookery, we assisted
various chefs in town for the Hawaii Food and Wine Festival. I was excited to
meet and work with experienced chefs from the industry and at the same time,
slightly nervous. On the first day, we took a trip to the Modern resort in
Waikiki to work on prep for the chef’s creations later in the week. Once we
were in the kitchen, Demetrius, Andre and I were paired with two Japanese sous
chefs. Initially, communicating with them was difficult because of the language
barrier between us. For the entire time spent in the kitchen, we worked on
vegetable cuts and the cleaning of produce. The first item we prepped were
mushrooms that were to be used in a sort of dumpling. We then julienned several
pounds of radishes and small diced a kaboucha squash. Many times during the
day, I would look over to the other groups who were working with lobster and
other proteins and I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. However, this was
a good opportunity for me to practice my knife cuts, especially ones that need
practice. Overall, my experience at the Modern was very good, my only wish was
that I could have been able to communicate with the two chefs I worked with and
asked them questions about the dishes we were prepping for and also their
backgrounds.
For the next two days,
our class went to the kitchens in the Hawaii Convention center to help the
chefs there with their prep. As soon as we arrived, I was impressed with the
size of their kitchen and the size of their staff. I was unfamiliar with a lot
of the large equipment used for quantity cookery. There were many famous chefs
in the kitchen such as Lee Anne Wong and Chris Cosentino, but sadly I was
unable to work with either of them. I made the “mistake” of trying to be the
first one to help that I spent a good time cutting and plating butter for later
in the evening. Next we peeled eggs that would be used for a Scottish egg dish.
The amount of work that goes into a large event like this was amazing to me. For
most of the tasks I was given, I felt that I spent long periods of time
cutting, working on one item.
On the final day at
Hawaii Convention Center, I spent the entire time there thinly slicing
scallions. Between Katie and I, we slivered an entire case of green onions and
it was a challenge. This simple bias cut took us several hours to complete
because of the quantity of vegetables. By the end of this, I was suffering from
tunnel vision but I felt that this was also very good practice for my knife
cuts. The sous chef we worked with helped me find my rhythm and pushed hard for
doing the job correctly, verses finishing as quickly as possible. This was
humbling for me because I am constantly rushing, trying to finish first. I felt
that my entire experience at the Hawaii Food and Wine festival was a good one
and I regret not being able to volunteer during the night.
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