The only problem for those of us who live here in the capital was that most of these star-dusted chefs presided over restaurants on neighbor islands, especially Maui and the Big Island. But the fickle finger of foodie fame has moved. Metropolitan Honolulu and Waikiki Beach seem on the verge of becoming the new centers of culinary action.
As a food writer, I've tracked several new restaurants in the city in just the last year, four of them in the last six months - with more to come. Two of the newest are decidedly French, comparable to the best restaurants on the U.S. mainland. Opening within weeks of each other last December, their traditions are in haute cuisine, but the Frenchness doesn't drown out their very Hawaiian flavors.
When Chef Mavro's opened, I knew what to expect: Chef George Mavrothalassitis' plates always feature clean flavors and few frills. The former chef of Seasons Restaurant and the Four Seasons Resort Maui likes well-stated flavors and contrasting tastes and textures in his Provence-inspired take on Hawaii regional cuisine.
An example is the chef's huli huli-style chicken, a local specialty cooked over an open barbecue, flavored with soy sauce, garlic and ginger, often sold for school fund-raisers. But in Mavrothalassitis' hands it becomes extraordinary. Reduced Chinese plum wine and demiglace form the basis of the sauce, finished with huli huli sauce and sesame oil, all gently spritzed on a plump island-grown chicken that hangs in an oven to roast. The flavor is soft, the skin is crisp and the magical moment comes when you take a bite of the succulent chicken along with creamy super-sweet Kahuku corn and braised red Swiss chard.
Paired with a glass of Joseph Faiveley's 1995 Bourgogne - every dish on the menu is matched with a glass of wine - the dish is simply ono - delicious, as we say in the islands.
