 I'm hungry. It's the 12 o'clock block, of course. It's lunchtime here on Think Tech. And we're talking about restaurants of Hawaii with Cheryl Matsuoka of the Hawaii Restaurant Association. More specifically, we're talking about how she is, and they are our guests, are our grant, Itumatsu and Shivang Garcia, and how they all collectively are working to prepare Hawaii's future chefs. I'm so excited. Cheryl, tell us what you guys are doing. Yes, absolutely, Jane. Thank you so much for having us on. So I'd like to introduce Grant, as you mentioned. He is a professor at the department. I mean, I'm sorry, let me say that again. He is the professor at the Capulani Community College, and he is also a department chairperson for the culinary arts. Shivang Garcia is- I might add they must eat well down there, you know what I mean? I'm tired of this. Okay, Cheryl, what about the Shivang? Yes, and Shivang Garcia is the executive assistant for the Hawaii Restaurant Association, as well as the Hawaii Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. So, Jay, I am also the executive director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. And today, we're talking about how we are at the Educational Foundation. We abbreviated, we call ourselves EF, Educational Foundation, preparing future chefs here in Hawaii. And I'll go ahead and have Shivang first cover who the Educational Foundation is, the EF, and then a little bit about our culinary program in our local Hawaii High School. Oh, I can hardly wait, this is so important. You know, it's related, of course, to hotels and restaurants that are the main engine of our economy, or at least that's the way we want it to be. But it's also another industry. It's another expertise, another way of bringing people here and making local people happier than they've ever been. You know, we haven't eaten out all year. So this is, I hope you can make me hungrier than I am already, Shivang. That's not gonna be my job, that will be Grant. He'll probably be able to best make you hungry. But what we kinda wanna talk about is the HRA EF, the Educational Foundation, and how it supports the hospitality and food service industry in Hawaii through our educational programs. These educational programs educate and inspire current and future hospitality industry workers. And they support the philanthropic missions of the National Restaurant Association, also known as NRA, and the Hawaii Restaurant Association. And part of this educational program is the ProStart program, where we're currently in nine high schools. And this program is really to help not only inspire, but to give these local kids knowledge that they might not acquire in regular classes. So with that, I'll kind of let Grant go into a little bit more on the ProStart program and how he's been helping. Yeah, please, Grant. You know, I imagine these kids must love this. They must love those classes. Am I right? Well, we hope so. I mean, that's one of our challenges. So it's kind of interesting. So about a year ago, when everything started happening, here at Copy Lining Community College, we were trying to figure out how do we keep our students engaged now that everyone has to be at home? And how do we continue the program so we weren't setting back our students any further than they would have to? And so one of the things that we decided to do was, hey, why not create some kind of challenge that we could do online? So the premise of the Mad Skills Challenge that the HRA-EF is doing is stemmed from something we did in a small little pilot here at Copy Lining Community College. So ultimately, what we did was decide, I'm sure you've seen all those different challenges that come on with all of these social media aspects. And one of them was, we thought, hey, why not every week we come out with a challenge? Give a prize away for it. Get the students excited. Everybody loves gift cards, right? Especially for our students who oftentimes during this time, when they might not be able to have jobs and help out the family. So we thought, hey, why not give them a task and try to begin to elevate these different tasks as we go from week to week? Not only that, what we also thought about is how do we support the local culinary programs throughout the state? The DOE was challenged again. All their students were at home. How do we create some excitement so that they get something out of their curriculum? They've tried so hard. And here at Copy Lining Community College, we focus on purely culinary. So that's what we do every single day. Now to have the DOE to try to do all the things that they do along with trying to engage students who are not at home, we thought this was a prime opportunity to allow for this Mad Skills Challenge. Abuelus, you guys already have a restaurant. Has it been operating during COVID? Actually, it's pretty interesting because we had to pivot as well. So we weren't allowed to have anyone come onto campus here at Copy Lining Community College. But so what we ended up doing was doing a curbside service. So we did have some for lunch and we actually had a very highly successful curbside pickup for PM Continental which they took regions of European cuisine and we would serve it once a week for people to order and come up and pick it up at our campus. So curbside pickup gave our students the opportunity to kind of pivot the same way the rest of the industry was pivoting and at least give them some educational components related to what they may have to see once they step out of the program. Yeah, and now you're at least looking forward to reopening. You're gonna reopen the restaurant. You have a date in mind and what's gonna happen? So right now with the University of Hawaii, they just most recently mentioned about athletics being able to have people come into and view their events. So we're kind of on that same timeline. We're trying to wait and see what our administration does, what the UH system decides to do in order to move forward. But hopefully we'll be able to get that sometime sooner rather than later. We already know what we see out there in the industry where the industry is already kind of pivoted again to accommodate all these people that are coming in. I know this past weekend for the Memorial Day, there were many restaurants that were not taking reservations and people were being turned away left and right. So again, we wanna be able to pivot very quickly and kind of respond to what we all see out there in the industry. So I told you guys before the show that my wife and I have been watching these shows on Amazon, they're Amazon productions. And there's more than one series right now that Amazon has about opening restaurants and all the issues and challenges you can have in opening restaurants. And then they have one on chefs from all around the world. And each one of these is a fabulous movie. I mean, they're not just documentaries. They wanna know how these chefs think. They wanna know how they got into being a chef. They wanna know how they express themselves through the food. It's so interesting to meet them and hear them speak about this and so many different walks of life, so many countries, so many kinds of cuisine, so many fabulous meals everywhere. I mean, if they're trying to make you hungry, they do succeed. But what it tells me watching this is that chefs are heroes. Chefs are the leaders of the industry. They create the special art form, the special taste experience, which is important to everyone around the world. Some of them are into street food. Some of them into fine dining. They all have their little specialties. So what I'm thinking actually, with your program, Bram, you could ultimately sooner than later make Hawaii a mecca for what do you wanna call it? Fusion food, Hawaii and Asian food, American food, whatever it is, every kind of food. And you could put this on Amazon or elsewhere and show the world what kind of talent we have here, what kind of people we're training and how well they relate to the food and the profession. I mean, I see you as a critical organization and you as a critical individual in making Hawaii a worldwide mecca for good food. We haven't done it yet, but I think now we can do it. What do you think about that possibility, Grant? I mean, I think you're on the right track. And we have to give credit to all the people that laid the foundation, the Chef Wong's, the Chef Yamaguchi's that actually allowed us to have this type of type of education development. It's not only at KCC, it's at Leeward Community College. It's at Kauai Community College at Maui and the Big Island. So all throughout the States, we have our community colleges putting on these programs that are really doing quite a bit. And there's been so many different accolades that have been awarded to us. And yeah, what you were mentioning about these chefs having all their unique styles, their unique pathways and how they got into the industry and how they succeeded in the industry. That's here at KCC, that's something we really try to do. We wanna try to make sure that students get that experience. So we do a lot of partnerships with Hawaii Food and Wine Festival to get their chefs all throughout the world to come in and be able to share that experience. And for us, we've had opportunities. I can think of one right before the pandemic that a crew from Japan came in and they sat down with our Asian cuisine class and our chef and our students were able to, they were able to document what we do in our culinary program. Of course, everything's in Japanese but I had it translated for me and they did an amazing job publicizing what they do. And I think for us at the community college level, again, enrollment is a very important aspect of what we need to try to garner. And that's where HRAEF comes into play, right? They're starting with the high schools, they're starting with the middle school and they're creating that pipeline that will continue to grow this industry. So to go back to your question, there's so many opportunities that we've had and I think there's unique opportunities that we've had that we've never experienced before. But I kind of like what you, if Amazon approached us today and said, hey, do you want to do a program? I'll be the first one to sign up there and we'll make it happen. And that's what people in the culinary industry do, they make it happen. They could really use you. I know from watching their offerings that they would be very interested in having a Hawaii chef for more than one but different kinds of cuisine, right? We have it all, we have it all right here. But let me ask you more about that. So they used to be a cooking school, a cuisine, I don't know if they called it a cuisine institute or something at the intersection of Baratania and KMO, I don't know if you remember. And it closed, it closed, it's not there anymore. It's Grovene, I believe. Yeah, that's right, it had a French name. So I'm thinking there are people here in Hawaii and a lot of the stars in this Amazon series are, they're not kids, they're not in their teens, 20s, even 30s, they were in their 40s and they had a vision of changing their lives to do what they really love to do, enough being a stockbroker, I want to be a chef, that sort of thing, enough being a lawyer, I want to be a chef. And in fact, I know one guy who did exactly that. But if they wanted to train up, okay, big question for you, Rick. If they wanted to train up, could they talk to you? Or are you gonna tell them, no, no, no, university only trains people who are matriculated. Do you have a program for them too, the people who have been through a good part of their life but they want to have a great moment in food preparation? Yeah, so one of the things we try to do here at CopyLine Community College is look at all different avenues. So we do training with the hotels for people that aren't in culinary and wanted to develop their skills if there's opportunities for them to move up their ranks. So we worked with the Harriet program with that. We had a go cook program, apprenticeship program for students that wanted to just dabble a little bit into the culinary aspects to see where they're at and whether or not it's something for them. And it's kind of interesting, we're talking about all this Amazon and all these different ways that people learn about the chefs. And one thing we always say is that, what you see on TV is always this great story, but behind it, some of them really take a look at the hard work they have to put in. And I guarantee you every single chef that's out there in the industry will tell you, it's not exactly like what you see on TV. That gives you the motivation but you have to continue that. And how do you do that? You go through the education. And it could be through Kabilani Community College. It could be through Leeward Community College. It could be through the pro start at the high school level. There's different ways to get to where you wanna get to without having to say go to college. Or if you have the heart, yeah, if you have the will, I mean, some of the chefs listen to their story. They just walked into a restaurant and say, hey, I wanna learn how to cook, will you teach me? And so here at Kabilani Community College, we wanna be able to offer many of those experiences. We also do non-credit. We haven't done them more recently because of the current pandemic. But nonetheless, this is something that's a complete picture. We don't look at just students coming in, getting a A.S. degree in culinary arts. We want them to be number one love food, which everyone does, but be passionate about it. Maybe make this a career. And if it doesn't become a career, they become better cooked. And when they become better cooks, they can help out their families, their friends, their health. So there's so much growth that can take place from this. Yeah, this is part of the roaring back, the roaring back of the restaurant tours, you know? But first, I'd like to ask you about a question. Siobhan, what is the relationship of the HRAEF and Kabilani and the other culinary schools and programs around the state? How do you get funded at HRAEF? And how do you share that funding with them? Well, the relationship is obviously, we want to build that pipeline of these high school kids to go into the Kabilani Community College, the Leeward, we have to continue on with all of these new chefs. You know, as far as funding, we do get help from the National Restaurant Association's Educational Foundation. And this funding come out just between our relationship that we have. And we're really there to help this pro start program and these students and the instructors. And once we can, you know, we're able to kind of form these relationships and these foundations, that's how we end up in places like Kabilani Community College. So it's- Are you a non-profit? Is the National Restaurant Association? Whoops, I see Cheryl shaking her head. She has something to add to that. Cheryl, can you amplify? Yes, yes. The Hawaii Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, what we're calling the HRAEF is a C3. So we are pure non-profit. And it is a division, as Siobhan had said, from the National Restaurant Association's Educational Foundation. So the pro start curriculum, which is what is in our local high schools, the nine local high schools, is really to prepare the students. And you know, Jay, when I speak to the kids and I say, you know, we had a chili cookoff and we had local high schools compete against each other, like who makes the best chili kind of thing. They got a trophy. And they're really honest, right, Grant? They're like, Auntie, the reason I'm in this class is I gotta go to high school anyway, right? It's a requirement. Why not learn how to cook? And not only that, Auntie, but we get to eat in school. So it's a plus for them because whatever they're making, they get to eat. Is there a job for them? Yes, you mean when they eventually come out of high school or even in high school? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely, you know, if there is opportunity for them to work, one of our board members is Jamba Juice and he's always looking for employees and new talent. So yes, there's an opportunity for that. Because- So this is really playing a tremendous role in the future of the restaurant industry, I think. But Grant, let me ask you, you know, not every student is a brilliant chef. Am I right about that? Yeah, I would have to agree with you, you know, but each person comes into our program with this potential to become who they wanna be. And for us, that's what we need to do. We need to bring out the best in them. So yeah, not everyone is gonna be the top chef, but what we can strive to do is help them get to where they wanna be. Obviously we're always about being realists, you know, how far they wanna go. It's entirely up to them because that motivation I think is more of a driving factor than any other technique we could teach them. For them to be able to understand that, hey, you come into our program, we're gonna try to train you as best as we can, get you ready. And you need to take, you know, after we prepare you, give you the basic skills, you need to take that onto the next level. And that's for every student, whether they're our best student we ever had or if they struggle through our program, we always try to help them through the process and knowing that they can be successful through college, they can make it anywhere they want in golden. Do you talk to them about specialization? For example, there was this woman in Silverton with her name on one of those Amazon shows which I watched recently. And she was already, you know, in her 60s, but she was going strong. She was gonna do this the rest of her life. And her specialty as it turned out after a long and, you know, diverse career in LA and doing chef work, she settled on pastries and bread baking. She settled on baking and she could make a loaf of bread that would make your mouth water just looking at it. You know, so, I mean, to me, it's probably worthwhile asking them or suggesting to them, you know, that they could be expert in something. Do you do that in the course of the school or do you make them generalists? Yeah, I would say our first year is making them generalists, making sure they understand the very fundamentals. So, you know, a lot of what we're trying to incorporate now is more the science aspect of this because, you know, a lot of these things, they could go straight into the industry and learn and get those skills. But what we try to add onto that is some of that critical thinking is like, okay, so if you're working on a certain method and it's not working out, what is the problem? Well, now they, in their mind, they can try to figure out what that problem is and how to solve it, rather than, you know, not knowing, going to the say, hey, chef, this doesn't work. Tell me how to fix it, right? But we want to create critical thinkers. So that's kind of our fundamentals area. And then when they go into their second year, that's where they get a little bit more of the advanced types of classes that will focus more on, say, in the baking side, patisserie and cathisserie. In fact, what we're trying to do with our program now is try to respond to both the industry side as well as our students by creating the shorter one-critic courses that will tie into specialized area. So, you know, we're a culinary school, but hey, why aren't, you know, a lot of our students are now thinking they want to open up their business. They want to sell things on Instagram. They want to be able to take nice photos. So why don't we have a food photography class? Why don't we have some social media classes that will help them be successful? And I think that's part of our job is to look at what's out there for opportunities and be able to provide them. And so, you know, having them become a generalist in the first year is kind of nice because that sets the foundation, but each person has their relative interests. And again, our job is to kind of guide them towards that area. So I think, you know, moving to these one-critic courses not only helps our program and our students say, hey, you know what? They're really curtailing this program to me, but also people in the industry that might say, hey, you know what? I don't have time for a full program, but hey, if you have this one month program once a week, one credit, I'll be the one that first to sign up there. You know, so that's what we're trying to do to be able to provide. Well, that's very good. Make them round it, make them round it. The woman Silverton last night, I think what was interesting about her is that she was OCD, OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder. This is a woman who'd be making a new recipe for bread at two o'clock in the morning. This is a woman, you know, in her 60s that would do that. And so she was so involved, so committed to making it better and better through her whole lifetime. And I wonder if you can teach that. I wonder if you can teach the worth work ethic. Well, I wonder if you can teach the, how to do a good relationship, a sociological ethic with the other people in the restaurant, in the kitchen, for example. How to be a leader, how to tell them what to do and motivate them, you know, to do their best and not offend them, you know? Because that may not be consistent with the way a lot of businesses run. This is hard work, it's a lot of stress. There's deadlines all around you and there are people who, you know, may not be as friendly as you want and maybe people don't wanna listen to you and so forth. And so if you wanna elevate your career in the kitchen, you have to have all kinds of skills aside, cooking. Do you teach them that? That's, you know, when you say that, that is, that's a wonderful point to make because you asked any of the restaurants that contact us and want to interview our students, you said, really, all I really want is someone that's willing to learn. And so it's a lot of these soft skills that we have to try to teach our students. And we do it in multiple ways, you know, whether it's communication, but we have a lot of competitions that we do where part of it is not only producing, but also speaking to other people, understanding, you know, being able to communicate with them. There are a lot of different things that we know that creates barriers. So one of the things that we use quite a bit is critique. You know, the hardest thing to do is put your food on the table and have it critiqued by someone else. Oh yeah, very important, because that's the customer. That's the customer. In fact, your fellow, your co-employee is gonna be the toughest customer of all. Yeah, you know, so being able to, you know, listen to that feedback and be able to utilize them, you know. And that's always the first most difficult thing. Somebody's actually critiquing what I put out. And I feel like I'm putting out the best. And if you're really passionate about what you do, you're always thinking you're putting out your best, but everybody has their own opinion. Sure they do. So I'm thinking of, you know, a meat-packing plant where they all, everybody works together, shoulder to shoulder. They work hard, they breathe, they breathe virus. That's why meat-packing plants in the Midwest, you know, a lot of people have gotten sick over COVID. We have a question from a viewer and I need to ask that question for you. I need to also thank the viewer for the question. Okay, he says, or she says, line cooks had a 60% mortality rate during COVID. I'm not sure that's true, but that's what the question says. Has there been anything put in place to protect future chefs from COVID in an intense working experience like a kitchen? Yeah, well, I can tell you what we do here at CopyLine Community College. We implemented very strict policies and the one thing good about the industry is that cleanliness, sanitation, safety is always number one. So for us to implement anything in addition to that really wasn't very difficult. Now, realize that our kitchens are much larger than most of the kitchen you see out there. And so we're able to do six feet social distancing as much as possible, more so than other areas. But we implemented face shields as part of the requirement as well as wearing masks, wearing gloves, clean sanitation even before we start during and afterwards. So for those kinds of things, we try our best to minimize the risk for obviously in this time for COVID transmission. At the same time, this is what we normally would do except for maybe the face shield. So it's not anything we do differently, but when you're working out in the industry, now you have a much smaller kitchen. People are at a much closer proximity. So again, those lines, those six feet barriers will probably be overlapping much more than what you see in them. They'll continue for sure. Okay, Shyvana, I have a question for you. Now you care a lot about what Grant does because you're interfacing with him on the EF program. And I wonder if you have an idea about what is going to be the future of our, call it the chef industry, the food preparation, food creation industry here in the land of fusion, you know? I mean, people I know, their families who grew up on plantations, they like every kind of food you can imagine. It's not ethnic for them, it's everything. And I just wonder what is gonna sell? What is gonna sell best? If I'm in the business of creating creative food as every chef on Amazon will tell you, what should I be thinking of? What should I be thinking of for the local customer? And what should I be thinking of for the visitor? Grant, I'll give you a chance on this question too. But what do you think and what are you telling Grant? Because you're a very influential person with Grant. Well, of course, I think the future I feel is really local product. You know, really using our local products to show what Hawaii is about. And I think a lot of the up-and-coming chefs, these kids that we're seeing really have a passion for local products. And I think we're gonna continue to see that. And you know, when you come to Hawaii as a visitor, a lot of people like to get a sense of what Hawaii is. And I think they're gonna start to see more and more of those local Hawaii foods that all of us are very used to. I think we're gonna see those start to pop up more. Hey, what about a restaurant like Nobu's, which closed during the COVID? It was one of my favorites. That was fine dining. It was expensive. It was very creative. Tastes there that you wouldn't find anywhere else. I mean, it's a really good, I don't know if they're heard on the mainland or what, but you know, and that attracted a lot of Japanese because the base of it, you know, fundamental cuisine was Japanese. So I'm wondering, Grant, let me address you on this. So I'm wondering, you know, isn't that an enormous possibility for us to do fine dining, global fine dining, like you wouldn't find anywhere in the world finding dining that would supplant or replace restaurants like Nobu's where people could speak of us on every continent and say that Hawaii really has it together and then has tastes that are not available anywhere else. Yeah, I think that's where we have one of the greatest opportunity. I mean, if you think about how Hawaii is such a melting pot and that's come from all the different cultures that are out there. And so to be able to infuse them and people have done this in so many different ways, you know, I think that gives us a leg up because yes, we have American cuisine. Yes, we have the Asian Pacific cuisine. I mean, there's so much opportunity for fusion to happen. And again, I don't know if there's, we could call it a disappear Hawaii cuisine, but I think, Siobhan is right, it starts with kind of utilizing what we have here locally and taking those influence from all these different cultures. Sure, and that's a two way street because we're encouraging local agriculture and aquaculture and so forth. So, you know, it has a huge effect in both directions. Let me ask you this too, circling back to a question I asked you before, not every graduate, not every person who goes through your programs or the other programs at UH and wherever else they are is going to be a global, great global shift. And as we have discovered, not all of them get the same grades. Some of them get really good grades and some of them, yeah, not as good. So the question is, this is a hard question, and I think we all need to know the answer. How do you spot a great chef in the making? Surely, certainly it's not just great. You must be watching these people like a hawk. How can you tell who is gonna be a global chef? You know, it's really interesting and for us, you know, I started off here so my background is in nutrition. I worked in hospitals and so my class was a science class, science of human nutrition. And I had a lot of these culinary students come in and they struggled because a lot of it is anatomy, physiology, very challenging for them. But then when I see them in their own element, something switches. I mean, they're like mad geniuses in what they do. And the one thing that I've noticed and I picked up from some of the other chefs as well is that the students that typically do well will be the one where the academic is the academic. But you will see them involved in everything outside of academics that's related to food. They will volunteer, they will do community service. They will, you know, you can tell it that this is their passion. So number one, I think they need to find their passion. If they're passionate about something, they will chase it. And so yes, what they do in the class has a big impact but what they do out of the class that promotes the industry or helps them develop their skills, I think that that is what sets so many of them apart from some of their peers. Yeah, great. That's really great to hear. Cheryl, this must mean a lot to the Hawaii Restaurant Association. Tell us what it means to you and where it takes the restaurant association, where it takes the state. First of all, yes, you're right. It totally means a lot to our restaurant industry because the Educational Foundation is preparing Hoha'i's future, not only chefs, but all of our future food service employees by providing the pro-star culinary program in the local high school. And, you know, we have a lot of talent here. We don't want them, Jay, to go to the mainland. We want them to stay here and be successful here. So like you said, the EF is focusing on cultivating our local food service workforce. And it's very important to the restaurant industry to keep our local talent here. Thank you, Cheryl. Thank you, Grant. Thank you, Siobhan. Let me only add that a lot of the chefs on Amazon take a little time off in a study in Paris. Wouldn't it be something rhetorical? Wouldn't it be something? If instead of studying in Paris, they came and studied in Hawaii Day, that would be something. There's something to work for. Thank you, Cheryl. Thank you, Grant. Thank you, Siobhan. Wonderful discussion. Aloha.