 My name is Cheryl Matsuoka, the executive director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association and the Hawaii Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. Mahalo for joining me here on Restaurants of Hawaii on the ThinkTech platform. Today, it is such an exciting day for me. I am starstruck. We have a special, special guest. We have Guy Fieri himself on our show. Guy and his foundation donated $1.2 million to the restaurant employees that filled victim to the August 2023 Lahaina wildfires. First, I'd like to really thank Guy, the Hawaii Restaurant Association, and the Lahaina Food Service employees, extend Guy our deepest gratitude to you and the foundation for your generous and compassionate monetary donation to support those Lahaina Food Service employees who tragically lost their place of employment due to the devastating wildfires on August 8th. As you know, 70 eateries and including David's two eateries perished that day. The Hawaii Restaurant Association is honored to collaborate with Guy Fieri and the Guy Fieri Foundation in this meaningful endeavor. I have the honor to introduce Chef Guy. Chef Guy is a restaurateur, a New York Times best-selling author, and any award-winning TV host. Chef Fieri is one of the world's most recognizable and influential culinary stars. In 2019, Guy received a star on the celebrated Hollywood Walk of Fame, a rare feat for a chef. In 2006, Guy won the Food Network's popular television competition show, Next Food Network Star, and awarded his own series, the Emmy-nominated Guy's Big Bite and has taken television by storm by hosting top-rated TV shows, including the iconic Emmy-nominated Diners Driving and Dives, my favorite, Guy's Grocery Games, my other favorite, Tournament of the Champion and Guy's Ranch Kitchen. Guy and his team at Knuckle Sandwich, LLC have created the thriving Food and Beverage Empire. He recently launched Flavortown Kitchen, a 175-location virtual brand to complement his 80-plus Scratch Kitchen restaurant concepts worldwide. In addition, he partnered with legendary rocker and spirits pioneer, Sammy Hager, in Santo Tiqueila on land and at sea, from Las Vegas Strip to the Atlantic City Broadwalk, from South Africa to Columbia and from Costa Rica to Dubai. Guy's culinary spirits and creations are enjoyed globally every day. Guy, can I please let you say a few words now? I think you covered it all. We're supposed to be talking about everybody else, not about me, but thank you, Cheryl, for all the great words and what a tragic situation that you all faced and being such a fan of Hawaii and the culture and the people and the food and all the great adventures that my family and friends have had there. When we saw what was taking place and we're unfortunately accustomed to the wildfire situation here in Northern California, we knew that we needed to help and we needed to help quick. And unfortunately, I have some of the best friends in the world that also happened to be the world's best chefs. 40 of them came together and we threw an event to raise money for you all. And that's how we got to meet you and the Restaurant Association and all partnered together to recognize the food service workers who really are, if you think about it, when you go on vacation or when you live in a town where food, service, restaurants, all of that is really kind of the fabric of our communities and fabric of our vacations. And we're so happy that we were able to help and make such a big donation. And then you all were so gracious in how you got it to the workers. So thanks for having me. Thank you so much, Guy. And I'd like to now have Brian introduce himself. Brian, he is on my speed dial. I think I speak to Brian more than I speak to my husband. Brian, please introduce yourself. Let me introduce Brian because he deserves a proper introduction. OK, so Brian Dally is my best friend from college. He's the godfather of my sons. And when I started my foundation, we were doing small projects here and there. And when Brian retired from his job, I called and I said, I think I have the best job for you. I want you to come on and be the executive director of the foundation. And he says, I have no idea how to run a foundation. So he went back to college and took courses in professional foundation management and just has been blowing the doors off this programs from that day on. The events that he does, the projects he carries, the work that he puts in is unbelievable. And when I called him and told him that I wanted to do this fundraiser to raise the money and my goal was $500,000. It went to, we raised over $1.6 million and that's because of Brian Dally. So the executive director of the Guy Fieri Foundation, Mr. Brian Dally. Well, like you just said, thank you so much. I don't need that kind of introduction either. It's not about me, but yeah, I'm pleasure to be here, Cheryl. Don't call me anymore. Your husband's starting to get jealous. I'm just kidding. No, it's an honor to be here and I'm excited to talk about this and the impact that we've been able to work together with you and the team and John's team to help the people of Lahina. So I'm excited about this conversation. So thank you for having me today. Thank you so much, Brian, for joining us. And I'd like to have David, please introduce yourself. And my name is David Yamashiro. I'm a co-founder and CEO of Oolani's Hawaiian Shea Rice. And we've been in business, we started in Lahina in December of 2008 and have been growing strong in Lahina until the wildfire in which we lost two of our shops. One of them are iconic shop and the other one towards a dining tree. We also lost our warehouse there on the west side. And so our losses are really nothing in comparison to the loss of life, the loss of homes, the loss of everything, the history of Lahina for so many. But thank you for having me here today. Thank you, David. Thank you so much. And we couldn't have done this without John Ward. You know, John Ward and I did the Hawaii Restaurant Card. John, it feels like what, three years ago we did this. And here we are again and helping, right? That's what it's all about is helping the Hawaii Restaurant Card was during the pandemic to help those that were unemployed do the pandemic. And this is also now, again, helping those in Lahina that were impacted by the wildfire. John, please introduce yourself. Sure. Super happy to be here. My name is John Ward. I'm the Chief Marketing and Product Officer at American Savings Bank. We're a large bank here in Hawaii, a true community bank. And this is exactly the type of thing that's at our core. We have over 1,000 teammates across the state, many in Maui. And I'll talk about it, but our Kahalui branch, they're played a central role in distributing the cards. So just thrilled to be a part of this and so proud. Thank you. Thank you, John. So, Guy, you've dedicated your life to supporting the culinary industry. And when you heard about the Lahina Wildfire that happened on August 8th, 2023, literally, you and Brian sprung into action and organized chefs from Maui, the dinner in California. And I was going to ask you to please share with us what inspires you, what inspires you to quickly mobilize and wanting to help those in Lahina that were impacted. Well, we knew that we couldn't raise enough money to rebuild homes. And just as you were all saying, I mean, the loss of life, this is devastation beyond understanding. You never think it's going to happen to you. We had this happen here in Northern California where I live in a regular town and these fires happen. What people need is love and support and people need recognition and people need to know that they're being thought about and that they're being cared for. And no better way to do that than to hear that, hey, a bunch of famous chefs are doing something on our behalf. And then to be able to actually tangibly get that feeling to receive some of that money. So I just knew that there was no way to go and fix anything that had happened, but there was a way to give as when we raised money during the pandemic, we raised almost $26 million during the pandemic that we gave to restaurant workers all throughout the country. We gave for $45,000 grants, $500 grants. And we knew what that was. It wasn't to the 1.7 million workers that didn't have work. It was just a recognition to the industry that we could come together, we're one of the most powerful forces that there are in the work, in any industry. And we can unify and we can make a difference. And as I started, this really was a conversation with Brian and I, and I said, let's do this. Let's put on an event and raise some money. And I just started setting out texts, group texts to all my friends, all these amazing chefs. And I mean, it gives me goosebumps still. The responses were instantaneous. I mean, we were sitting here at my dinner table at my house and I'm like, oh, Leanne Wong just said yet. Joe Saster just, yeah, Antonio LaFosso just said, yeah. I mean, as fast as I could type them, they typed it back. And then Brian looks at me and says, okay, Bill, where are we gonna do this? I haven't figured that part out yet. It was ready, shoot, aim. So we had to pivot pretty hard, but the great thing is, when you have that many creative people coming together, we did the dinner for 150 people. Taylor Sheridan came in, one night I was watching a show and Taylor's a friend of mine and I texted him and asked him if he wanted to send me some meat for this event and he asked what the event was and I told him and he said, send me. I'm coming up there to cook and I'll buy tickets. It just turned into one thing after another, but all we had to do was mention what happened. We could have sold 500 tickets had we had the venue, but it was an intimate experience for 150 people to get 18 courses served by 40 of the greatest chefs, Portugal, the man, an amazing band from Portland came down. World-class wines, I mean, it was an event of events and couldn't go to better people because I'll tell you one thing, the Aloha spirit, the energy and feeling that the people of Hawaii give us when we come on vacation or we come to shoot Triple D is so incredible. It was just an overwhelming feeling for me and I think everybody in my organization and the foundation and all of my friends to be able to give that back. And it was, and hearing your sentiments and hearing the people that it touched, it did exactly what we all wanted to do. Thank you so much and we know that you filmed over 16, Triple D's here in the island. So thank you so much for all of that. I want to ask you, thank you, thank you. Oh, there will be more, trust me. And it's something that we will continue to do because if we bring them to one island, hopefully folks understand how easy it is to get to other islands and that's what we try to do is give kind of a nice portrayal of how unique each island is. And it's really an experience. Don't go just to the same spot every time. I really want people to go and venture around. It's just such an amazing, like I said, amazing culture, amazing people, amazing food. It's, you got it all. Thank you, thank you so much, Guy. So Brian, Guy touched on the event. Is there anything else about the Star Studded event that you want to talk about? No, I think the biggest thing Guy touched on was the love that everybody that came to the event, whether it was the chefs, whether it was the volunteers. We had 150 volunteers just come out just to be present to support the event. The people that bought tickets, the people online, everybody, whether they could be there at the event or not, wanted to give back and support the people of Maui and Lahaina. And so it was amazing. It was heartwarming and it's incredible. Still to this day, people are looking how can they give and I always direct them to your guys' site and the different avenues to support the programs. But I just want to say it was such a heartwarming event for all of us. We worked so hard to make sure we did it the right way. And when Guy says, yeah, we were thinking maybe we have five or 10 chefs show up. Well, we got to 40 and I'm like, Guy, stop. We cannot have any more chefs. We have no more room. So it was just an overwhelming response where we could have had 100 chefs and 1,000 people show up to the event, but we just couldn't pull it off that quickly. But we were so glad with what we did. And so we're excited that we've been able to contribute to the people of Hawaii. So. Thank you so much, Brian. And Guy, much of your foundation's efforts are geared around areas affected by natural disasters. So what drives you and your foundation to want to assist when these kinds of tragedies occur? Well, until you've been in this horrific environment, you don't really get it. You could never have explained it to me, okay? I don't know what it's like to be in any of these situations until it happened. I remember my wife woke me up and said, you need to get up. There's something going on. There's a fire. And we lived in a neighborhood. And this is quite a few years ago. This is back in 2017, 15, 2017. And I said, honey, something's burning. Don't worry about it. She says, no, the town's on fire. No, it's impossible. In today's world, it's impossible for a town to be on fire. I couldn't understand if you lived in a small northern tree-lined city or town. Well, anyhow, our town burned and it was tragic. And I remember going to the gymnasiums, into the county buildings, and people were sleeping in the vets hall. And they're eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cold hot dogs. There's no electricity. Everything's shut down. The roads are closed and the whole deal. And I just said, we can do better than this. And I have a bunch of, you know, I'm a cook, and I have a bunch of big equipment and a smoker trailer and a pizza trailer. And I said, let's go do this. So we took off and had to get a police escort to get through the roads. And when we could go 20 miles to another town and there was a Costco open and bought all the, you know, pork butts we could and bought all the big food we could and we started cooking. We just started cooking. We didn't even have people to cook, get to it. But people started finding out we were making food and we started serving it. And you could see the relief. You know, when we say the word comfort food to somebody, what's it doing? It gives you comfort. It's what grandma used to make you. You know, it's that everybody has it in every culture. So I looked at this and I said, I can't fix their homes. I can't fix what's going on. I can't put the fire out. But why can do what I can do? If you sing a song, sing a song. If you entertain, entertain, but if you cook, cook. So we started gathering cooks in our town. People started coming and just showing up. We were cooking off of small barbecues. We were cooking off of camp stoves, a camp chef equipment. I mean, you name it, we were cooking it. And it was a life-changing moment for me. And from that day on, we said, let's prepare for this. So we went and built a $500,000 trailer that's 50 feet long that can cook for anywhere from five to 10,000 people in a day. And then we call it a rescue trailer. And we're building one for the East Coast right now. We're gonna have one on the East Coast, one on the West Coast. So when disasters happen, we can send a team and the team can work out inside of this and feed people. I don't go with the mentality of, well, we can't feed everybody, we can feed somebody. It makes a difference to somebody. And so that's what we've started to do. And once you see the impact that it makes on somebody when they get to eat a hot meal that was made for them, that somebody cooked just when they don't have a home and they don't have their belongings and they're displaced, it's probably one of the greatest things you can do for mankind, for anybody. So that's what started it. That's awesome, Guy. Thank you so much for telling us. And all that you do for all these people that have been impacted by natural disasters is just so tragic. And I wanna introduce David. The reason David was invited to this show is because he was part of the first 11 restaurants that received the cards and we're ready to distribute another over 1,100 cards next week. And David, could you please share your story and what happened to Ulaanese? Yes, well, thank you. And Guy, that was incredible listening and hearing your story of what has propelled you to do what you do or this kind of a relief effort. Our employees, it's hard for me because we didn't lose our home. Me personally, we live in Kula and when the fires in Bahaina happened, we had a fire that was going on in our neighborhood that we had to evacuate as well. But again, the loss of life that occurred during this fire, the numbers really are, the numbers is a larger number. And the impact that that has had, the impact of the devastation was tremendous. But in terms of what you did and what you provided, you have to realize that there was a four and a half month time period between the fire and when the initial disbursement was made. And a lot of these people on the governmental aid side, some of them had that from the time that it happened. Some of them had $600 dispersed to them and some of them $1,200. And that was it for a long period of time. You know, there are other organizations that came through but it's pretty sad to think that during that course of time that $600 or $1,200 was all that they received in monetary financial help. And your $600 came in during Christmas, you know, right after Christmas. And this is a time when everyone's trying to provide some normalcy to their family to give their children gifts, to provide meals for their families that, so they pour all that they have into that. And then what? And then all of a sudden, and money from you, we got the call from Cheryl and from, you know, with Boyer Restaurants Association, American Savings Bank and the Guy Fieri Foundation, you know, they told us what you had done and what you had provided. And the impact that that had made, you know, during that time period when they needed it the most, you know, granted it's not when the initial incident happened, but this is four and a half months later when a lot of the, you know, a lot of the issues, a lot of the impact is sort of forgotten. It's swept into the rug at this point and for it to come up, it has to be another event or something that, you know, brings awareness to it. And but with what you did and the timing of which we received it, it was so gratefully received by every one of our employees and every restaurant employee that received it from all of the restaurants that received it. Thank you so, so much. I can't thank you enough on behalf of Lahaina Restaurant, community and their employees. Thank you so much. That's great. This is exactly the fuel that takes this to the next level. And this is the message and I appreciate Restaurant Association's support in doing this. You guys were the, we couldn't have done it without you. I told you we were raising the money but we didn't have a way to get it to people and get it to the right people. And you were the people, you picked up the ball, we threw you the ball, you ran with it, you scored the touchdown and got the bank involved. And this is the message that all of the chefs that were involved that wanna hear and this will propel us, this will be the next step in whatever other tragedy we're gonna face. And you got great programs like World Central Kitchen that out there doing philanthropy throughout the world. I focus right on my restaurant industry. I've been in the restaurant business my whole life. This is all I've ever done. I do a little bit of television stuff too but I know how fast it hurts. And we're service people. We're the ones that are taking care of people. We're the ones waiting on them and serving them and cooking for them and cleaning for them and doing these things. And it's really nice, not really nice. It's the best feeling we can give them is for someone to serve them. And so I know with your employees, David, you have, I know this just had to just tear at you and to be the guy that gets to hand those out and to share those with people and they don't feel forgotten and they get recognized. It is a, it's a big deal. I'm glad that's the effect that it had. I'm so thrilled to hear that. And I think that's a really good idea. You have no idea how grateful. Just saying. Amen. Thank you so, so much. And as I mentioned, you know, he lost two of his eateries and his warehouse and 25 of his employees lost their homes. So, you know, thank you, David. Thank you for keeping us updated on what's going on in La Jaina. And the greatest need, as I mentioned earlier was medication. That's when I was passing out the cards. They're like, Cheryl, we need our insulin and we need our children need their asthma medicine because many of them who even didn't have asthma before they got asthma because of the smoke from the fire. Heart medicine, thyroid medicine, just to keep them alive and going. That was the number one need. So, thank you, guys, the impact. I just want to, you know, there's so many stories that we could probably go on and on, but I want to bring on John Ward because it was John Ward, right? Who really stepped up and created the debit cards and it was a lot of inputting because of the security and everything else. But John, what inspired American Savings Bank to and vice-serve to want to partner with Guy Fieri to help La Jaina? Well, as Cheryl, I have to say, one of my good friends, Cheryl, called me. We jumped at the chance. Cheryl and the state and a few other organizations and I worked during the pandemic on getting the Hawaii restaurant card up and running. We distributed over $75 million of CARES money to folks who needed the help the most, but specifically to get the restaurants to help them make it through the pandemic. So we developed a friendship and our partner Pfizer, which does our core at the bank, has this sophisticated debit card platform, no paper checks, all digital gets the money directly to the folks who need the help. And so we thought that was a great opportunity to do it. But I think you called me in mid-November. We had the first event and distribution of the cards later in December, which was just amazing to turn it around that much. And same thing as Cheryl mentioned, seeing the folks, the restaurant owners, as well as some of the employees receive the cards was just a very warm feeling that is unlike anything when you know that you're helping. I would like to say certainly thank you, Guy and your foundation, it's amazing. You've inspired so many of us here who either were impacted or have businesses, friends and community members who were impacted, but the multiplier effect is really happening. It's inspiring individuals and foundations and other businesses to continue to help. This is a long, long, long journey for the folks in Lahaina and people impacted. And it's just really done amazing work and I'm just honored to be part of it. Thank you, John. And Guy, one last thing, because I see that my timer's already almost up. The $1.2 million that we have now infused to the Lahaina employees, those employees are spending money and they're buying food from the grocery stores or from the restaurant. When they buy food from the grocery stores, those grocery stores can now buy food from the farmers, can buy their produce, can buy their supplies. Now it's stimulated that whole Lahaina economic chain, food chain and that impact is like John said, the economic impact of that donation has gone so far that even the suppliers and the farmers and the distributors, everyone has said thank you so much because when they go and use that card at a bakery, that bakery can now go buy the bread and go buy the eggs and the milk that they need to bake and that's keeping them going. So I just want you to know that economic impact that you have given to us in the Lahaina town has been huge. Let me just say, I'm beyond thrilled and thank you for the opportunity and the partnership with all of you has been amazing. I wanna say this to all my brothers and sisters that are in the business. Support your restaurant association. I've been a member of the California Restaurant Association sat on the Educational Foundation Board for quite a few years and you don't really know who they are until you need them and that's not what we need to wait for. We all need to be members of our association especially in the restaurant business. We need to unify, we need that support. We need the support in legislation, we need the support in all facets of the industry because we can't do it alone. And there are a lot of mom and pop and there's a lot of big corporations but collectively we share information and we share power and we lean on one another and we step up when it's time. And so as our restaurant industry showed up from the mainland, your restaurant association if you were a member or not is supporting you. So I just want to remind everybody your entire team at the Hawaii Restaurant Association your great people, you're working hard, you never stopped and you gave us all the support quickly and helped us get this money distributed and we couldn't do it without you. So if there's a little campaign message that I want to make sure that as many restaurants that aren't members become members that's the way we can help one another for future endeavors and future projects. How was that? Thank you. But I really, I mean, I called the California Restaurant Association, John Condi, who's our president, he's a good friend and said, I need to get this money into Hawaii, how do I do it? And he knew you and that's how we got on that phone call and it was five minutes of talking to John before he spoke to you and then look at how this has worked. Well, we did the same thing when the pandemic hit we went directly to the National Restaurant Association and people look at it and say, yeah, what's my association doing for me? I could really use that 250 bucks or whatever the annual fee is. Let me remind you, you're a big voice and a big power and you're fighting for the small monpop joints all the way up to the big corporations. And as we see the trends changing in our industry we need your advocacy and we need your strength and your muscle. So I just want to remind everybody that the association is really something to be part of. Thank you, Guy. Does anyone have anything else to say before I wrap up the show? Just Guy, Brian, Cheryl and John. Thank you so, so much for putting all this together. It's been a true blessing and I fully appreciate it. Thank you. Well, the last thing I'll say Cheryl and John, David thank you, Brian, is this isn't the last of us. Don't think that we're going away. We know what the rebuilding process is and we know that there's a long road ahead. We'll be back to do more triple D without question but there's some other ideas that we have and I know a lot of chefs that would like to come back to come back to Maui and visit. So you don't know. Something might be. That's awesome. That's awesome to hear. Thank you. Thank you. I want to thank my four guests today especially Chef Vietti, the Guy Vietti Foundation and all of those who have inspired to help those wildfire victims on Lahaina. The Hawaii Restaurant Association is the organization unifying, representing and supporting the Hawaii restaurant and food service industry. And please remember nourish connections, save your life, eat well and live well. Thank you everyone. We'll see you at the next show.