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Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Eating straight from the tree hits different.

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Chardonnay.Music

<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Fruitful tree</title>

Today’s social media find comes from @Chardonnay.Music, with a tasty snack she found in her backyard.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Fruitful tree

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Arrasmith Portrait

Perry Arrasmith

Government & Politics

Columnists

If you're like me, you probably think about doing two things on Independence Day.

First, you'll consider watching the film "Independence Day." If you're lazy (like me), you'll veer off to YouTube instead and find the clip where the president gives that inspiring speech. If you're still too lazy to even search for the video, here's the 

Secondly, you'll read the Declaration of Independence.

I know I'm a nerd, and I know that a lot of people don't normally read the Declaration of Independence. That's too bad, because it's shorter than you might imagine. 

, it succinctly justifies a country’s existence. 

In its day, the Declaration functioned as a newspaper column with serious weight. It was read in communities aloud as a physical declaration of a country’s right to exist. 

It's a statement of a people's frustration with the lack of freedom and liberty. It's also an expression of their desire for a new form of government. 

It’s a rejection of an unjust, unelected government and its sovereign. It’s also an acknowledgement of a community’s obligation to one another as the guarantors of their common well-being. 

It begins with an explanation of how governments are formed, the dignity of people, and a government’s right to exist only with the “consent of the governed.” It proceeds to then justify the right of a people to declare their independence from Great Britain before fully resolving to secure such independence. 

The document was written by imperfect people, but their idea was nearly perfect. Their words became universal. If you don't believe me, look at Vietnam's declaration of independence by Ho Chi Minh in 1945. Ho 

 the promise of the Declaration to justify Vietnam's War of Independence against the dying French Empire.

Like the Americans at Yorktown in 1781, the Vietnamese won their War of Independence at 

 in 1954. Tragically, Northern Vietnam's communist leanings divided the Vietnamese people, resulting in a brutal civil war that tore the country apart.

The promise of the United States is what inspired Hawai‘i’s unprecedented fight for statehood in 1959. No other territory in the American Union had ever been non-majority white. To pursue such a fight as Jim Crow persisted in the U.S. South was brave.

It was also born not out of a vision for the future tethered only to reality’s injustices, but out of what Hawai‘i’s residents demanded of this country. It was a product of the idealism first folded into the Declaration. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The Declaration’s Promise"}]

The Declaration teaches us that being an American is difficult. Nevertheless, being an American is full of promise. 

One writer, Carlos Bulosan, an Ilocano immigrant from the Philippines, painfully reckoned with this promise for the 

Being an American is a process of becoming. It is also not set to occur in the course of one generation, or even one century. It’s a perpetual journey. 

In Bulosan’s eyes, the process of realizing the Declaration’s promise was a march against circumstances. The country’s progression contained “many strands of fear and hope, that snarl and converge at several point in space and time.” 

Beyond the dueling periods of fear and hope, there was still a promise, bounded by a pragmatic optimism, affixed to the country’s destiny. Such promise is what drives Americans to believe in the future. It’s not naked hope, but earnest faith in the power of a person’s agency. 

“We march on, though sometimes strange moods fill our children,” he wrote. “Our march toward security and peace is the march of freedom—the freedom that we should like to become a living part of. It is the dignity of the individual to live in a society of free men, where the spirit of understanding and belief exist; of understanding that all men are equal; that all men, whatever their color, race, religion or estate, should be given equal opportunity to serve themselves and each other according to their needs and abilities.”

It’s that idea that propels the vision of the Declaration. It is an expression of a society’s faith in the power of its people. The people of the United States are the ones who declared independence. They are the ones endowed by a Creator with certain unalienable rights. 

Those rights are tools. They are weapons. They are responsibilities. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is a noble, immortal guarantee that is only secured by a free people. It is also incumbent on every generation to truly cherish such rights. Loosing our sense of such rights is when they begin to disappear. 

“The America we hope to see is not merely a physical but also a spiritual and an intellectual world,” Bulosan wrote. “We are the mirror of what America is. If America wants us to be living and free, then we must be living and free. If we fail, then America fails.”

Despite all the discrimination he faced, Bulosan never gave up on the idea of the United States. It was a country to be realized, even if it did not yet exist. 

As Bulosan reminds us, it’s alright to be proud of one’s identity as an American while still reckoning with its flaws. As he painfully learned, the flaws are real and deep. That doesn't mean you give up on the promise of being an American. You embrace your country’s flaws and appreciate its nuance. 

That’s the inherent promise, after all, of our political system. We strive to be more perfect, even where we fail to meet our own standards. 

Like a relationship, America is full of promise. Like a relationship, America will certainly disappoint you. However, that doesn't mean you just give up on the relationship.

If you don’t believe me, take five minutes. Read the 

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Declaration i Stock 172711668 16x9

<title>On the Fourth, read the Declaration</title>

If you really want to understand why we're celebrating Independence Day, go back to the source and read the Declaration of Independence, says ASD political historian Perry Arrasmith. It's only one of the most important documents in history!

On the Fourth, read the Declaration

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

 recently launched its summer menu. This menu will be available until September and features a variety of seasonal ingredients, especially summer produce.

Customers can enjoy a variety of new hot and cold appetizers, entrees, specialty pastas and desserts.

The Kona kanpachi crudo ($22) has been one of the more popular orders so far. It features sashimi-style kanpachi topped with toasted rice and ginger and curry leaf oil, and is served in a refreshing raspberry nuoc cham (a classic Vietnamese sweet-and-sour sauce).

Other new appetizers include the burrata caponata ($23) — sweet and sour-braised summer vegetables with lemongrass chili sa te, Chinese black vinegar gastrique and shrimp chips — and local O

ahu farm vegetables ($20). The latter features lotus seed hummus, salsa Negra, pickled daikon and carrots, and the eatery’s house banh tieu bread for dipping.

The house banh tieu bread is like a Vietnamese pita bread with sesame seeds. You can dip it in the hummus, or open it — it’s hollow — to create a pita pocket filled with the hummus, veggies and salsa.

The eatery’s banh xeo ($24), or a Vietnamese crepe, is always a popular choice. The summer version pays homage to the popular elote, or Mexican-style street corn. The crepe features sweet corn, jicama (Mexican turnip), scallions, Cotija, shrimp, tajin, kewpie and herbs. It’s served with lettuce wraps on the side, along with Viet pickles in nuoc cham.

Guests can cut the crepe into bite-sized pieces, then use the lettuce and nuoc cham to create their own wraps.

Other new appetizers include Peruvian scallop en croute ($23) — a medley of roasted farm carrots, summer orange, cilantro and tarragon, aji amarillo and yellow bell pepper coulis — and stuffed piquillo peppers ($19) with pork and mushroom, tamarind tomato sauce, crispy squid, Thai basil and lime zest.

New entrees and pasta include the shutome filet ($38), “Vietnamese huli huli half chicken” ($37), squid ink linguine ($37) and summer squash gnocchetti sardi ($32).

The “Vietnamese huli huli half chicken” features a five-spice tare and is served with fries. The shutome (swordfish) dish comes highly recommended; it’s served with curried corn rice with aromatic coconut fumet (a blend of fish stock and coconut milk) and a celery herb salad. The flaky fish is tender with a hint of sweetness from the creamy coconut sauce.

The specialty pastas are made with fresh pasta by Onda Pasta. The squid ink linguine ($37) includes Kauaʻi shrimp, garlic, roasted shrimp head and saffron butter, eggplant, cherry tomato, chives and Meyer lemon.

The summer squash gnocchetti — literally “little gnocchi” — features bite-sized pieces of a ridged pasta. Fresh squash chunks are braised in lemongrass, fish sauce, ginger and white wine; the puree is made with green zucchini scraps, mint and basil. So far, the dish has been popular for its lighter flavor and smooth mouthfeel.

No visit to The Pig & The Lady is complete without the eatery’s iconic soft serve. A popular flavor is back for the season, according to chef de cuisine Kristene Moon.

“We had to bring back the soft serve,” she says. “We did that (sticky rice custard with mango sorbet) last year for summer.”

The P&L soft serve swirl ($15) currently features sticky rice custard with mango sorbet, topped with a salted pandan caramel. It’s a refreshing, balanced combo with the right amount of sweetness.

Other summer desserts include Laughing Cow panna cotta ($15) — topped with Hilo lychee, nata de coco, almond streusel, Aloun’s watermelon ice, li hing powder and lime zest — and corn and blueberry banh flan cake ($17).

The latter features a layered baked corn egg custard and cornbread cake with popped sorghum and salted Chantilly.

“I really like the cornbread,” Moon says. “It’s like blueberry corn bread on the bottom and corn flan on top. It’s based off a Mexican and Filipino dessert.

“We had a Laughing Cow soft serve for the last menu; we were talking about how it would be so good as a panna cotta,” she adds. “Then we kept thinking about flavors; we gotta have shave ice with panna cotta. It makes me think of a picnic.”

Open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays to Sundays, 5 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays

The Pig and The Lady mango soft serve 063026

<title>The Pig & The Lady launches its summer menu</title>

Customers can enjoy dishes featuring a variety of seasonal ingredients. Highlights include Kona kanpachi crudo, local Oʻahu farm vegetables with hummus, swordfish filet with curried corn rice, squid ink linguine and the return of the eatery’s popular mango sorbet.

The Pig & The Lady launches its summer menu

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

Francis and Charles Higa, the founders of Zippy's Restaurants, were really more than brothers.

"They were best friends growing up," says Francis' son Jason Higa. "It wasn't surprising, I think, to those that knew the two brothers that they would start a business together."

Zippy's, a popular and iconic institution in the Islands, was founded by the Higa brothers in 1966 and will celebrate its 60th anniversary this year. Aloha State Daily recently caught up with Jason Higa, CEO of Zippy's parent company, FCH Enterprises, to learn about the restaurant's origins, its legacy and more.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"In the beginning"}]

Higa says his dad and uncle were two of six siblings working at a family-owned meat market, which is still operated today by cousins.

"But at that time, Francis and Charlie knew that Higa Meat Market was not going to be big enough to sustain ... six siblings, so they decided to leave [and] start their own business," he told Aloha State Daily earlier this month.

It was the 1960s, and Higa says the pair began to look at different business options. Eventually, they started to talk to restaurant operators — more so drive-in operators, he says. Those operators, though, were quick to discourage the brothers because of their lack of experience — but the pair continued on anyway.

The Higa brothers opened the first Zippy's Restaurant in Honolulu's McCully neighborhood on Oct. 17, 1966.

They had no culinary background, Jason Higa says, so the duo hired Shiro Matsuo, a chef for then-Gov. John Burns. Matsuo, who went on to open his own restaurant called Shiro's Saimin Haven, helped Higa's father and uncle create the first menu for Zippy's.

"He was an excellent cook, came up with all the recipes for our original menu and that's how Zippy's got started."

The restaurant was open 24 hours at the start. Higa says that was unusual for the time and a lot of business in the early years came between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. "because there were no other options."

Zippy's, he says, became a destination for late night movie-goers, customers from the bars that were open until 2 a.m. and hotel workers coming from or headed to late night shifts in Waikīkī.

"We had a very robust customer base because of the 24 hours of operation, of course seven days a week."

In the early days, Higa says his uncle would work 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. or later, and his father would would 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.

"They always felt that one of them should be active at the restaurant to make sure they can support the team members and make sure the customer service was where they wanted it to be," he told ASD. "Growing up, my recollection was my father was always sleeping because he was sleeping during the daytime, preparing to go to work at 6 p.m."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Family traditions"}]

Not surprisingly, Higa — who was around 3 when the first Zippy's opened — says his first job was at Zippy's in Makiki when he was 14.

"My dad wanted me to experience working at an early age and so I worked as a utility dishwasher that first summer, and subsequently would work on the weekends during high school and summers between high school," he says. "I pretty much worked in almost every position in the company over that period before leaving to the Mainland for college."

Higa, though, says he had no desire to lead the company. In fact, after college he went to law school and subsequently spent five years working at a Hawai‘i law firm before returning to Zippy's in 1995. He went through the management training program and worked at various stores and Zippy's central kitchen before taking the leadership position in 2003.

"I had no desire to come back to the family business, but after five years working as an attorney, I realized that there was a special opportunity that I had in terms of coming back to the family business," he says. "The truth is that I think I was motivated from the standpoint of when I grew up, my father was always working, so I really didn't get a chance to get to know him as well as I wanted to. Coming back to the family business in '95 was probably, for me, an opportunity to get to know him better.

"I never worked directly under him at any point before his passing, but I definitely began to understand him as a person, pretty much through the company culture."

[{"type":"text","text":"When his father died, Higa says he didn't feel ready to take the reins."}]

"It eventually took me four years before I realized that, hey, I just got to do my best, and learned over the years how to navigate, how to build our leadership team, how to make decisions. [I] always led by the core values, which gives you a sense of direction in terms of decision-making and that has always helped us to make good decisions along the way."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Legacy"}]

Zippy's has long been popular with kama‘āina. Actor 

 has called it his first stop in the Islands when he visits Hawai‘i. His newest movie, '

' features select scenes filmed at Zippy's ‘Ewa Beach location, and as a tie-in with the movie, Zippy's even offered a limited-time menu item called 

. Former President Barack Obama is said to have frequented the 

 across on O‘ahu, Maui, Hawai‘i Island and in Las Vegas. And if you're wondering, it sells more than 

When asked about Zippy's legacy, Higa says it's a byproduct of the last 60 years.

"As I was in the stores, what was clear is that there was a strong connection between our team members and customers," he says. "We still today have many customers, some of them would come in every day. We had customers that would come in for breakfast and lunch and sometimes even dinner, which is just amazing. And so they, of course, got to know the team members. The team members got to know the customers."

[{"type":"text","text":"The connections are multi-generational, too."}]

Higa says there are team members who have children whose first jobs were at Zippy's, "and then you see the multi-generational evolution of our early customers now bringing in their children and then now grandchildren coming into our locations."

"I think that's just a special part of our relationship with our community," he continued. "Francis and Charlie always understood that they were only successful because of our customers and because of the community, so we have a long history of giving back to the community."

And when he's asked about things that have contributed to the chain's 60-year success, Higa cites the core values that go back to Zippy's founders. 

The company uses the acronym CHIPS: commitment, humility, integrity, passion and supportiveness.

"It's really reflective, I think, of why we have been able to stay in business," he says. "So definitely the level of commitment, but also humility, and humility translates into being willing to learn, to evolve. We certainly have done that over our history, a lot of changes that we have to do in order to adapt."

As an example, Higa cites the Covid-19 pandemic, which he says allowed Zippy's to "make a lot of changes, which are benefiting us today."

[{"type":"text","text":"Meanwhile, integrity is \"essential\" in Hawai‘i."}]

"For Francis and Charlie, the reputation of the business was so important, and there's many examples where they didn't care about profit," Higa says. "They were looking at the long-term and making sure they always did the right thing throughout their history and that, I think, created the trust with our customer base and even internally with our team members."

Supportiveness is reflected in Zippy's growth, he told ASD, "especially in the early years, they were very encouraging of team members to advance into management or other positions of greater responsibility."

"I think what they learned early on [is that] expansion created opportunities for team members to continue to progress and grow within the company. We have many team members that have been with us for decades, and started out as a utility, a counter person ... and today they're in executive leadership or management or they're a key part of our administrative positions."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"60th anniversary"}]

How does it feel to hit this milestone and lead the company across that threshold?

"At times, it feels overwhelming, but I realize that is a privilege, for not just for me, but I know for the executive team or any of our longtime team members," Higa says. "They understand the legacy of our founders and how hard the founders worked and we continue to carry on that legacy by remaining successful, figuring out what we need to figure out, and ensure that we can continue to operate because we also realize that we are providing a living for all of our team members."

Zippy's, which will celebrate the milestone throughout the year, kicked off its anniversary celebration earlier this month with the launch of a new line of 60th anniversary merch.

, includes apparel and accessories inspired by the brand's evolving logos and design history.

Zippy's also will introduce limited-time menu offerings and a series of collaborations with Hawai‘i-based businesses throughout the year, including collabs with Kahala, Hawaiian Island Creations, FITTED Hawai‘i, Keiki Kaukau and others, a recent announcement noted. More will be announced through the year.

Higa, who spoke to ASD between back-to-back Kona Low storm systems that battered the Islands this month, shared his gratitude for Zippy's team members, its customers and the community.

Waipahu1971 01

<title>Zippy's Restaurants celebrates 60th anniversary in 2026</title>

Brothers Francis and Charles Higa opened the first Zippy's Restaurant in Honolulu's McCully neighborhood on Oct. 17, 1966. Aloha State Daily recently caught up with Jason Higa, CEO of Zippy's parent company, FCH Enterprises, to learn about the restaurant's origins, its legacy and more.

Zippy's Restaurants celebrates 60th anniversary in 2026

The overhead lights are bright on this Wednesday morning.

In the commercial kitchen at Leeward Community College’s Wahiawā Value-Added Product Development Center, Kenny Tsuru carefully pours a bright green syrup into the creamy base for his ice cream. A melon scent fills the air.

After it’s mixed, he talks as he moves to the ice cream machine, pours it in and presses the buttons to make it go. It would take him 24 hours to make a batch at home, he says. This produces six times as much in less than 10 minutes.

When that step is done, he moves to the table and begins to meticulously scoop his Melono ice cream into individual cups.

“When I started this business, I really wanted to bring in a Melono [flavor], but make it unique,” Tsuru explains. “I really like the taste of Melona shave ice and the mixture of that with condensed milk and ice cream, so I started and I made my own creation, which is ‘Melono’ which is exactly that — all combined into an ice cream with a very creamy texture and really my dream ice cream flavor.”

The entrepreneur — and Pearl City High School senior — is the namesake and driver behind Kenny Boy Ice Cream. He produces out of the WVAPDC commercial kitchen and sells his ice cream online and at the center’s monthly market.

He’s also a member of ‘Āina to Mākeke’s newest cohort, and the youngest participant in the program’s history. The day we meet him — Feb. 18 — was his 18th birthday.

‘Āina to Mākeke is a 12-week program is offered by the LCC’s Office of Workforce Development and the Wahiawā Value-Added Product Development Center in collaboration with the Hawai‘i Ag and Culinary Alliance. It aims to help local makers turn home recipes into market-ready products.

Aloha State Daily caught up with Tsuru to learn more about his business and participation in the program.

Tsuru started Kenny Boy Ice Cream after dealing with some health problems.

He was an active teenager, working two jobs, participating in sports and used to work out daily, but with his health condition, he could no longer do that. It even got to a point he says he couldn’t walk, couldn’t go to school and had to stop working.

“I wanted a way to put a smile on my face,” he told ASD. “I went out and bought a Ninja CREAMi ice cream maker for Black Friday [in 2024], and I just started making ice cream for myself and my friends and my family. I really got into it.”

His sweets-loving family was supportive and encouraged his work, and Tsuru began selling to friends, family, neighbors and people around him.

He “really got official” last summer. Tsuru says he started to feel better and his health problems began to go away.

“I decided that this wasn’t just going to be a passion project. This was going to be my business. This was the first thing I ever found in my life that I really enjoyed, and I felt this is my purpose. I felt this was a calling. This was really the career I wanted to go into,” he says. “And I know as a high school teenager, not a lot of people say that, and it is early on, but I really found that this made me happy. This helped me during that hard time in my health, and I really felt that this is what I wanted to do, so I went all-in in July.”

He came up with the name — Kenny Boy Ice Cream — and borrowed the slogan from an uncle: “It’s ono ono brah!”

From there, Tsuru says he started selling 32-ounce family-size tubs of the sweet treat, began networking and attended business entrepreneurship opportunities.

Tsuru also is in the management cohort program of the 

International Business and Design Academy

 at Pearl City High School, where he can earn early college credits and a certificate of achievement. His mentor at school suggested he check out the WVAPDC and he went to the showcase for the ‘Āina to Mākeke cohort six.

“I got to see what the ‘Āina to Mākeke program was and I was so amazed,” Tsuru says. “I wanted to make it happen for me. I wanted to be a part of that, so I really made it my goal to figure out what it was going to take for me to be a part of the cohort. As a young entrepreneur —  at the time under 18 — I didn’t know if it was possible.”

He kept talking with employees of the center, participated in workshops and went to events the center hosted to get in the door. When applications for the new to ‘Āina to Mākeke cohort opened, he jumped at the chance to apply.

"I said no matter what, no matter my age, I want to do it, so I signed up."

Tsuru says, too, that he was working to become a WVAPDC kitchen user at the same time he was applying for ‘Āina to Mākeke.

Using the center has allowed Tsuru to scale his production, commercialize his product and made the process much faster.

 — Melono, a melon cream flavor; Strawono, a strawberry flavor made with fresh fruit; and a cookies and cream flavor — as well as rotating flavors. He sells them in 32-ounce tubs but you can find 6-ounce cups at pop-up events and for his newly launched catering component.

When he started his business, Tsuru says he not only wanted to support himself financially and save for college, he also wanted to dedicate a portion of his profits to helping local organizations. This year, he’ll donate 10% of all profits to Make-A-Wish Hawai‘i.

Tsuru is one of 15 food entrepreneurs from O‘ahu and Kaua‘i that’s part of the seventh ‘Āina to Mākeke cohort, which ranges from early-stage makers to established local chefs.

When asked why he wanted to participate in the program, Tsuru say he saw the opportunities it provided when he attended the showcase for cohort six.

“The whole thing about ‘Āina to Mākeke is you take a value-added food product — ice cream is my product — and you get it to market,” he says. “That’s something I wanted to do. I wanted to share my ice cream in the market, and I wanted to someday live out that childhood dream of having a product that I can go to the store and say ‘That is mine. I’m proud of that.’”

He also wants to grow his business and help more people.

In addition to Kenny Boy Ice Cream, other cohort 7 entrepreneurs include Hawaiʻi’s Only; Honolulu Mochi; Kahawai Farms; Kauaʻi Fresh Fish; Mālama Protein Bar; Myna Trading Co.; Nā Kālai Waʻa; Nourish Your Soul; ReBran; rōmu; SAVA Provisions; Shaka Butter; Shaka Mex and Sol Food Kitchen.

Now, more than 100 entrepreneurs have participated in the ‘Āina to Mākeke program since its launch in the spring of 2023.

“It’s incredible. It’s surreal, in a relatively compact period of time,” Chris Bailey, manager of the WVAPDC told ASD of hitting the milestone. “I think it demonstrates the need and the interest from local entrepreneurs to figure out how to take all the parts and put it together and continue to build that mindset for actually taking an idea and really having a strong and stable business that they can grow and take to the next level.”

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Kenny tsuru 021826 1

<title>The scoop on Kenny Boy Ice Cream</title>

Entrepreneur — and Pearl City High School senior — Kenny Tsuru began making ice cream after going through a challenging period with his health. He is a member of the newest cohort for ‘Āina to Mākeke, a food business program from Leeward Community College's Office of Workforce Development in partnership with the Hawai‘i Ag and Culinary Alliance, and at 18, he's the youngest participant in the program’s history.

The scoop on Kenny Boy Ice Cream

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros Headshot

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros

Aloha Spirit

Arts & Entertainment

Born and raised on Oʻahu, Hunter Gentry says his passion for cooking started at 2 years old alongside his mom in the kitchen.

From there, he went into the Culinary Program at Mililani High School, while also balancing extracurriculars such as paddling and JROTC.

 “In paddling, they taught discipline, great mentality, leadership; JROTC taught personal and professional development; the culinary pathway was the way to go because that became my career.”

 at Greystone in Napa Valley, California, in 2020, and traveled across the country to work at 

Disney World Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella’s Royal Table

. At CIA, he learned from Chef Thomas Wong, also from Hawai’i, who pointed him to the Greenbrier Culinary Apprenticeship program in West Virginia. 

, the intensive, paid program is 3 years long and trains chefs in both savory and pastry paths.

“It is one of the most prestigious culinary apprenticeship programs in the nation. It’s insane,” Gentry said, “You learn and excel at the fundamentals of cooking, and at the end, you create your own menu to show what you learned. I did an 11-course menu, all Hawai

He stayed on in various roles at Greenbrier

When asked to define his cooking style, Gentry said, “With my heritage being Filipino and Chamorro, and upbringing in Hawai’i, I bring upscale, classical, French cooking into every plate.”

Unleashing these skills on Fox’s newest season of “Next Level Chef,” he adds he “brought the aloha. I brought the culture.”

When casting producers called to share that he made it onto the show, it was hard to contain the excitement, he said with a laugh, “I was screaming, cussing, doing cheehoos. Then on the show, I was doing cheehoos and scared a few people.”

He recalled one of the challenges and having 30 seconds to pick out ingredients off a rising platform. “You’re fighting all these chefs, and literally, hands were thrown. I didn’t know if someone punched someone or they fell, so I grabbed what I could. It was a war.

Chefs then have 20-25 minutes to cook. “I was plating something while cooking something else in last 20 seconds,” Gentry said. “If someone watching this at home says this is easy. It is not. It was to the wire.”

The show is judged by chefs Richard Blais, Nyesha Arrington and Gordon Ramsay.

“The judges were nice, especially Gordon Ramsay. I had a great time. For my first time doing this, the team was helpful,” Gentry said. “I loved meeting the competitors. On set, you couldn’t bring any technology, you just had to talk with everybody, which was great. We all became family.”

[{"type":"text","text":"He noted this won’t be his last time on national TV."}]

When asked what’s next for his cooking career, he said continuing to learn from other chefs.

“I do envision running my own restaurant. Probably not in Hawai

i because of the cost. Maybe within the next six to 10 years, Gentry said. “I just want to make delicious food and serve my heritage.”

He says when he visits Hawai’i, he loves going to the North Shore to be in the water, Food-wise, his stops include Kyung's Seafood, Banzai Sushi Bar, Foodland and Zippy’s.

[{"type":"text","text":"The are two quotes he lives by are:"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“Never stop paddling, always keep pushing.”"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s not an if, it’s a when.”"}]

As a newborn and child, Gentry endured various health issues that predicted a 10% chance of living, he says. But having support from friends, family and community have helped shaped who he is today.

Watch Mililani High School grad Hunter Gentry on Fox’s newest season of “Next Level Chef," judged by celebrity chefs Richard Blais, Nyesha Arrington and Gordon Ramsay. Gentry shares with Aloha State Daily about the experience, his cooking journey and style, and favorite restaurants to eat at when visiting home.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Fruitful tree

Kady Pascual

Social Media & Marketing Manager

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Kady Pascual

Social Media & Marketing Manager

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