“DIRT,”a popular adventure, travel and culinary docuseries hosted by Josh Rosen and produced by outdoor lifestyle brand Huckberry, recently showcased Hawaiʻi through the lens of local chefs, farmers, fishmongers and community members.
The series 18th episode called “Big Waves, Wild Foraging and the Fight to Preserve Hawaiian Culture” features familiar names like Oʻahu-based chefs Andrew Le, Susan Prior and Kimi Werner, North Shore surfers Nathan Florence and Jack Johnson, and more, filmed in the Islands earlier this year. Stream it here on YouTube.
Chef Mark “Gooch” Noguchi, co-founder of nonprofit Chef Hui, served as the glue bringing people together for the project, despite having “no idea about the scope of the show.”
“I had stepped away from TV for a bit, but Amanda, my wife, and I have this mantra to at least take the call,” Noguchi told Aloha State Daily. “I have photographer Ben Ono to thank for the connection to Josh — he and I hit it off on our initial Zoom call. They paid the farmers and donated funds, and it was just like, ʻWhoa, right on! That’s cool.”
Noguchi noted that the “DIRT” crew did their homework on Hawaiʻi and were respectful to the places (including Pu'u O Hoku Ranch on Molokaʻi) and people they visited. He also got to be involved in the storytelling. “What I appreciated most was that Josh asked, what do you want to do?”
In response, he recalled telling him, “My manaʻo is take your lāhui with you.”
“To look forward you have to look backward,” Noguchi echoed in the episode.
That, and including his network of colleagues, friends and family. “People know if you invite me to a party, I will invite a few friends. And I’m lucky it turned out that way.”
He added that he even gained some “street cred" with his students, who follow the docuseries.
The intro scene opens on a farm with Rosen and Noguchi talking story in a loʻi, while preparing for a potluck meal filmed at the Johnsons’ Kōkua Learning Farm, part of their nonprofit Kōkua Hawaiʻi Foundation.
Some of the ʻono foods prepared from that taro harvest were kalo paʻa, kalo and ʻuala hash and Sun Noodle’s Kalo Noodle.
“We don’t fabricate real fancy menus,” Noguchi said. “Just some salt, pepper and heat.”
(ICYMI: Read more about Chef Hui’s and Kōkua Hawaiʻi Foundation’s efforts to help the community recover following the Kona Low storms that hit the Islands, particularly on Oʻahu’s North Shore, in March.)
Huckberry's travel show franchise aims to “go to a place, then dig deeper into the people, culture and terrain that define it. Every episode explores a destination through food and adventure, connecting with locals along the way.”
“Hawai'i, an island that can feed itself, controls its own future. Through the four pillars ('Āina, Lokahi, ʻOhana, Mahalo), we trace immigrant influences, food sovereignty, native foods and stewardship, and education and legacy — the people writing what Hawaiian food becomes next,” “DIRT” said in an statement.
For Rosen, one takeaway from meeting — and eating with — these local chefs, farmers and faces was that “There’s a sense here that everyone has something to teach,” he says in the show.
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Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.
