LANAKILA- The Good Table Benefit

So the day after we finishing the exhaustive shooting with Diners, Drive-In and Dives, we were committed to do an ambitious nine-course dinner for four at hank's. As part of the Meals on Wheels program for the elderly here, about fifty restaurants were doing special dinners at 6pm on Thursday October 22 in support of Lanakila, the mothership of this program. No not a hot dog dinner! We offered to do a repast of Trio, my former restaurant, selecting dishes that represent the styles of the great chefs that worked for me.

I fortunately had plenty of help enlisted to accomplish this. Estelle Kaya, former Dining Room Manager at Oahu County Club, lead the way in acquiring all the things needed to transform our space into a fine dining environment, I wanted an surrealistic oasis in middle of hank's . Willie Kaya, former chef at Pacific Club and biggest fan of Trio, prepared the fish course. Gerald Kuboyama, having worked service under Estelle, donated his skills. Our head cook Musab and manager Topher all put in countless hours to make this happen as well as collaborate on amuse and petit fours. Michael took the lead of service, having worked there for several years and Ashley did Dale's dish having been mentored by him. I am forever grateful to all of them in making this tribute dinner a reality.

John, Sky, Brent and Marcel were the perfect diners for this, all were avid wine aficionados, they brought around a total of 24 bottles of wine, WOW! They of course didn't drink them all, but did put a good dent in the collection selecting the best to be paired with the food and sharing freely with the staff. And boy these were some amazing wines, I wish I could remember them all!

Here's a look of the menu:

Presently Amused (hank’s)

A trio of haute dog canapes: lobster, rabbit and foie gras by our head cook, Musab

Caviar Palatte (Chef Rick Tramonto)

Black, wasabi, whitefish and salmon roe with accoutrements, egg whites, yolk, caper, onion, crème fraiche and toast points

(Magnum of 88 Dom Perignon Champagne)

Explosion (Chef GrantAchatz)

Liquid filled ravioli wonton, truffle scented mushroom broth, broccoli puree, parmesan shard

(06 Pouilly Fuisse)

French baguette, Plugra butter

Salmon wrapped in Potato

(Chef Shawn McClain)

pinot noir sauce, edamame,

(Richioli Pinot Noir)

Caprese Intermezzo

Shot of tomato water, smoked mozzarella, olive oil, SnP, basil

Braised Veal Cheeks (Chef Dale Levitski),

Red wine braised served with rosemary aromatics

and

Robuchon potato puree

(wine recall failing, was tasting a lot)

Root Beer Float- (Pastry Chef Gale Gand)

maple and cinnamon infused root beer granita, vanilla bean

ice cream and root beer(Hank)

(Tokai)

Fromage

Vermont Weston Wheel sheep’s milk, quince paste

Petit Fours

Tobacco infused chocolate truffles by Musab and manager Topher

Café Filtre

John Smiley and his guests got this for a steal even on the buy-now option, $225 total! Knowing this, they were very generous with gratuity that we all in turn donated back to Lanakila. Needless to say, they were all glowing after four hours of dining with us.

And we made the 9 o'clock news to boot!!

http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/22200/40/

More shots from Lanakila

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegoodtable/sets/72157622519044783/show/with/4037099474/