- yesterday
Today, Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Chef Keoni Regidor, the head chef of Lehua, a new restaurant bringing fresh energy to Hilo, Hawai'i. At Lehua, traditional Hawaiian ingredients meet modern culinary techniques to create a menu that’s rooted in heritage and innovation. With a focus on sustainability and a deep respect for local culture, Chef Keoni is reimagining what Hawaiian cuisine can be.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Here at Lehua, we're from the country. We grew up here, we're from here, from the
00:07Big Island. We raise the finest pork in the world on our own family farm, trying
00:11to be sustainable as possible, and we hold those things very sacred. So we have
00:15our own farm to our own functioning restaurant, which we love, you know. I
00:19consider our food nostalgic Hawaii food. The ingredients we use here are in every
00:24house in Hawaii. You take those Hawaii ingredients and apply a modern technique
00:29to them. One of the things I think about as head chef is sourcing ingredients and
00:33trying to not deplete our natural resources of them. I think we are a
00:38restaurant that Hawaii comes to be Hawaii.
00:50How's it? My name is Keone Rigidor, head chef here at Lehua Restaurant. Welcome to Hilo.
00:54Come inside, we've got a busy day.
01:01This is our dining room. We serve about 75, 80 people. We're on the east side of the Big Island.
01:05If you're from Hilo, this is the city. If you're from LA, this is the smallest town you've ever seen.
01:09We're at the Imilo Oshanmi Center. It's a community center where a lot of Hawaii things happen.
01:14We take a very high pride in our culture here. It's 8 o'clock. First thing I got to do is check out
01:19the prep list. Let's go into the kitchen. As head chef, I want to check out the prep list.
01:26Make sure the boys are set for the day. We have everything we need. I need to make some decisions.
01:29At least the prep items, the big ones, we want to get in first. So we got the pig coming in today.
01:34I believe I just seen Owen pull up with the pig. So we're going to get that going. I got to get the
01:39loin in the sous vide. And then this is just the orders that we need or what we're out of right now.
01:43So we got to get the orders in by, I want to say, 10 o'clock today. So we're doing the special for this
01:47evening. And the pork loin, broccoli, carrot butter, chimichurri. Special changes every day,
01:52seven days a week. Prep list looks good. Pork delivery is here. Let's go get it.
02:07Berkshire pork from our farm, Auri Mu'umama. Owen works on the farm. Owen raises the pigs.
02:11And he also helps me cut the pigs.
02:14Pig production is very important to Hoy. Coins have been eating pork since the beginning
02:18of time here. One of the things on the first canoes they brought over was pork.
02:23For us to have our own pork farm is, we are very fortunate. We kind of won it in like a contest to
02:29have a business plan put in action. The business plan was to start a rotational grazing farm,
02:34put Berkshire pigs on it. That was like almost eight years ago, I believe. Now we're off to 100 pigs.
02:39This is a Berkshire pig, brown English pig. I did a lot of research when we got the farm.
02:45These guys would be like the Arnold Schwarzeneggers of pigs. You can see how it's like a little bit more
02:50red on the bone. Good fat content on it. Everybody breaks down pork differently. Italian has its way.
02:55French, of course, has its way. Hawaii has its way. The way I was taught and the way that the end goal for
03:01us needs to be. We like to cut for the fifth and sixth rib. We like the copa which is right here.
03:06So that's why we cut it on the fifth and sixth rib. And that's the only reason why we do it.
03:09That's the reason we cut it on these bones and these vertebrae. Just to get it that size especially.
03:17Also for Hawaii, most commonly use the pork butt right here. Boston butt.
03:22Shank right here. The leg. Hams right here. More shank. Then the loin is right here. Tenderloin right
03:29here. And then the belly. Bacon, pork belly. The copa which you call the money muscle. Probably for me
03:34the most prized muscle. Lots of intramuscular fat. Three separate muscles in it.
03:41So this is pretty much the parts. We'll just start to part it out now. Start to debone it. Get it in
03:45Brian right after that. Owen just grew up hunting. Diving. All of that. But the way Owen cuts is very
03:51clean. You can tell there's a certain way that hunters cut. The way they skin they don't leave
03:56anything behind. It's more of survival rather than just getting like the parts they need for
04:01whatever restaurant. But Owen has that great cutting skill that a lot of young kids don't have nowadays.
04:08That's why we keep around man.
04:09The thing with having a pig every two weeks is it's hard to do consistent menu items with it.
04:20Each pig only has 13 ribs or something like that. You do like four orders of ribs. That's one pig.
04:25The ground meat for us is where we get the most of it. So we put things like chorizo on the menu. We do
04:32it with mussels, tomato sauce, saffron, onions, white wine. And then it's just like a great dish to like
04:38sop up some bread with for sure. It's a great appetizer we have. The commodity pork that's in your
04:43average supermarket is probably like white. This one's like really red. These pigs, Owen treats them
04:48real good. You know live a happy life for sure. They have great fat content, great meat, very soft. In the
04:54beginning our pigs were a little lean. We ended up feeding them like mac nuts and then the fat content
04:59got out. That's why it's like super white like this. This is the pork shoulder part. So I'm trying to take off
05:06this bone right here. Sometimes we don't do stock just because we don't have the space but I do have
05:11two great danes at my house. So I give the boy some treats every once in a while. Bring some roasted
05:15bones home. So yeah the pork loin is going on the special tonight. So we're going to do that brine
05:19seven days. Suvi at 143.5 for about four or five hours. Seared on a flat top. Probably going to do like
05:27a carrot ginger butter, broccolini, maybe some twice fried purple potatoes. Okinawans, the local chimichurri,
05:33whatever we got in the garden. You know rosemary, cilantro, coulantro, maybe some parsley and stuff
05:38like that. Try and get it on the plate as nice as possible. Super simple. Try and let the pork
05:42sink for itself. And then we got our brine right here. So this is salt, brown sugar, sodium nitrate,
05:47bay leaf, garlic, peppercorns, mustard seed, coriander seed. The hams we try to put on the bottom. The hams
05:53will be in for two weeks and then the loins and the bacons will be in for one week.
05:57And then uh yeah that's going in the walk-in.
06:16These have been brined for like two weeks. They just came out. These are the hams right here. So you can see like the
06:21almost like the pink color that they're in them. Peppercorns, mustard seeds still on them. They carry all the salt now.
06:25So they got the salt, the sugar, the sodium nitrate. So that's what gives them like that pink color.
06:31So I got these loins. Same batch as the hams and all of that. I'm gonna get these in the vacuum sealer
06:37and then get them in the sous vide. Get them ready for tonight's special. Start. Cool. Going outside to the smoker.
06:46The trigger on the uh professional barbecue circuit is frowned upon but yeah it's what we got here. It's what we
06:52use. I mean it's what's available to us but uh it's consistent for us. It's an electric pellet smoker.
06:58Just like any smoker circulates. So up here will be a little bit hotter. That's why I put the hams up
07:03here. Bigger pieces of meat. I put them up on the top. Bacons are on this side and skinnier pieces of
07:07meat. They won't cook at the same time but I'll just keep on tempting. That's why I got the thermometer right
07:11here. When the boys come in for service they can kind of temp it. But that's locked in. It's ready to go.
07:16Five or six hours. Well it's 11 o'clock. We got some deliveries coming in. My wife's coming in with
07:21the produce. I got fish coming in and then also it's ice cream day because it's Tuesday. So let's get it going.
07:32All this is from Gila Produce. All from the island. All from the east side of the island. Probably some of
07:37the biggest green onions I've ever seen in my whole life. I hate broccoli but for some reason I do like
07:42broccolini. Yeah we're gonna do this with the special tonight. I'm gonna put this here so the
07:46boys know that we need to blanch this first. It's on the board already. So I got most of the lettuces up
07:52here. Bok choi, bigger items, kimchi, chili pepper water. It's like you know your nampla, how Vietnamese
08:00have that kind of like fish sauce, vinegar, all that kind of stuff. Hawaii we have chili pepper water. It's
08:06literally chili peppers, garlic, salt, and vinegar. Every house in Hawaii that has a kimchi. This is ours.
08:12Make it into like a kimchi chimichurri which is the sauce that we put on the ahi. I want to say
08:16the bestly organized but it'll do for there. Produce is put away. Ice cream is put away. So
08:21we're on to the fish next. Gotta go outside clean it. Gonna meet Jason outside. Grab the fish.
08:30I changed because it's time to clean some fish. Jay caught some yesterday so he's gonna bring it in.
08:34Gonna clean it. Get it ready for the menu tonight. Morning Keone. Today's pit. Just came from our deep bottom
08:41ground so this fish came out about 750 feet of water. Should be real tasty. Fresh. These are some
08:49of Hawaii's best fish right here for sure. They're eating crustaceans. The meat they're like very white.
08:55Very flaky. I wouldn't want to serve fish from you know the continent or anywhere else. I mean this is
09:01this is Hawaii. We want to taste our fish and people come to Hawaii to taste the fish of Hawaii. I like to
09:07clean them outside every once in a while. Scales get everywhere. If it's in the garden it'll help the
09:10greens grow a little bit. I'm gonna try to make it the easiest I can for the boys when they come in
09:14so they don't they don't need to do it. That's why I came in early today.
09:20And we keep it whole fried or steamed just as is. A little bit of chili pepper
09:25salt at the end. Other than that that's it. Try to let the fish speak for itself. We do it with the
09:30watercress salad, fried kalo, tomatoes, onions, and then the bonchan side of rice. This one this
09:35was kind of a showstopper for sure. Like once someone sees this one goes out everyone's gonna
09:40try and order it. So we try to do I'll say only a certain number at night. We don't want to purge
09:43the reefs at all. We want to see whatever everyone's catching whatever everyone has on hand. We don't
09:49want anyone to catch 200 of them and next thing you know we're out nothing's growing. So we try to
09:55do it sustainably as as much as we can. And then if we're out we're out that's it. If the waters are rough
10:00we don't have it on the menu. That's that's it. That's that's how the fishermen operate.
10:05So I just do these cuts. Get the steam in faster. Get the fry in faster. Get the oil in faster. It'll be
10:11easier for the sauce to penetrate a little bit too. At Emilo in Hawaii we like to do it with the kids.
10:17Have them more interested in ag too. Have them know what the ocean currents are when the storm's gonna
10:23come. I think I said 10 minutes before it rains. I think it's gonna rain and sure enough it rained.
10:28Once kids can predict the weather and predict storms it'll be easier for them to catch the fish when
10:34they know what fish are are biting at what time what what they need to get this fish well when
10:40it when does it spawn all these things are very important for the the growth of the species as
10:44well as the fish so we don't over fish everything. I'm gonna finish cleaning these fish we got more
10:48coming in tonight so we're gonna get that going.
10:49So we just got the fish delivery in from Gila fish uh ono today or uh wahoo as they call it on the
10:59continent. Everything comes from the island nothing's flown over. So Jason brings in the bottom fish.
11:05These are the bigger fish so these are the ono and then some ahi as well. Everyday fish comes in cut in
11:12portion. I'm gonna do the ono in about six ounces. Ahi about four and a half five ounces. A little bit
11:19smaller on the ahis. I know some people are gonna make fun of me for using a bread knife but man I've
11:23been using a bread knife to cut fish for I don't know how long already. When I was starting to cut
11:28fish I used to bother this old Filipino guy that teach me how to cut fish. He told me that once you
11:33grow up your hands never change so the lines on your hands will always be the same. So I use the lines
11:39on my hands to guide me on how big the fish should be. I usually put the middle of my palm at the
11:43end of the fish and then I cut diagonal ways. This kind of depends on how thick the fish is. It'll
11:48usually give me closer to five or six ounces. Works so far. So ono is a surface fish, white, flaky, great
11:56fish, super hardy. Not as hardy as like a marlin or anything like that but still very flaky white fish.
12:01But that is the ono and we'll get on to the ahi right now. The uh Hawaiian term for uh tuna is ahi.
12:08So if people say ahi tuna they're just saying tuna tuna. This is caught 50 miles outside the break
12:14wall of Hilo. These ones are kind of the sinew area ones. I'll serve these ones for the poke. So I
12:19mean you could do like all these poke but I don't see why you would when you're putting all kinds of
12:24flavors in it and just not not the true flavor of the fish. So these ones are like for the block cuts
12:29that we do for the ahi. So we'll do the gnocchi. We got like a pipicala relish which is kind of like the
12:36Hawaii smoked beef I would say and then ah some broccolini. After that kimchi chimichurri cured egg yolk.
12:44Poke for the pantry. Ono for the catch. I'm just gonna bag them up get them labeled put them in the
12:48walk-in. Boys will be ready to go tonight probably. The boys are coming in for the afternoon ship.
12:54I'm gonna get them ready. Let's get it going.
12:56So it is yeah right about two o'clock. I got Zach and then Bryce is here. Bryce right now is doing the
13:05gyoza raviolos in the back just finishing that up. Zach is starting to prep on the line so we got
13:10the sauces going, mash going, carrots going for the special tonight. Got about two hours before service
13:17so I got things to do. Gonna jump on some stuff right there. I gotta get this black garlic which is
13:21coming out today actually 16 days in the rice cooker is how we do it. So I guess you guys are
13:25here on just the right day. So you know we just chose to make this on our own. In this particular
13:29rice pot the warm setting stays on about 168 degrees fahrenheit warm. That's what it stays at
13:35consistent. So if you put the garlic in there let it for 16 days it has like a slow ferment. Super juicy,
13:42super umami I would say. What it does is like slowly cook the garlic, makes it black, gets the sugars cooking.
13:48It's not burnt, no matter what anyone says. So we use this in our sauces. I make sausages from it
13:53especially with the pork from the farm. We'll let this cool down overnight. We'll bag it, put it in
13:57the freezer. You can just eat it now like yeah super sweet. Well it's about 4 45. Front of the house
14:04is here. Everyone's setting up getting the dining room ready. Boys are on their final break. Everyone's
14:08station is set. Kind of getting close to service.
14:10Pre-service is about to happen. Go for the special. What's available? What's not? What greens are we
14:20using for the salad? What's the catch tonight? What are we out of? There's the dessert special. What's
14:24a special for this evening? The usuals. I have no wine knowledge. So in front of the house they usually
14:29do that for me. They pair with a special for this evening. As head chef I kind of jump in wherever it
14:33needs me most. For tonight I'll be on expo. The last to see the dishes before they get out to the people.
14:38So I got to make sure they're on point. Everything is correct. Everything is to the
14:41T. Everything tastes great. Looks good. Made correctly. Sometimes I'm on the line. Sometimes
14:45I'm on pantry. Sometimes I dishwash. Whatever makes it, makes it work.
14:57Yeah it's about five minutes of service. So everyone's kind of putting the finishing
14:59touches on all of their stations. Just making sure they got everything ready and we're good
15:03to go for service. Reservations should be here in about five minutes.
15:08It's five o'clock. It's about to get really busy. You guys got to go. Mahalo.
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