Award-winning meals and journey sequence stops in Hawaiʻi

“DIRT,”a preferred journey, journey and culinary docuseries hosted by Josh Rosen and produced by outside life-style model Huckberry, lately showcased Hawaiʻi by way of the lens of native cooks, farmers, fishmongers and group members.

The sequence 18th episode known as “Big Waves, Wild Foraging and the Fight to Preserve Hawaiian Culture” options acquainted names like Oʻahu-based cooks Andrew Le, Susan Prior and Kimi Werner, North Shore surfers Nathan Florence and Jack Johnson, and extra, filmed within the Islands earlier this 12 months. Stream it here on YouTube.

Chef Mark “Gooch” Noguchi, co-founder of nonprofit Chef Hui, served because the glue bringing individuals collectively for the challenge, regardless of 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 advised 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 famous that the “DIRT” crew did their homework on Hawaiʻi and had been respectful to the locations (together with Pu’u O Hoku Ranch on Molokaʻi) and folks they visited. He additionally received to be concerned within 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 within the episode.

That, and together with his community of colleagues, family and friends. “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 mentioned. “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.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.