Noted restaurant critic recommends Chef Mavro for romance

By Si Si Penaloza, Edi­to­r­ial Direc­tor, WOMAN.ca  www.woman.ca  Sat­ur­day, June 13, 2009 Posted in Travel — Culi­nary Tourism

Roman­tic Restau­rant 5 min­utes from Waikiki

Where Sen­sual Hedo­nism is Made to Order

Wel­come to Pop-The-Question Cen­tral. If you find your­self on the mag­i­cal island of Oahu with your sweet­heart and he hap­pens to men­tion that he’s made a reser­va­tion at Mavro, you might be in for more than a lit­tle seared tuna. Chef Mavro’s soul­ful culi­nary cre­ations and inti­mate din­ing venue set the stage for mag­i­cal evenings and grand gestures.

Since the venue opened in 1998, the acco­lades have been flow­ing in a steady stream. Chef George Mavrotha­las­si­tis, a found­ing mem­ber of Hawaii Regional Cui­sine, holds the pres­ti­gious James Beard Foun­da­tion award as the Best Chef in Hawaii and the Pacific North­west. The restau­rant earned the Five Dia­mond rat­ing from AAA for 2009. The pres­ti­gious Gayot restau­rant crit­ics bestowed their only “18/20” rat­ing in Hawaii, and also named Chef Mavro as the only Hawaii restau­rant in their Top 40 Restau­rants in the U.S. 2008–2009. Mavrotha­las­si­tis was also rec­og­nized as one of “America’s Top Six Chefs” in a Wine Spec­ta­tor cover story on the mas­ters of food and wine pairing.

With a charis­matic and telegenic per­son­al­ity, he has also appeared on CNN, numer­ous shows on The Food Net­work, PBS “Great Chefs in Amer­ica,” Dis­cov­ery Channel’s “Home Mat­ters,” the Travel Channel’s “The Tourist,” NBC’s Travel Café, and many others.

Mavrotha­las­si­tis’ impres­sive com­mit­ment to Hawai­ian regional cui­sine and island ingre­di­ents make his restau­rant Oahu’s most cel­e­brated des­ti­na­tion din­ing venue. An evening at Chef Mavro brings together the for­mi­da­ble skills of this remark­able chef-owner into a sub­lime mar­riage with the finest spec­i­mens Hawaii has to offer. As sati­ated sen­ti­ments break like waves from table to table, it’s obvi­ous the results are ele­gant, intrigu­ing and unforgettable.

Mavro’s menu is rein­vented each sea­son as the culi­nary team works hand-in-hand with local farm­ers to bring new offer­ings to the table. He is a genius at devel­op­ing inno­v­a­tive tech­niques that enhance the nat­ural fla­vors of fresh local prod­ucts. Chef Mavro is rec­og­nized as a trail-blazing inno­va­tor with his intro­duc­tion of food & wine pair­ings, which has been an inte­gral part of his prac­tice since the restau­rant opened its doors.

Instead of a wine list, every menu selec­tion is pre­sented with a wine pair­ing offered by the glass. This takes the edge off for a guy ner­vous about mak­ing the right moves with the wine list. No need to worry about impress­ing your din­ing part­ner. At Mavro, all the nuances of your mas­ter­piece meal have been care­fully stud­ied an pre-selected. The selec­tion process cre­ated by Mavro him­self makes this even more unique. Four times a year, he con­venes a com­mit­tee of twenty five includ­ing his cooks, wait staff, and food and wine media. Together they carry out a blind tast­ing of a vari­ety of wines with each of his recipes. The win­ning pair­ings, to be enjoyed by guests for the fol­low­ing three months, are selected based on a demo­c­ra­tic vote.

Mavrotha­las­si­tis was born on the port in Mar­seilles, the cap­i­tal of sun-kissed Provence, sur­rounded by the feral calls of fish­mon­gers and the farm-fresh abun­dance of south­ern France. His award-winning cui­sine is rooted in train­ing with numer­ous mas­ters of con­tem­po­rary French cui­sine and his expe­ri­ence as owner of the Restau­rant Mavro in Mar­seilles and the Restau­rant La Presqu’ile in the sea­side vil­lage of Cassis.

Draw­ing cur­rent influ­ence from his life in Hawaii, he loves to tell the story of his first morn­ing in Hon­olulu. “At sun­rise I looked out over Waikiki Beach to Dia­mond Head and I said to myself — That’s it! I’m home!” Ever since that day in 1988, Chef Mavro has embraced the multi-ethnic peo­ple and foods of Hawaii and has become close friends with dozens of bou­tique farm­ers and spe­cialty fish­er­man. On the occa­sion of the 5th anniver­sary of Chef Mavro restau­rant in Decem­ber 2003, he gath­ered his long­time pur­vey­ors around a Chef’s Table to honor them as the foun­da­tion of his success.

One exam­ple among so many is Mavro’s part­ner­ship with Island-born vanilla farmer Jim Red­dekopp and their launch of the Hawai­ian vanilla indus­try in Hon­olulu. His ded­i­ca­tion to qual­ity is leg­endary. As his fresh fish buyer, Don Leong of Honolulu’s Wing Sing Seafood, com­ments “Chef Mavro is picky picky picky!”

“Some­times buy­ing local means the cost is higher and some­times it takes more time but the reward is huge. Local farm­ers suc­ceed and my guests enjoy fresh, regional ingre­di­ents and a din­ing expe­ri­ence they could have only in Hawaii,” explains Mavrothalassitis.

Chef Mavro recently made a trip to New York’s James Beard House for a trib­ute din­ner for Mil­dred Amico, direc­tor emer­i­tus of pro­gram­ming. As noted on the Beard web­site, “Mil­dred has spent the last 22 years invit­ing risen and ris­ing star chefs of Amer­i­can gas­tron­omy to cook in James Beard’s Kitchen.

For this seven-course Trib­ute din­ner estab­lish­ing a new culi­nary schol­ar­ship, Amico chose nine chefs who were clos­est to her heart: Four James Beard award-winners George Mavrotha­las­si­tis (Chef Mavro/Honolulu),Ming Tsai (Blue Ginger/Wellesley, MA), Eric Ripert (Le Bernadin/NYC), and Takashi Yag­i­hashi (Takashi/Chicago), plus five other notable chefs Ed Brown (Eighty One/NYC), Rebecca Charles (Pearl Oys­ter Bar/NYC), Clark Frasier & Mark Gaier (Arrows and MC Perkins Cove/Ogunquit, ME), and Flo­rian Bel­langer (Mad Mac and Rue et Violette/NYC).

“I am deeply hon­ored to cook for Mildred’s din­ner. Her enthu­si­asm for my regional cui­sine has helped put Hawaii on the national culi­nary map,” says Mavro. Chef Mavro fea­tured an inno­v­a­tive farm-to-table recipe from his cur­rent menu, Big Island Abalone Ceviche with Red Chimichuri and Salt Cod Cro­quettes. Big Island Abalone is donat­ing their fresh prod­uct in sup­port of the event.

In 2004, he began offer­ing inti­mate cook­ing classes at his restau­rant. If you want to sweep a girl off her feet, do it in the kitchen. Make reser­va­tions for two at the next class; after all, the cou­ple that cooks together stays together. Reser­va­tions for his classes can be made through Gourmet Cook­ing Hawaii. “Cook­ing for the Love of It!” offers a rare up-close expe­ri­ence with Chef Mavro and includes demon­stra­tions, tast­ings, a gourmet lunch with wine pair­ings and, as always, enter­tain­ing anec­dotes from a life­time of “la dolce vita”!

If you only have one night to dine in Hon­olulu, make it Chef Mavro.

Chef Mavro

1969 South King Street

Hon­olulu, HI 96826

Phone: 808.944.4714
www.chefmavro.com

By Si Si Penaloza, Edi­to­r­ial Direc­tor, WOMAN.ca
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Si Si Penaloza, Edi­to­r­ial Direc­tor
About the contributor:

Si Si Penaloza is the Edi­to­r­ial Direc­tor of WOMAN.ca. Prior to join­ing WOMAN.ca’s pow­er­house exec­u­tive team, Si Si cul­ti­vated strong ties with edi­tors, pro­duc­ers and pub­lish­ers at all major Cana­dian media out­lets. She is a sea­soned print, radio and broad­cast spe­cial­ist. Grad­u­at­ing Magna Cum Laude from Bow­doin Col­lege in Maine, Si Si moved to Man­hat­tan to study Film at New York Uni­ver­sity. Her strengths lie in con­tex­tu­al­iz­ing rel­e­vant con­tent for a broad audi­ence. She’s dri­ven to stay com­pet­i­tive and at the top of the mar­ket — com­mis­sion­ing exclu­sive fea­tures and launch­ing bold ini­tia­tives. Con­tact Si Si at sisi@woman.ca This e-mail address is being pro­tected from spam­bots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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