It's a twist on the classic Dan Dan noodles, which you say is actually inspired by your kids.

It is.

You know, my kids, I watch my kids learning from these TikTok videos.

I'm like, hey, your dad's a pretty good chef, you know.

You learn from that.

So I wanted to take something that anyone can make.

And dan dan noodles is a way to zhuzh up instant noodles.

So we take

I love it.

I mean, we've done, we've done, you know, there's a way to take a jump off and get inspiration by that.

You know, we've used locally caught, uh, yellowfin tuna with it.

Uh, we've made, uh, a reduction of, of cream of mushroom, uh, using local mushrooms, you know.

And then we make a tartar sauce topped off with some ikura.

But, you know, the inspiration came from something so humble, and, you know, the end goal ... was just to make people happy and, and he's done it time and time again with that simple recipe.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, getting it nice and crisp on the bottom, uh, with a little bit of oil, and then letting it just cooked on that one side, adding some liquid, and putting a cover on it.

And not only that, supporting, uh, local folks here, local brands and stuff, and that's really important to you as well, Chef.

That's totally important.

A- and I...

Like, living in Hawaii, we take care of each other, we take care of our community, and that's what Hawaiian does.

Uh, partners, uh, like La Tour Bakery, um, Enjoy, uh, snacks, Sun Noodles.

Uh, tell me, uh, what else, what else we have here?

Yeah.

We've got, uh, French toast and banana pancakes that come with this amazing banana bread syrup.

What are the differences there? How are they in terms of what defines Hawaiian food and what defines your cooking?

Yeah.

For me, it's all about what can I do for my community and how is my food getting to my community.

And, uh, at Tin Roof, we get to serve a lot of locals.

Uh, yes, there are a lot of out of town and, and tourists that come through it too, uh, but majority is, is locals.

And then at, at Lineage, you know, it is a little upscale restaurant, but I think the idea there is, is the storyline, the storyline behind the food.

It's all inspired by, by traditional recipes.

Industry, I guess

Totally.

But there's a little bit dark side to it through history and a little bit seriousness.

So for this next cookbook, we just wanted to do something that was fun and something that would really get people excited.

to enjoy cooking and enjoy having time together.

And I really got inspired during the pandemic when the restaurants were shut down and I could actually cook for my own family.

I spent all these years cooking for you know, visitors and guests to our restaurants, and always the family was second to that.

And here I am cooking three meals a day at my home for my family.

The whole book, I'm

Do you want to tell us the story of those olives and what's in them?

So these olives actually came by default of working in a very busy restaurant.

When I had a restaurant in Wailea, the hotline shared I had to cook for two different restaurants, two different menus.

So one for my restaurant migrant and the restaurant mala.

So you would see crossovers of Asian flavors and Mediterranean American alongside Filipino flavors.

But one of the dishes was these warmed olives.

But since I needed hot woks, For the Asian side of the restaurant, those olives became stir-fried in these very raging hot pans instead of gently warmed, which I thought it was delicious because it would get that walk-ay kind of breath of the walk flavor.

So I'm hoping you'll tell me a little bit about your favorite cookbooks.

What is that?

This is a creamy udon, uh, a little bit of bulgogi flavor and some seaweed over the top.

Very simple.

All the recipes are very simple, something that you could get on the table in, like, seconds.

Always love seeing you.

Always a pleasure.

Have a listen.

Um, I grew up in a house that food was highly respected, so food was surrounded me from when I was young.

As young as I can think of, I was, uh, taking sips from, uh, Grandpa's caldo from the pot of soup.

And, uh, you know, I never thought I was gonna be a chef, actually, as growing up.

I just was-- food was always around us.

And, uh, went to culinary school, attended, uh, Leeward here, and then finished up in Maui.

Uh, you know, you start to, to kind of think of what's the chef that, that you wanna become? And you start to look...

[laughing]