The
Slow Food Movement Comes to Hawaii
Slow Food Hawaii, the state's new group affiliated with the international Slow Food organization and movement, is beginning to meet. For more information on Slow Food in general, see www.slowfood.com or the USA's site at http://www.slowfoodusa.org/.
Slow
Food Hawaii Annual Meeting
Sat., December 7, 2002, 11:30am
Indigo Restaurant, Honolulu
Contact: Nan Piianaia
All are welcome to attend this meeting. For more information on the meeting, contact Nan Piianaia, Slow Food Hawaii Convivium Leader, at nap2@flex.com or at 808-885-6085.
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Slow Food Hawaii Ark Committee Meeting Report
Slow Food Hawaii's Ark Committee held its first meeting Wednesday, November 6 at Merriman's Restaurant in Kamuela.
The intent of the Ark Committee is to assess Hawaii's food products and animals, identifying those products that are important to Hawaii's economic, social and cultural heritage, but are endangered in some way. Once identified, these products will be nominated for membership in the Ark of Taste, Slow Food's program to preserve and celebrate "endangered foods." If inducted into the Ark of Taste, the foods will then benefit from the considerable prestige of membership in the well-respected and world-famous program, as well as economic and media support to help promote the food.
The attendees enjoyed a delicious lunch before moving on to business. The group first reviewed the Mission and Selection Process for the Ark USA, and then discussed endangered foods in Hawaii and elsewhere. For guidelines in selecting products for the Ark, see http://www.slowfoodusa.org/ark/guidelines.html.
Members then offered examples of foods in Hawaii which they felt should be considered by the Ark Committee. These included poi taro, ohelo berries, o’opu (a fish), Kona coffee, breadfruit, okolehao, grass-fed beef, Kona and a’ama crab, and methods of cooking, such at the use of the imu and the forno.
The meeting was then adjourned. The next Ark Committee meeting will be held in January 2003 on Oahu, in order to make it convenient for other interested individuals to attend. Three people flew to the Big Island specifically to attend the Waimea Ark meeting (Charlotte Vick and Cathy Caveletto from Oahu and Peter Merriman from Maui), and it is hoped that some from the Big Island will be able to attend the Oahu meeting.
Present at the meeting were:
Chef Sandy Barr, Merriman’s
Cathy Cavaletto, UH Manoa
Kent Fleming, Chair (UH Manoa)
Ken Love, Kona coffee & tropical fruit farmer
Chef Peter Merriman, Hula Grill, Lahaina
Nancy Pisicchio, Hawaii County Councilperson & Kona farmer
Nancy Piianaia, Slow Food Hawaii Convivium Leader
Norman Piianaia, Matson Company
Charlotte Vick, Starr-Seigel Company
For
more information about the Ark of Taste, contact Kent Fleming at fleming@hawaii.edu.
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