Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2011

Courtesy of Fox Backstage Pass

When you chat with Hawaiian chef Sam Choy, don’t be too hungry, or you’ll wind up begging him to prepare something for you. Choy, an award-winning restaurateur, TV host and bestselling author, also designs in-flight meals for first- and business-class on American Airlines. The chef was in Tokyo recently to oversee a new menu for the launch of the airline’s Haneda-New York service.

“It’s not about the chef,” he says. “The bottom line is the food. The passengers couldn’t care less if the meal in front of them was designed by Wolfgang Puck, Neil Perry, Sam Choy or Roy Yamaguchi. For me, you have to provide cuisine that makes them happy, just as if they were in your restaurant.”

So what is making passengers on the new AA service happy? For starters, there is Tahitian crabmeat soup, a creamy dish with coconut milk, spinach and crabmeat. Then there’s seafood pasta salad with dill dressing, and “salmon moco” with shiitake sauce. The pièce de résistance, however, is kalua pork eggs Benedict, made with tender pork shoulder, scrambled eggs and sautéed spinach on top of a fresh potato cake with hollandaise sauce and caramelized apples.

Using a potato cake instead of an English muffin is an interesting touch. “Because food is prepared about two hours prior to flights and then put into the plane’s heating units, English muffins can become like a hockey puck,” Choy explains. “It would be sliding all over your plate. The Haneda flight is a challenge to design Asian-fusion breakfast and brunch items for because it leaves at 6:30am.”

Choy, whose father was Chinese and mother German-Hawaiian, has been cooking professionally since 1971. He opened his first restaurant in 1995 in Waikiki, followed by Breakfast, Lunch and Crab in 1997 in the Oahu village of Iwilei. On TV, the chef hosts Sam Choy’s Kitchen, and he’s considered one of the founders of Pacific Rim cuisine—a fusion of cooking styles brought by immigrants to Hawaii. “Growing up, we cooked every day at home. We always had big luaus. Every New Year we have a big bang at our house—this year we had 250 [people],” Choy says.

Courtesy of American Airlines

The chef adds that those early days provided him with a solid base of culinary knowledge. “I was really blessed at a very young age to be exposed to food. My dad taught me how to clean chicken and prepare pork. A lot of chefs today get everything through the back door. The chicken is already plucked and cleaned.”

Choy first got involved with American Airlines six years ago, designing menus for the carrier’s Hawaii routes. Prior to that, he had worked with another airline. “I remember chatting with Wolfgang Puck a long time ago and I told him I was going to work with an airline and he goes: ‘Sam, I would not put my coffee onboard because those guys can’t even do that right.’ But I like challenges. If 20 people tell me I’m wasting my time, it doesn’t matter.”

One challenge has been redefining the image of Hawaiian food. “In the old days, there used to be a joke that if you wanted good food when you went to Hawaii, you should bring your own. Hawaiian food—poi, kalua pork, sweet potatoes, loco moco—that’s pretty much what many people still think it’s all about. But we’ve got fresh seafood, beef, poultry, vegetables and amazing fruits.”

Choy says that one day he’d like to open “a fun Hawaiian-themed restaurant” in Tokyo. “Japanese tourists come to my restaurants in Hawaii holding a magazine story about it and point to the item’s photo and ask for it. That’s why it is so important to have a quality product. It’s also important to be wide open to new ideas and be open to criticism because if you don’t, you can only go to first base.”

The chef travels out of Hawaii about seven months of the year. When he’s at home, he and his wife share the kitchen duties for the family (they have two sons). His favorite cooking utensils? A set of very sharp knives. “A craftsman took all my old knives and he created some wonderful handles out of black coral. The handles are probably worth more than the knives.”

Well-known for being Hawaii’s culinary ambassador, Choy may soon be seen in another light—as a guest star on the new Hawaii 5-O TV series. “I have been approached about it. I’m not sure what it will be, but I’m fine with that kind of marketing,” he says.

Chris Betros is the editor of Japan Today (www.japantoday.com).