By Katherine Nichols
CULINARY AUTHOR Elizabeth Andoh is passionate about Japanese food. But she wants everyone to know that you don’t have to be Japanese — or know much about Asian food — to apply the principles of traditional Japanese home cooking to yield more attractive, nutritionally balanced meals.
“Their whole notion of food is to engage all the senses,” Andoh told 120 culinary students and professionals at Kapiolani Community College during a rare visit to Hawaii last month.
The class — sponsored by the nonprofit Hale Aina Ohana, which helps culinary professionals access pioneering ideas through visiting experts — included a cooking demonstration infused with history and culture. It attracted restaurant owners and chefs Alan Wong and DK Kodama, as well as representatives from Roy’s, the Pacific Club, Sergio’s, Michel’s, Shanghai Bistro, Hilton Hawaiian Village and Diamond Head Grill.
Andoh is an anomaly who connects two disparate cultures. She is Caucasian and a native New Yorker educated at the University of Michigan, but has lived for more than 40 years in Japan, a country that feels more like home to her than anywhere else. She doesn’t understand American cell phones, she said, and her computer commands are written in Japanese. >Read more