Gourmet Smormet!
What actually IS gourmet? Ask a top of the charts innkeeper and someone from a hotel’s marketing department and you’ll get two very different answers. It’s the difference between someone who will personally shop, cook, and serve food for an individual versus someone who has a job to do. Yet, somehow they both end of using the same word. So I thought it was fair to take a moment to mention that gourmet Thai food we had in Volcano and then talk about that “GOURMET” pizza we had at our O`ahu hotel.
A few months ago, we enjoyed a wonderful stay at the Moana Hotel. We had a couple of beautiful rooms with a great view onto the beach, light trade-winds, and the gentle strains of live music rising up to entertain us. It was so nice we decided to try room service. Great service, on-time, set us up outside, served up some tasty hot food that really hit the spot. Liked it so much, we came back from the Halekulani House Without a Key and had dinner in our room again. Once again, great service, good food, super atmosphere. This is the way to stay in Waikiki.
Fast forward a month and we are at another hotel down by the harbor. We had to change rooms upon arrival and when we finally got settled, we threw open the window and had the brilliant idea that we could have room service again. On the menu was something called a, “GOURMET” pizza. We figured you can’t go too far off with pizza and if it was, “GOURMET” pizza, well then it must be especially good. The other item we ordered was as interesting but gets a pass in my blog because, thankfully, they did not call it a, “GOURMET” hamburger.
Now if I think about a gourmet pizza, I think of a homemade hand tossed crust crisped with virgin olive oil and cracked polenta and covered with fresh goat cheese, aged Parmesan, fresh Italian Sausage, freshly crushed herbs, and maybe imported olives. That is a gourmet pizza! So what is a, “GOURMET”, pizza? It’s one of those no need to refrigerate perforated partially baked pizza crusts that you pull out of the trunk of your car and cover with canned meat and cheese food. It’s great for when the camp fire won’t start and you figure whatever you don’t eat can go right to the dogs. In our case, I have to be honest that they did upgrade us to an aged meat that did appear to have been cooked on the premises in the distant past. The debate about whether it was cheese food mozzarella or the real stuff continues. If the hotel had dogs in the kitchen, that part would be true.
The truth is that gourmet is more than the food. It’s where it came from, who grew it, how it is presented, and how much love went into seeing from the farmer to the table. Even simple foods, like our locally grown beets in balsamic vinegar and Hawaiian salt, can rise to the level of gourmet when accompanied by thinly sliced goat cheese and served as part of greater continental. We strive to serve at least 50% local for every breakfast. Sometimes we approach 90%, but 60% is about average. It matters to me that we are part of our local agricultural economy and I think that helps define gourmet as well, and if I miss the mark – you can tell me in person.
Aloha from the kitchen at Kalaekilohana
Kenny
