This Hawai'i Restaurant Produces Some of the World’s Best Pork

[pan sizzles]

[mellow music]

Here at Lehua, we're from the country.

We grew up here, we're from here, from the Big Island.

We raise the finest pork in the world

on our own family farm,

trying to be sustainable as possible

and we hold those things very sacred.

So we have our own farm to our own functioning restaurant,

which we love.

I consider our food nostalgic Hawaii food.

The ingredients we use here are in every house in Hawaii.

We take those Hawaii ingredients

and apply a modern technique to 'em.

One of the things I think about as head chef

is sourcing ingredients,

and trying to not deplete our natural resources of them.

I think we are a restaurant that Hawaii comes to be Hawaii.

[birds chirp]

[door clicks]

How's it, my name is Keoni Regidor,

head chef here at Lehua Restaurant, welcome to Hilo.

Coming inside, we've got a busy day.

[mellow music]

This is our dining room, we serve about 75/80 people.

We're on the east side of the Big Island.

If you're from Hilo, this is the city.

If you're from LA, this is the smallest town

you've ever seen.

We're at the Imiloa Astronomy Center,

it's a community center where a lot of Hawaii things happen.

We take very high pride in our culture here.

It's eight o'clock, first thing I gotta do

is check out the prep list, let's go into the kitchen.

[mellow music]

As head chef, I wanna check out the prep list,

make sure the boys are set for the day,

we have everything we need.

I need to make some decisions.

At least the prep items, the big ones,

we wanna get in first,

so we got the pig coming in today.

I believe I've just seen Owyn pull up with the pig.

So we're gonna get that going,

I gotta get the loin in the suvie.

And then these are just the orders that we need,

or what we're out of right now.

So we gotta get the orders in by I wanna say

10 o'clock today.

So we're doing a special for this evening,

the pork loin, broccolini, carrot butter, chimichurri.

The special changes every day, seven days a week.

Prep list looks good, pork delivery is here,

let's go get it.

[mellow music]

Berkshire pork from our farm out in Kaunamano.

Owyn works on the farm, Owyn raises the pigs,

and he also helps me cut the pigs.

Pig production is very important to Hawaii.

Hawaiians have been eating pork

since the beginning of time here.

One of the things on the first canoes we brought over

was pork.

For us to have our own pork farm, we are very fortunate.

We kind of won it in like a contest

to have a business plan put in action.

The business plan was to start a rotational grazing farm,

put Berkshire pigs on it.

That was almost eight years ago I believe,

now we're off to 100 pigs.

This is a Berkshire pig, brown English pig.

I did a lot of research when we got the farm.

These guys would be like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of pig.

You can see how it's a little bit more red on the bone,

good fat content on it.

Everybody breaks down pork differently, Italian has its way,

French of course has its way, Hawaii has its way.

The way I was taught,

and the way that the end goal for us needs to be,

we like to cut for the fifth and sixth rib.

We like the coppa, which is right here,

so that's why we cut it on the fifth and sixth rib,

and that's the only reason why we do it,

that's the reason we cut it on these bones

and these vertebrae, just to get it that size especially.

Also for Hawaii, most commonly use the pork butt right here,

the Boston butt, shank right here, the leg,

ham's right here, more shank,

then the loin is right here, tenderloin right here.

And then the belly, bacon, pork belly.

The coppa, which you call it the money muscle probably,

for me the most prized muscle,

lots of intramuscular fat, three separate muscles in it.

So this is the pretty much the parts,

we'll just start to part it out now, try to debone it,

get it in brine right after that.

Owyn just grew up hunting, diving, all of that,

but the way Owyn cuts is very clean.

You can tell there's a certain way that hunters cut,

the way they skin, they don't leave anything behind.

It's more of survival rather than just getting

the parts they need for whatever restaurant.

But Owyn has that great cutting skill

that a lot of young kids don't have nowadays.

That's why we keep around Owyn.

[mellow music] [knives scrape]

The thing with having a pig every two-weeks

is it's hard to do consistent menu items with it.

Each pig only has 13 ribs, or something like that,

you do four orders of ribs, that's one pig.

The ground meat for us is where we get the most of it.

So we put things like chorizo on the menu,

we do it with mussels, tomato sauce, saffron,

onions, white wine, and then it's just a great dish

to sup up some bread with for sure, it's a great appetizer.

The commodity pork that's in your average supermarket,

it's probably white, this one's really red.

These pigs, Owyn treats them real good,

live a happy life for sure.

They have great fat content, great meat, very soft.

In the beginning our pigs were a little lean,

we ended up feeding them like mac nuts,

and then the fat content gone up,

that's why it's super white like this.

This is the pork shoulder part,

so I'm trying to take off this bone right here.

Sometimes we don't do stock,

just 'cause we don't have the space,

but I do have two great Danes at my house,

so I give the boys some treats every once in a while,

bring some roasted bones home.

So, yeah, the pork loin's going on this special tonight.

So we're gonna do that, brine seven days,

suvie at 143.5 for about four or five hours.

[meat sizzles]

Sear it on a flat top.

Probably gonna do a carrot/ginger butter, broccolini,

maybe some twice-fried purple potatoes, Okinawans,

a local chimichurri, whatever we got in the garden,

rosemary, cilantro, culantro

maybe some parsley and stuff like that.

Try and get it on the plate as nice as possible.,

super simple.

Try and let the pork sing for itself.

And then we've got our brine right here,

so this is salt, brown sugar, sodium nitrate, bay leaf,

garlic, peppercorns, mustard seed, coriander seed.

The hams we try to put on the bottom,

the hams will be in for two-weeks,

and then the loins and the bacons will be in for one week.

And then, yeah, [lid clatters]

that's going in the walk-in.

[mellow music]

[tray clatters]

These have been brine-ing for like two-weeks,

they just came out, these are the hams right here.

So you can see almost the pink color in them,

peppercorns, mustard seeds still on 'em.

They carry all the salt now,

so they got the salt, the sugar, the sodium nitrate,

so that's what gives them that pink color.

So I got these loins, same batch as the hams,

and all of that.

I'm gonna get these in the vacuum sealer,

and then get 'em in the suvie,

get 'em ready for tonight's special.

Start. [machine bleeps]

Cool, going out to the smoker.

The Trigger on the professional barbecue circuit

is frowned upon, but, yeah,

it's what we got here, it's what we use.

It's what's available to us, but it's consistent for us.

It's an electric pellet smoker.

Just like any smoker, circulates so

up here it'll be a little bit hotter,

that's why I put the hams up here, bigger pieces of meat.

I put 'em up on the top.

Bacons are on this side, and skinnier pieces of meat.

They won't cook at the same time,

but I'll just keep on temping,

that's why I got the thermometer right here.

When the boys come in for service, they can kind of temp it.

But that's locked in, it's ready to go in five or six hours.

Well, it's 11 o'clock, we got some deliveries coming in,

my wife's coming in with the produce.

I got fish coming in, and then also it's ice cream day,

'cause it's Tuesday, so let's get it going.

All this is from Hilo Produce, all from the Island,

all from the east side of the Island,

probably some of the biggest green onions

I've ever seen in my whole life.

I hate broccoli, but for some reason I do like broccolini.

Yeah, we're gonna do this with the special tonight.

I'm gonna put this here so the boys know that

we need to blanch this first.

It's on the board already.

So I got most of the lettuces up here,

bok choys, big girls' items, kimchi, chili pepper water.

It's like your Nampla, how Vietnamese have that

kind of like fish sauce, vinegar, all that kind of stuff.

Hawaii we have chili pepper water,

it's literally chili peppers, garlic, salt and vinegar.

Every house in Hawaii has a kimchi, this is ours,

make it into a kimchi chimichurri,

which is the sauce that we put on the ahi.

I wanna say the best organized,

but it'll do for there.

Produce is put away, ice cream's put away.

So we're onto the fish next, gotta go outside, clean it.

Gonna meet Jason outside, grab the fish.

[mellow music]

I changed because it's time to clean some fish.

Jake caught some yesterday so he's gonna bring it in,

gonna clean it, get it ready for the menu tonight.

Morning, Keoni, today's pick,

just came from our deep bottom ground,

so this fish came out about 750-feet of water.

Should be real tasty, fresh.

[water hisses]

These are wahoo, some of Hawaii's

best fish right here for sure.

They're eating crustaceans, the meat,

they're very white, very flaky.

I wouldn't wanna serve fish from

the continent or anywhere else.

This is Hawaii, we want to taste our fish,

and people come to Hawaii to taste the fish of Hawaii.

I like to clean 'em outside every once in a while,

scales get everywhere.

If it's in the garden,

it'll help the greens grow a little bit.

I wanna try and make it the easiest I can

for the boys when they come in.

So they don't need to do it,

that's why I came in early today.

[brush rustles]

[water hisses]

And we keep it whole, fried or steamed, just as is.

We add a bit of chili pepper salt at the end,

other than that, that's it,

try to let the fish speak for itself.

We do it with the watercress salad, fried kalo, tomatoes,

onions, and then the banchan side of rice.

This one's kind of a showstopper for sure,

once someone sees this one goes out,

everyone's gonna try and order it.

So we try to do, I'll say only a certain number a night,

we don't wanna purge the reefs at all.

We wanna see whatever everyone's catching,

whatever everyone has on hand.

We don't want anyone to catch 200 of them,

and the next thing you know, we're out, nothing's growing.

So we try to do it sustainably as as much as we can.

And then if we're out, we're out, that's it.

If the waters are rough, we don't have it on the menu,

that's it, that's how the fishermen operate.

So I just do these cuts, get the steam in faster,

get the fry in faster, get the oil in faster.

It'll be easier for the sauce to penetrate a little bit too.

At Imiloa Hawaii we like to do it with the kids,

have them more interested in ag too,

have them know what the ocean currents are,

when the storm's gonna come.

I think I said 10 minutes before it rains,

I think it's gonna rain, and then sure enough it rained.

Once kids can predict the weather and predict storms,

it'll be easier for them to catch the fish

when they know what fish are biting at what time,

what they need to get this fish, when does it spawn.

All these things are very important

for the growth of the species as well as the fish,

so we don't overfish everything.

I'm gonna finish cleaning these fish.

We got more coming in tonight,

so we're gonna get that going.

[mellow music]

So we just got the fish delivery in from Hilo Fish,

ono today, or wahoo as they call it on the continent.

Everything comes from the Island, nothing's flown over.

So Jason brings in the bottom fish,

these are the bigger fish.

So these are the ono and then some ahi as well.

Every day fish comes in, cut and portion,

gonna do the ono in about six ounces,

ahi about 4.5/five ounces,

little bit smaller on the ahi.

I know some people are gonna make fun of me

for using a bread knife,

but, man, I've been using a bread knife to cut fish

for I don't know how long already.

But when I was starting to cut fish,

I used to bother this old Filipino guy

that teach me how to cut fish.

He told me that once you grow up your hands never change,

so the lines on your hands will always be the same.

So I use the lines on my hands to guide me

on how big the fish should be.

I usually put the middle of my palm at the end of the fish

and then I cut diagonal ways.

Just kind of depends on how thick the fish is.

It'll usually gimme closer to five or six ounces,

worked so far.

So ono's a surface fish, white, flaky,

great fish, super hardy,

not as hardy as a marlin or anything like that,

but still very flaky white fish.

But that is the ono, and we'll get onto the ahi right now.

The Hawaiian term for tuna is ahi.

So if people say ahi tuna, they're just saying tuna tuna.

This is caught 50-miles outside the break wall of Hilo.

These ones, they're kind of the sinew area ones,

I'll serve these ones for the poke.

You could do like all these poke,

but I don't see why you would

when you're putting all kinds of flavors in it

and just not the true flavor of the fish.

So these ones are like the block cuts

that we do for the ahi.

So we'll do the gnocchi,

we've got a pipikaula relish,

which is kinda like the Hawaii smoked beef I would say.

And then some broccolini, after that kimchi chimichurri,

cured egg yolk.

Poke for the pantry, ono for the catch.

Just gonna bag 'em up, get 'em labeled,

put 'em in the walk-in.

Boys will be ready to go tonight probably.

The boys are coming in for the afternoon shift,

I'm gonna get them ready, let's get it going.

[mellow music]

So it is, yeah, right about two o'clock,

I got Zach in, and then Bryce is here.

Bryce right now is doing the gyozo raviolis in the back,

just finishing that up.

Zach is starting to prep on the line,

so he'd got the sauces going, mash going,

carrots going for the special tonight.

Got about two-hours before service, so I got things to do,

gotta jump on some stuff right here.

I gotta get this black garlic, which is coming out today,

actually 16 days in the rice cooker is how we do it.

So I guess you guys are here on just the right day.

So we just chose to make this on our own.

In this particular rice pot,

the warm setting stays on about 168 degrees Fahrenheit warm,

that's what it stays at consistent.

So if you put the garlic in there, and let it for 16 days,

it has like a slow ferment.

Super juicy, super umami I would say.

What it does is slowly cook the garlic, makes it black,

gets the sugars cooking.

It's not burnt, no matter what anyone says.

So we use this in our sauces,

I make sausages from it,

especially with the pork from the farm.

We'll let this cool down overnight,

we'll bag it, put it in the freezer.

You can just eat it now like, yeah, super sweet.

Well, it's about 4:45, the front of the house is here.

Everyone's setting up getting the dining room ready.

Boys are on their final break, everyone's station is set,

kinda getting close to service.

[mellow music]

Pre-service is about to happen,

go over the special, what's available, what's not,

what greens are we using for the salad,

what's the catch tonight?

What are we out of, the dessert special,

what's the special for this evening? The usuals.

I have no wine knowledge,

so front of the house they usually do that for me.

They pair with the special for this evening,

as head chef, I kind of jump in wherever needs me most.

For tonight, I'll be on expo, the last to see the dishes

before they get out to the people,

so I gotta make sure they're on point,

everything is correct, everything is to the T,

everything tastes great, looks good, made correctly.

Sometimes I'm on the line, sometimes I'm on pantry,

sometimes I dishwash, whatever makes it work.

[mellow music] [meat sizzles]

[plates clatter]

Yeah, it's about five-minutes 'til service

so everyone's putting the finishing touches

on all of their stations.

Just making sure they got everything ready,

and we're good to go for service.

The reservations should be here in about five minutes.

It's five o'clock, it's about to get really busy,

you guys gotta go, mahalo.