PO’IPU — Kaua’i chefs Jean Marie Josselin and David Boucher will show off their most innovative culinary creations on a Mainland coast-to-coast spectacular sponsored in part by the company which manages the Sheraton Kaua’i Resort here and the Princeville Hotel.
PO’IPU — Kaua’i chefs Jean Marie Josselin and David Boucher will show off
their most innovative culinary creations on a Mainland coast-to-coast
spectacular sponsored in part by the company which manages the Sheraton Kaua’i
Resort here and the Princeville Hotel.
“Experience Aloha! Hawai’i On Tour,”
plus three other major culinary programs, are the Hawai’i Visitors &
Convention Bureau’s barnstorming promotional tours, which began last month in
Detroit and when all is said and done will hit up to 24 cities from Boston to
San Francisco and Los Angeles between January and October.
Starwood Hotels
& Resorts, managers of the Sheraton Kaua’i Resort and Princeville Hotel,
are among the co-sponsors of the culinary programs.
Josselin, owner of A
Pacific Cafe at Kaua’i Village in Waipouli, and Boucher, executive chef at the
Hyatt Regency Kaua’i Resort & Spa, will join parts of the tour’s culinary
programs.
Josselin will be in New York City, displaying his craft as part
of a show including island entertainment, cultural demonstrations, and
state-of-the-art, high-tech interactive and virtual reality displays bringing
the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Hawai’i’s six main islands to Mainland
consumers, travel agents and meeting planners.
Boucher is Denver-bound in
June, part of both the Experience Aloha! and Gourmet magazine’s “Master Chefs
of Hawai’i” promotion. Bon Apétit magazine, TV Food Network and the
James Beard Foundation are also sponsoring culinary events in various Mainland
cities.
“Sharing the distinctive tastes and variety of Hawai’i’s cuisine is
one of the ways HVCB has been showcasing the diversity of our island cultures
and lifestyles to the Mainland,” said Tony Vericella, HVCB president and chief
executive officer.
“Our unique culinary programs and new ‘Experience Aloha!
Hawai’i On Tour’ campaign, which will visit malls across North America, are
designated to communicate the sights, sounds, tastes and aromas of the islands
of aloha to consumers, travel agents, meeting planners and writers in their own
backyard, thus tempting them to experience Hawai’i first-hand,” he
said.
The Master Chefs program Boucher will participate in will include
classes and dinners in which featured chefs will share information about the
diversity of Hawai’i’s culinary scene and describe the high quality of island
seafood, produce and food products from around the state.
In addition to
the live demonstrations and appearances, several of the Master Chefs will
appear on the TV Food Network program, “Cooking Live with Sarah
Moulton.”
The expanded culinary program for this year is one component of
the HVCB’s integrated, multi-level marketing campaign to promote all of the
islands as leisure and business travel destinations.
“People everywhere are
fascinated with food, and we have found that through cuisine, they become
motivated to discover and rediscover a destination like Hawai’i,” said Gail Ann
Chew, HVCB vice president for marketing services.
Chew played the lead role
in developing and organizing the cuisine programs.
“Bringing some of the
state’s most popular chefs to our key markets on the Mainland gives Hawai’i the
opportunity to demonstrate its great cultural diversity and culinary
excellence, and describe the wealth of fresh ingredients and made-in-Hawai’i
products that make island-style cooking so appealing.”
