PUHI — The team from the Sheraton Kaua‘i Resort, which was visiting Kaua‘i Community College on Tuesday, was met by a power shortage.
The power outage forced the KCC culinary arts department team to adapt to the no-electricity situation for the visit of the Sheraton team, whose goals for the visit were two-fold.
“Someone heard a big pop,” said Marty Amaro of the culinary arts department. “Then there was no power. We were going to do everything in the demonstration kitchen, but there’s no light, so we moved everything to the dining room where we at least have light from the windows.”
The outage also moved the Sheraton Kaua‘i team to adjust and work around the inconvenience without deterring from its original goals.
Sheraton Kaua‘i presented a check of more than $9,000 to the University of Hawai‘i Foundation, representing proceeds from the Sheraton Kaua‘i’s Table 53 charitable giving program.
Table 53 is the premier ocean-view table in the RumFire restaurant in the Po‘ipu resort, and monthly proceeds from diners reserving the coveted table in the restaurant are presented to resort-selected nonprofit organizations.
Since starting in 2012, the Sheraton Kaua‘i Resort has distributed nearly $400,000 from its Table 53, You Dine, We Donate program.
Kaua‘i Community College, more specifically, the culinary arts department, was selected to be the Table 53 recipient for this latest go-around. The college celebrates its annual commencement ceremonies on Friday.
The second goal of the Sheraton Kaua‘i team was to engage with the culinary arts students in a “Chef for a Day” competition that provided benefits for students and Sheraton Kaua‘i associates.
Executive Chef Gabe Gutierrez said the students — primarily second-year students scheduled to walk in the commencement ceremonies on Friday — benefit by taking a leadership role in the kitchen, having to instruct people who don’t normally have to take direction.
The Sheraton employees benefit by doing something they don’t normally do — they need to listen and follow instruction with the goal of creating a favorable outcome.
“The students are literally Chefs For A Day,” Gutierrez said. “This competition is all part of an internal Marriott competition. The students are in control of the kitchen, (and what comes out of it).”
Following the format of culinary competitions viewed on television, the student-led teams were surprised with a “secret ingredient” before being allocated a short amount of time to shop and prepare their singular dish for judging. The judging was done by Gutierrez, other senior chefs from the Sheraton Kaua‘i, and instructors and staff of the Kaua‘i CC culinary arts department.
“You can make the sound, whr-r-r-r,” one of the Sheraton associate chefs said in the window-lit kitchen setting accommodating the useful atmosphere of no electricity to power blenders or cutters, which forced the culinary workers back to the basics of cutting with knives.
“And no, there is no workman’s comp,” said Sheraton Kaua‘i General Manager Chip Bahouth. “I expect to see you all at work tomorrow morning.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 808-245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
