Talking Story with
Executive Chef
TYLUN PANG OF KO
By Michelle Winner
I’m sitting at Ko restaurant at the Fairmont Kea Lani, across from
one of the most affable chefs I have ever met, enjoying his Maui
plantation-inspired cuisine, and trying not to laugh at his quips
with my mouth full. His friend at work “the Bumble Bee” ( he
gives the people he likes nicknames) is sitting to my left and my
friend Dee, as of 10 minutes ago now “Miss Oregon”, is seated to
my right. She is impossibly and blissfully lost in her caramelized
Plantation Pineapple Pudding Cake after inhaling an Ahi salad, so
I am not sure she is listening as chef outlines that his vision for
Ko (Hawaiian word for sugarcane), is to share with visitors what
locals have been eating since the days the pineapple and sugar
industries reigned supreme on Maui.
On the plantation, workers lived in company towns, bought a few
supplies at the company store and lived in tiny company cottages.
They saved every penny they could to better themselves and their
children. They grew gardens and had a pig and a few chickens to
supply most of their food. They grew extra vegetables and spices
to trade or sell and this produce found its way into the cook pots
of many families from other countries. This cross-cultural mix of
flavor profiles is the basis of Maui’s island cuisine, so for menu
items, Chef had to look no further than his own treasured family
recipes and those of his staff.
In addition to Ko, Pang has written a cookbook “What Maui
Likes To Eat”, a compendium of Ko’s recipes he and staff have
refined from the simple, frugal fare prepared in the kitchens and
cook houses in the Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Puerto Rican,
Filipino and Korean camps dotting Maui over a century ago. Chef
Pang dubs this cuisine, “plantation fusion” and yes hungry
Hawaii-expats, it’s all here in the book; Teri-Miso Butterfish,
Sweet-Sour Spare Ribs, Chow Fun, Gon Lo Mein, Portuguese
Bean Soup, Lumpia and some down-home Hawaiian recipes like
Chopsteak too. He donates all of the proceeds to the Maui
Culinary Academy.
As a descendant of a plantation worker, I can tell you that all of
the succulent dishes at Ko remain true to their origins but are
presented in delightful ways that actually enhance your enjoyment
of them. ” Ahi on the Rock” is the perfect example of this. Chef
presents the guest with a hot rock ( Japanese ishiyaki stone)
nested in red Hawaiian salt. Then Ahi cubes are provided and the
guest “cooks” on the hot stone and then dips into a decidedly
local- flavored orange ginger miso sauce to complement the island
fish. Chef has partnered with local farmers and fishermen for
many years to support them and to present the freshest
ingredients on his Ko menu. In the restaurant and in his
cookbook he plays cool, very Maui rifts on French staples like
onion soup in his Sweet Kula Onion Soup.
Simple,
sublime,
dessert
at Ko.
Photo courtesy of Fairmont Kea Lani.