We were lucky enough to spend some time with Chef Aris from Kō Restaurant at the Fairmont Kea Lani—one of our favorite dinner spots on Maui!
My name is Aris Aurelio, Kō Executive Chef, and I’ve been with the restaurant for 12 years.
Aloha Chef! Can you share about Kō’s menu and what inspires you about it?
kō is about plantation cuisine. It’s about the immigrants, the first immigrants who came to Hawaii and worked with the Sugar Cane. The first immigrants who came to work at the plantations were the Koreans, Portuguese, Filipinos, Chinese, and Japanese. And of course, the Hawaiians. So what inspired Kō was those plantation workers who came along and worked together, and they would share their meals. It became natural for all of them to eat together and share their foods. After a while, people mixed ingredients from each culture or each country, and that’s what became the idea for Kō.
Can you share where you come from and how that ties into the cuisine at Kō, and share about your dish at Kō in particular?
I was born in the Philippines, and I came here when I was 15. I went to the Culinary Arts Academy of UHMC, and I started here at the Fairmont Kea Lani back in 1994. All of my experience in cooking was under the late Chef Tylun Pang. My background has come from him as he was my mentor.
When we opened up Kō, I was working Banquets. And as we opened it up through that first year, I was able to watch each and every one of the chefs that worked there, and I got to work with the cooks. That’s how I learned. One day, one of our chef de parties was sick, and they asked me to try and run Kō for two weeks, and I did. And ever since then, I’ve been here!
What I love about it is I’m very, very familiar with the flavors for the restaurant. One of my dishes actually is a Filipino dish called a sinigang. And it’s been my job to elevate it. I named it Lemongrass Catch, but most of it is basically a sinigang itself. This is special to me because back home when I grew up, Filipinos were very close to their families. We would have lunch over at my grandma’s house and with the family, grandpa, uncles, and aunties. We would join my grandparents for lunch on Sundays, and this is one of the dishes that they cooked. It’s been so special to me that I thought I’d share it through the Kō restaurant.
Beautiful. Can you talk about the freshness of the fish in the Philippines and compare it to the freshness of the fish that we offer at Kō with it being the local catch?
So growing up in the Philippines, we were surrounded by waters: rice fields, and cornfields. Those rice fields were watered by irrigation. So we were blessed to have a lot of fish, clams, and all of that. Having fresh fish Is so different. The flavor, the texture, the color even, it’s different from having it frozen or flown in. When I compare that to the fish that we have here in Hawaii, it’s similar. Mainly, the difference is saltwater. And the freshness of the fish is very, very important. It’s about flavors.
The fresh flavors that come from the fish, the local vegetables, and the ingredients that come from our local farmers have such a big impact on our dishes, flavor-wise. For me and my team, it’s our job to execute it well and transform our local dishes, our culturally-driven dishes, by elevating them.
