We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brian Hirata a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brian, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Prior to this project, I was a culinary instructor for twelve years at our local college here on the Big Island of Hawai`i. In the fall semester I taught intermediate cookery and a food costing course, and during the spring semester, I taught all the advanced cooking courses for the same cohort of students from the previous fall semester. Usually by the second day of class in the fall, I begin to gauge my students knowledge base. This helps me have a better understanding of where and how to introduce my curriculum. One of the strategies I used was a power-point pop quiz with common local fish eaten in Hawaii, but also fishes that have strong connections to our local food culture. The results of this quiz were very disturbing every year, as most students (80-90% of them) would return the quiz blank. What made this very concerning to me was that 40% of our college’s student dynamic identified themselves as “Native Hawai`ian” or “Pacific Islander”. This strong disconnection to their very own heritage ingredients lead me to the realization that the knowledge is not being passed down to the next generation as has been for millennia here in Hawai`i. In our nation. We have seen similar outcomes with other indigenous communities within our nation when it comes to western expansion and capitalism. Prime examples of this are what happened to the Native Americans and Inuit communities. Because of westernization, and things like displacing whole communites from their lands, while simultaneously preventing them speaking their language, and cultural practices, their culture was lost (I think annihilated seems more appropriate to me). Similar things are occurring here in Hawai`i with our native Hawai`ian population.

So here we are. After sitting on this concept and idea for about 5 years, I decided to take a leap of faith. I left my tenured position at the college to being this project called Na`au to revitalize, and help preserve our local food heritage.

Brian, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born and raised in Hawaii. I am of Japanese decent, but my family has been living here in Hawai`i for a very long time (ex. my great grandfather was born here in 1895). I grew up in a family that hunts, fishes, and farms. Growing up this way exposed me to the natural world around me, and I’ve always had a strong affinity and love towards it.

Professional cooking kind of happened by accident. During college, my buddies, and I decided to move out of the dorms and into an apartment. Suddenly we were forced to cook for ourselves, and I slowly began to take on that responsibility more and more as I found it to be very enjoyable. Looking way back, I remember always watching my mom cook in the kitchen. She also told me a story that when I was very little, if I was playing in the living room and a cooking show would come on the television, I would stop what I was doing and be fascinated by it. So maybe it shouldn’t have been a big surprise to me when I decided to leave the University of Hawaii the following year, and enroll in culinary school. I’ve worked at various hotels in Hawai`i including the ultra-elite Hualalai Resort for seven years before having the opportunity to teach culinary at my old alma mater.

What we provide at Na`au is an elevated dining format showcasing local, coveted, and endemic ingredients for our guest. The food on the plate is obviously the final destination of those ingredients, but what happens before and after that is what is most important to me. As described in the previous question; the local food knowledge and understanding of our cuisine is being lost for various reasons and factors. This is where Na`au’s educational component occurs. Our staff have opportunities to forage with us for wild ingredients and I also introduce them to various locally grown and ranched ingredients as well, which they then get to prepare, cook, serve, and taste. This process allows them to experience the entire food cycle for that ingredient, but more importantly the hope is that they learn and take that passing of knowledge with them. For our guest and social media followers discussion about these ingredients begin, and this offers opportunities for education as well. For me, I want this platform and format in order to help accomplish our mission of preserving our food heritage which I feel is the most important issue we face culinarily in Hawai`i right now. Also from a guest perspective, I want to offer them an opportunity to eat and experience “real local ingredients”. What I mean by this is that we intentionally showcase locally grown produce, use local proteins from small local ranchers, and wild foraged ingredients from the land and sea. What we provide is an honest and authentic look at our foods here in Hawai`i. I can honestly say that what we do is very unique and special.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is vital in today’s world, and that’s how many people get their information. Our social media is used to not only showcase our dishes, but it is also used to educate on ingredients. A lot of our followers are gained through people sharing our posts or spreading the word about our dinners. It has been a gradual, but organic increase in followers.

Consistency in posting is key.

It’s hard not to get hung up on likes or follower count, but if you stay authentic and on-brand, people will find you, and you will grow your target audience, engage them, and spread awareness of your brand one follower at a time.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Being authentic and staying on-brand helped to build our reputation. We don’t create gimmicky dishes or use “Hawai`i” just to sell tickets. Each dish is rooted in childhood memories and life experiences. We showcase our heritage ingredients, local businesses, and our food culture through our dinners, educational videos, and workshops. We stay away from imported “luxury ingredients” because what we have right here in Hawai`i are already amazing, and could be considered “luxury” in their own right.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.naauhilo.com
• Instagram: @naauhilo
• Facebook: @naauhilo
• Twitter: @naauhilo
• Youtube: @naauhilo

Image Credits
Credit Andrew Richard Hara for last four images (fishing, foraging, cheesecake, sea snails dish).