Jean Marie Josselin and Marta Lane Cooking Demo
Deconstructed Ahi Roll at Josselin’s. Daniel Lane photo
Today at 5 p.m., you have a change to meet local legend Jean Marie Josselin, chef of Josselin’s Tapas Bar & Grill. I (Marta Lane) will be joining him for a cooking demonstration and book signing of my book, Tasting Kauai: Restaurants – From Food Trucks to Fine Dining, A Guide to Eating Well on the Garden Island. Jean Marie is featured in my restaurant guidebook and he will make tapas, which everyone can sample afterward. The event will be held at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, December 11 at The Shops at Kukuiula during the Kauai Culinary Market. Admission is free.
Twenty-two years ago, Josselin, along with 11 other chefs, brought worldwide recognition to Hawaii by creating Hawaii Regional Cuisine (HRC). Josselin won the National Seafood Challenge in 1989 and opened A Pacific Café, which was one of Hawaii’s earliest chef-driven restaurants. The late John Heckathorn wrote in Honolulu magazine that Josselin was one of the movement’s most creative chefs. Josselin’s cookbook, A Taste of Hawaii, was the first from the Hawaii Regional chefs. At one time, Josselin had seven restaurants across the state as well as restaurant 808 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Today, he is the only HRC chef on Kauai to cook at his own restaurant. This afternoon will be a special treat!
Incase you don’t know, besides writing Tasting Kauai: Restaurants, I am Kauai’s only full-time food writer and a certified personal chef. My husband and I give food tours and farmers market classes, which connect people to some of Kauai’s best farmers and chefs. For more than three years, Marta Lane’s two columns, Tastes of Kauai and Farmers Markets, have been published every week in Kauai Midweek. Dan, my husband, provides the mouth-watering photography for this website, my Kauai Midweek columns and our new book. He will join me today so if you have any photography questions, just ask!
This is a special treat for me and and opportunity for you to meet a local legend. Jean Marie is a private person who rarely leaves his restaurant. For one hour today, he will emerge from his kitchen and join me during the Kauai Culinary Market’s cooking demonstration at The Shops at Kukuiula. Come early because the gourmet farmers market offers farm-fresh produce as well as pies, jams, honey and baked goods from local food artisans. This is a great way to buy Christmas presents that were made on Kauai. Each week during the cooking demonstration a local chef highlights Kauai grown meat, fish and produce.