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11 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 MEN'S JOURNAL PROFILE

OST MORNINGS, Isaac (pink snapper), uku (blue-green snapper), ■ Bancaco starts his day by and hapu'upu'u (sea bass), all to prepare grabbing his speargun and serve to hotel guests. and donning a thin wet­ Bancaco is an anomaly among Hawai­ suit printed with a cam­ ian resort chefs, in that he stocks his ouflage pattern to blend in with the reef menu with such local fare. Most visitors He'll take a deep breath and descend to the state don't eat much truly Hawai­ 40 feet in the balmy waters on the west ian food-the islands import nearly 90 side of Maui. On one recent dive, he'd percent of ingredients fromelsewhere.

been down for about a minute when he Which is astonishing when you consider "Why are the big res1orts servingAlaskan spotted a school of uhu, bright green and · that Hawaii is home to 10 of the world's salmon or scallops?" he wonders. "Why blue parrotfish. He thought briefly of his 14 climate zones, making it perfectfor are they importing ingredients that have Hawaiian-Chinese-Filipino grandmother, growing almost everything fromkale to nothing to do with Hawaii?" Lani, the best skin diver in the family. coffee to papaya. Yet years of distribution And so Bancaco has given himself a Then he took careful aim and pulled the issues and the prohibitively high cost of mission: to essentially reverse the state's trigger, nailing his target. land have forced many Hawaiian hotels and food-import ratio. His menus at theAndaz, Back on the beach, Bancaco, the execu­ restaurants to rely on outside shipments a 301-room luxury resort on a pristine tive chef at the Andaz Maui at Wailea rather than the riches in their own back­ beach in Wailea that serves some 2,000 Resort, showed his catch to his friends­ yard. It's a fact that drives Bancaco, 38-a meals a day, are created with 85 percent local fishermen who offer him first dibs third-generation Hawaiian who grew up local ingredients. There is seafood like on their freshest catches of uhu, palani on Maui feasting on fresh-caught palani ahi, kampachi (amberjack), and grilled (surgeonfish), ono (wahoo), mahi-mahi and eggplant, bitter melon, and papaya octopus, as well as ancient "canoe crops" (dorado), ahi (yellowfintuna), opakapaka from his grandmother's garden-crazy. (so named because they were brought to

I • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 MEN'S JOURNAL photographs by BAILEY ROBERTS Hawaii by canoeing Polynesian explor­ Bancaco returned to Maui in 2010. contrast, has partnered with farmers ers more than 1,500 years ago), which Three years later, he was tapped to help to diversify their operations, growing be�ame Hawaiian staples, such as taro, launch the Andaz's fine-dining res­ nearly all the ingredients he needs at breadfruit, and uhi, a purple yam. taurant, Ka'ana Kitchen. Determined the Andaz. Terry Chang, who co-owns I admit to Bancaco I've tried poi, the to showcase Hawaiian ingredients, he Evonuk Farms, supplies the Andaz with traditional Hawaiian paste made from built an extensive network oflocal farm­ herbs, beets, and those luscious, silky taro, on previous visits to Hawaii and ers, ranchers, and fishermen, who now avocados. "His dedication to source local never become a fan. He laughs and asks supply his kitchen. In doing so, he's also produce is a huge benefit to farms like me to try it again, his way. We're chatting transformed the way many of them do ours," Chang says. "It's a win-win for in the events kitchen, a quieter cooking business. For years, Maui farmerstended farmers and chefs." space at the resort, while he deftly slices an to plant a single cash crop-like the famous Bancaco also honors local traditions by avocado in his palm. He covers a crescent Maui onion-for export. Bancaco, by utilizing by-products that would otherwise ofitwith some sweet-onion jam and tops go to waste. He uses macadamia-nut flour it with puffed quinoa and pink Hawaiian from slightly imperfect nuts that would sea salt. Aftertaking a bite-the flavorsare Below: Preparing ahi in the kitchen otherwise get trashed, and he taps whey tangy and caramelly fromthe jam, creamy at Ka'ana Kitchen. Bottom: On the hunt froma local goat-cheese provider to spin from the avocado, with a textured crunch for the freshest stuff possible. into tangy sorbets and rich risottos. "A from the quinoa and salt-I'm convinced great example is how he salts and cures the to try his version of local ingredients that ahi blood line, which just about everyone had previously been on my "no thanks" else throws away, to make a replacement list. The following day at breakfast, I fall for anchovies," says Keli'i Heen, execu­ in love with dense and fluffy poi dough­ tive vice president at Argex Beverage and nuts, taro French toast, and breadfruit former personal chef to Microsoft'sPaul grilled with coconut oil. ''.AuthenticMaui Allen. "It saves money, sure, but it also ingredients make us who we are as native honors the Hawaiian tradition of using people," Bancaco says. "It's a way for me everything possible from the fish." to share what I was brought up on." I'm Bancaco hopes to pass down his pas­ not the only one eating it up: Bancaco was sion forlocal food traditions to the next named Maui Magazine's chef of the year generation of Hawaiian eaters and chefs. in 2014, and Frommer's rated his Ka'ana His restaurant is the highest employer of Kitchen as "exceptional." graduates from Maui's culinary school, and Bancaco grew up in Kula, the lush he volunteers with the Boys & Girls Club, up-country area of Maui at the foot of teaching students how to use ingredients the Haleakala volcano, home to farms like local wild boar and Maui onions. and cattle ranches. A "roly-poly" kid who "Part of what I want to show them is that felt too big to climb the citrus trees in the farm-to-table isn't some trendy idea," backyard, Bancaco found refugein the Bancaco says. "Our ancestors ate from ocean, feelingweightless in the sur£ He within a one-mile radius. It's not a new often went skin diving and spearfishing thing. It's just something we've got to in the early morning with his father and get back to."■ uncles, then spent the afternoon sitting

around the dining room table, shellingpiles of beans from his grandmother's garden. In 1999, after finishinghigh school, he left Hawaii and enrolled in culinary school in Portland, Oregon. That led to jobs at fine-diningrestaurants on both coasts of the mainland, including at Food Network star Ming Tsai's Blue Ginger in Massa­ chusetts and then to fellow Hawaiian Roy Yamaguchi's restaurant in Los Angeles. Working with Yamaguchi-one of the firstHawaiian chefs to marry native island ingredients with French technique-was formative. "Until that point, people thought of Hawaiian food as a can of Spam and a can of pineapple," Bancaco says. "The Hawaii Regional Cuisine movement in the late '90s and early 2000s firstput our cuisine on the map. After my mentorship with Roy, I feltready to be part of its second wave."

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