Mealani's Taste of the Hawaiian Range
Boasts 16 Years Headlining Hawai'i Agriculture
Kahilu Town Hall in Waimea was the location of the inaugural Mealani's Taste
of the Hawaiian Range. The evening Taste began in 1996 as a humble companion
to UH's Cooperative Extension Service's Mealani Forage Field Day. The daytime
event offered tours and educational seminars for ranchers and food producers.
"Initial tickets sales were so slow, we feared we'd have to pay for the event out of our own pockets," recalls Milton Yamasaki, event founder and former Mealani Research Station manager. He says Chef Olelo Pa'a Faith Ogawa organized the first Taste, inviting local chefs to prepare dishes featuring local, grass-finished beef and other forage-finished meats.
Value of Grass-Fed Beef
"The benefit of starting Mealani's Taste of the Hawaiian Range was it
encouraged local 
chefs to get better acquainted with grass-finished beef,"
remembers Chef Ogawa, who spearheaded the event for five years. "Then when
the public tasted the wonderful results and the ranchers heard all the happy
comments, it encouraged them to finish their steers here at home. It had value,
and continues to have value, for so many reasons."
Agricultural Showcase Grows
First year organizers hoped for 300 attendees, but the crowd swelled to 500. Attendance grew every year so Taste continued moving to larger venues—Kuhio Hale Hawaiian Homes Hall, HPA's cafeteria and the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel—before settling today at the Hilton Waikoloa Village where it fills the Grand Ballroom and the sprawling Lagoon Lanai. Annual attendance continues to easily top 1,000.
In addition to having different venues, Taste has inspired numerous related activities on event day—all focus on showcasing Hawai'i's agriculture. They include a Ranchers Cook-off, Grass-Finished Beef 101 cooking demos and tasting seminars.
An Agricultural Festival trade show was implemented in 2008 to hook-up local Big Isle ranchers, farmers and food purveyors with wholesalers and the food service industry. Trade show vendors, with their gaily decorated booths, are invited to stay for the public Taste so attendees get the opportunity to talk story with the people who are producing their food.
Grass-Fed Efforts Gain Momentum
All the ag fun has gotten Mealani's Taste of the Hawaiian Range noticed. Starting in 1999, it was featured on statewide TV shows, such as "Emme's Island Moments," and Pamela Young's "Mixed Plate."
Most years, Mealani's Research Station also continued offering on-site Forage
Field Days in conjunction with Taste. Featured speakers included best-selling
authors and sustainability proponents Jo Robinson and Alan Nation; top New
York chef Gaspar Tatarian, who gave Hawai'i top marks for its grass-fed beef;
and Jim Gerrish, grazing researcher, author and rancher who founded www.americangrazinglands.com/.
After the founding of Mealani's Taste of the Hawaiian Range and Forage Field Day, a similar event was started in the Southeast: Grazefest Alabama. Also, year-round grazing system research was initiated in the Appalachian Mountains. "These events followed after we initiated our program and we also noticed a growing national demand for the product taking," recalls Yamasaki.
Variety of Meats Challenge Chefs
The Taste menu varies each year, along with the chefs and their culinary creations. Chefs are paired with different cuts of grass-finished meats so they can be challenged with preparing meat in innovative ways. "Using new meat cuts is part of the fun," adds Chef Ogawa.
Since its inception, Taste has offered forage-fed elk, venison, chicken, bison, mutton, lamb, goat, beef, veal—plus recently debuted USDA-inspected wild boar. "We've also supported our local aquaculturists by serving crayfish, abalone and kampachi," notes Yamasaki.
While different meats offer menu variety, the innovative ways to use meat cuts, or all the parts of the animal, give Taste a festive atmosphere. The chef station annually serving Kohala Mountain Oysters, a nickname for local bull's testicles, is always a Taste curiosity and favorite.
"The primary reason to assign cuts is for chefs to show that all the parts of the animal can be used. This is important for our livestock industry," emphasizes Yamasaki. "With more to use, there's no waste and the value of the animal goes up."
Local Hawai'i Agriculture Products
Other agricultural stars of the show include fresh fruit and vegetables—plus local value added products: honey, vanilla, chocolate, herbs, salt, coffee, tea, ice cream, taro chips, jams, jellies, etc. Local horticulturists supply Taste with fresh flowers and plants to adorn the ballroom.
"While Taste continues its educational purpose of sharing the many benefits of grass-fed beef, it has broadened its scope to support our many other local ag products," details Yamasaki.
Summing up the evolution of Taste over 16 years, he concluded, "While Taste has grown, I also see a movement that more animals are staying here at home to be grass-fed, rather than shipped to the Mainland for finishing. I finally think we are moving in that direction...and now we have more work to do to refine our product and address issues involving growth of the industry."
