A Conversation with Keoni Chang - From Fine Dining to Foodland
Gail Jennings
July 2005

When Keoni Chang set out to build a career as a culinary professional, the thought of being a corporate chef, responsible for formulating and executing a marketing strategy for a supermarket chain designed to change the way people in Hawaii think about food and shop, never entered his mind. In his own words, "I wanted to rewrite culinary history, and that history really meant upscale restaurants." It could be argued that what he is doing now will have far more impact on a larger group of people than he could have ever had cooking for the very small percentage of diners who willingly drop several hundred dollars for a single meal. As Keoni said, "...now maybe history means bringing the same quality levels from a restaurant or hotel to the supermarket." (Photo L-R: Gemma Quillopo, Deli Clerk; Dian Tauanuu, Deli Manager; Jeremy Moniz, Cook; Keoni Chang, Corporate Chef; Jason Ito, Sous Chef)

Born and raised on Oahu, Keoni completed the culinary program at KCC then went on to earn a four-year degree from the Culinary Institute of America. From there he was accepted into the apprentice program at the Greenbrier in North Carolina, which counts many well-known chefs from Hawaii among its graduates, including Alan Wong and Elmer Guzman.

The Greenbrier is one of the oldest culinary apprenticeship programs in the nation and it requires physical stamina, a tolerance for oftentimes brutal working conditions and a real commitment to excellence. Of the 20 students who started with Keoni, only seven finished. Keoni relates the realities of working the line at the Greenbrier with French Tops behind you running full blast and steam tables in front of you. You must drink water by the gallon, and losing ten pounds on a shift is not unheard of. The less hardy who pass out from the heat are unceremoniously dragged out of the way or simply stepped over as a shift, which typically feeds in excess of 1200 people, runs its course. The line is just one aspect of a program which produces cooks who are well-qualified to do anything they desire in the culinary world. Keoni believes that the lessons in food and service he learned there are invaluable and an integral part of who he is today.

Keoni left the Greenbrier after nearly four years and worked briefly in West Virginia before accepting a job at the Eiffel Tower in the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. The Eiffel Tower is the Las Vegas outpost of renowned chef, Jean Joho. Keoni describes him as "very traditional" in his approach to food and the business of running restaurants. While Eiffel Tower started out as a classic French fine-dining restaurant, it didn't quite catch with the Las Vegas crowd. Keoni joined the restaurant as sous chef after it had been open just a few months and during his three years there, it evolved into a fine-dining restaurant featuring updated French dishes but also lots of steak and seafood. The restaurant earned Four Diamonds from AAA during his tenure there.

An offer from the Restaurants Unlimited Group (owners of Kincaid's, Palomino and Ryan's Grill among others) brought him back to Hawaii, though he didn't stay with the company for very long. He said cooking to corporate specifications was the antithesis of everything he believed in as a chef and was ultimately boring. At loose ends and looking for his next gig, he noticed Foodland's ad for a corporate chef and responded.

A dozen years ago, you never saw corporate chefs at supermarkets. The demands of the modern consumer and the highly competitive nature of the food business have changed that, and Foodland's Chairman and CEO, Jenai Sullivan Wall, was looking for innovative ways to attract new customers while better meeting the needs of existing ones. Though Keoni never expected to be a corporate chef, he says that part of his motivation in taking the job was his own dissatisfaction with never being able to find anything at the supermarket he wanted to cook. He says he was spoiled, coming from restaurants where the finest ingredients were at his disposal every day. He felt if he could help bring better-tasting and higher quality products into one place so customers wouldn't have to run all over town looking for ingredients, and sometimes never finding them, it would be a real service.

Jenai says that Keoni made the transition to corporate chef without missing a beat, "The environment, equipment, people...are very different...but he's been willing to adapt. He's a team player who willingly shares his knowledge with others and wants to help them succeed." Other qualities she mentioned that have really helped him to succeed are his ability to work well with people, his eagerness to learn and his flexibility. Most of all, she says, "We are lucky to have him!"

When Keoni talks about the philosophy driving the changes at Foodland, he speaks passionately about the desire to expose people to better food and broaden the palate of consumers to a whole host of new tastes. The deli in the Foodland on Beretania is like a test kitchen, if you will, for some of these new tastes. The day we were there the case was filled with a variety of delicious looking dishes ranging from a classic Best Foods Macaroni Salad to Grilled Polenta Cakes with Fresh Herbs & Goat Cheese, as well as Grilled Salmon with Sweet Chile Lime Glaze and a bowl full of gorgeous Green Beans Amandine. If you stop by the Beretania Foodland, you can visit the deli and ask for taste samples of any of the dishes. In fact, Keoni encourages people to come in and try something new.

As we walked the store, Keoni was incredibly enthusiastic. In the produce department he ran to the back and brought out samples of organic bananas and oranges to sample (they were indeed delicious with a wonderful taste and texture). In the meat department, he proudly described the superior quality of Harris Ranch beef and made sure to mention the all-natural-free-range lamb as well. His enthusiasm extended beyond food as he pointed out new skin care products and he explained that the plan is to introduce natural and organic items into every segment of the store.

The things Keoni loves about his job include the opportunity to travel, looking for new products (a recent trip was to farmers' markets in California seeking organic produce), writing a column each month for the Foodland Newsletter "Maika'i Rewards" and developing new dishes for the deli. A typical day in-store is 10 to 11 hours, doing everything from training line clerks in the deli to evaluating how the wine is presented. He is excited about the recent hire of Rick Ching (formerly at the Halekulani) as pastry chef. Rick will develop a line of pastries and breads to serve at the new The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf shops Foodland will open soon.

At the heart of the job is Keoni's own passion for it. I asked him if he misses the high energy, high octane environment of a top restaurant and he said, "Not really. What I'm doing now reaches a much larger audience. The typical consumer here in Hawaii is growing their food knowledge from TV, magazines and restaurants. Addressing those growing desires for quality products and fulfilling those needs is really satisfying."

Q&A with Keoni

Coffee or tea?
"Tea"

Cooking or eating?
"That's a really tough one! Okay, eating if I'm not cooking and cooking if I'm not eating."

Do you cook at home?
"Not much, but if we do it is usually something really simple like grilled steak and properly cooked vegetables."

Do you eat SPAM?
"Once in a while."

Where do you like to go out to eat?
"We usually only go out for Chinese food. Liliha Seafood and Mei Sum Dim Sum are regular stops."

What restaurants are doing it right here in Honolulu?
"12th Avenue Grill, town and I also really like Bac Nam."