Chef D.K. Kodama
The hottest chef in Hawaii did not go to a pedigreed culinary school. He did not study under a famous chef. Although he did operate a bulldozer and other heavy equipment at construction sites. And for the first 15 years of his restaurant career, he was a bartender and nightclub manager.
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Del.icio.usThe book is D.K.’s Sushi Chronicles From Hawaii.
He signs copies “Eat it raw!”
AT THE Taste of the Super Bowl — where chefs representing every NFL city prepare a signature dish (Honolulu is in as host of the Pro Bowl) and upwards of 3,000 patrons shell out $600 each to sample the fare — Kodama will be doing “a Dungeness crab ramen in truffle butter broth with fresh herbs. Oh, this is good.”
How he came up with the recipe is instructive of the creative process: “I go home late one night, oh, what is there to eat? My wife loves dried ramen noodles, so get ramen. Look in the freezer, there’s some truffle butter. Go outside and pick some herbs, throw those in, and then whatever’s in refrigerator. So we elevate it here to fresh ramen. Elevate it again to add Dungeness crab. And it’s one of the best dishes we have.
“This is our third Taste of the Super Bowl, and it’s a lot of fun. We donate the food and time — the NFL picks up hotel and air — but it’s a good cause.”
IF THERE is a more tradition-bound food than sushi, our tastebuds have not yet met it.
But that is the medium Kodama used to make a name for himself and launch a mini chain of restaurants, but doing it with very untraditional ingredients and influences.
Such as Mango and Crab Salad Handroll with Thai Vinaigrette, Asparagus Hosomaki or Scallop and Foie Gras Nigiri.
“When I came home, Hawaii Regional Cuisine had just started,” Kodama says.
“Today, so many great chefs around the islands are using the same philosophy as the original Hawaii Regional Cuisine guys — Roy, Alan, Sam, those guys. We try to use our own way of doing it. I don’t know of anybody doing what we do — we’re Japanese-based Pacific Rim. Sushi, tempura. We’re a sushi bar, and that’s what we do. Nobody else does sushi.”
Though he blends different tastes, Kodama says his secret is “mixing (elements), but not too complex. Keep it simple, keep the flavors simple, not having 20 different flavors in one plate. Of course different layers, but things that are matched.
“And I like wow dishes. You go into a restaurant, and a lot of times it’s hit or miss. Sometimes, wow, it’s a great dish. Sometimes it’s, huh, just OK. Or this is bad. Even a good restaurant can be like that. I want all of my dishes to be consistent wow dishes. That’s what we’re trying to do. Using fresh seafood, fresh produce, whatever we can get the best of. That’s the base, get the best products you can.”
Though best known for his sushi, Kodama is quickly earning a reputation for great steaks at D.K. Steak House in Waikiki, which features Oahu’s only “dry-aging” room, in which all fluids are drained from the meat and aged in controlled temperature and humidity.
“We researched it, which was the best part,” he says. “We ate at all the best steak houses here. Then we went to Las Vegas, checked out Prime, Smith & Wollensky, so many there. Then we went to Houston for the Super Bowl last year, there are some great steak houses there — it’s Texas. Then to New York twice last year and we ate at all the great steak houses — Peter Lugar, the No. 1 steak house in America. They do dry-aged beef. It was good, and we thought we could do as well.
“Dry-aging, we discovered, is the best way to get the best flavor and the most tender meat. And all the juices have been dried out, so a 22-ounce steak is 22 ounces of meat. It has a nutty taste, the flavor is amazing. People who come in for the rib-eye, they’re like wow.”
THE REAL wow here is that Kodama has achieved this success — for which cooking at his third Super Bowl is a fitting exclamation point — by taking a path you’d never recommend to a young person with dreams of owning a restaurant.
But he proves, reassuringly, that good food and good taste do not necessarily require a diploma from the chef. A love of good food and the willingness to work hard and never give up on a dream matter just as much.
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