Hot Chef at the village
Chef Jeffrey Vigilla traveled the world learning different cooking styles, but now he’s back home and in charge of more than a dozen restaurants at Hilton Hawaiian Village. Getting some extra attention is the new Waikiki Starlight Luau, which boasts a food spread unlike any seen here. With him, Shylenn Hall (left) and Pi‘ilani Klein
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The new rooftop luau at hilton hawaiian village Is sumptuous like no other Chef Jeffrey Vigilla’s love of cooking has taken him from his family’s farm in Hilo to places such as South Korea, Indonesia, Mexico and France. Almost 20 years after he left the Islands to expand on his knowledge about cuisine and the kitchen, Chef Vigilla finds himself back home, this time as executive chef at Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort & Spa.
Vigilla, who spent the last 30 years in the kitchen, has slowly but surely climbed his way up the food pyramid. And he did it the old-fashioned way - hard work, a positive attitude and a dream.
He didn’t attend some fancy cooking school in Paris, nor was he discovered on some foodie reality show. It wasn’t that exciting and, as Vigilla says, “it doesn’t work that way.”
It was his determination and work ethic that earned Vigilla the opportunity to return home as the culinary head of the 22-acre oceanfront resort that’s home to more than a dozen restaurants.
“When you take a look at the time I spent in the kitchen, during my formative years it was a different way of looking at work,” says Vigilla. “Now there’s the Food Network and the magazines, and it’s exploded. Now a lot of people want to take the short cut and go to school for six months and expect to be that superstar chef. Again, it doesn’t work that way.”
Growing up and moving his way through various kitchen tasks, Vigilla says, began with a drive. And it was his adolescent years growing up in a large household working on a farm that were the basis of what he would later realize would be two of his philosophies on food - embrace comfort food and support the community by buying local.
“Comfort food, for me, is something that you grew up with - my dad was pure Filipino, so my comfort food is me cooking an adobo at home or even a simple thing called pinacbet,” says Vigilla, who is has five siblings. “Those are the types of food I grew up with, but I also grew up with poke, poi, rice and a good laulau. And in Hilo growing up, there was a lot of Chinese and Japanese food always accessible, so in general Island local food is my comfort food and I tend to gravitate to that most of the time.”
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Tack on two decades of traveling throughout the world, and Vigilla has stacked up quite an extensive knowledge of food, which he says is key in a resort setting. With visitors from around the world dining at the Hilton, Vigilla says its important to offer a global cuisine.
“Being a hotel and resort chef, your cooking ability has to be more global because you need to understand different serving styles, delivery processes and cooking styles versus an independent restaurant,” says Vigilla. “Here I have daily kitchen lineup, and one of the things I speak of is continuous improvement and improving yourself on a daily basis. It can be cooking, setting up of a station or communication with teammates, or even greeting the guests. The only reason myself or my staff is working here is because of the guests. So service is important, and if we can deliver that, then we’ve done half the job.”
And since signing on at the Hilton he’s also made it one of his priorities to expand the resort’s reach into the farms and communities throughout the state. It’s a commitment he says he’s always been passionate about, and he’s confident that with the right planning it can expand.
“I am trying to make the Hilton as locally sustainable as possible,” says Vigilla. “Right now, a higher percentage of our greens are local, but more and more I’m continuing to build my local purchases. So I’ll be meeting with local bakeries to check out their bread products. I also spend time at the fish auctions. I’ll also be flying to the Big Island and going to the aquatic farms and looking to see what products we can fit into our restaurants and needs here.”
Both these ideas were merged recently with another of Vigilla’s food philosophies: presenting restaurant quality food in the banquet setting at the Hilton’s brand-new Waikiki Starlight Luau.
The outdoor show separates itself from the usual luau experience by offering guests a rooftop view of Waikiki, three hours of entertainment, including an unprecedented four-man fireknife dance, and a feast of traditional and modern delicacies. The luau show, which is provided nightly by Tihati Productions, is a voyage across the South Seas with performance numbers from Tonga, French Polynesia, New Zealand, Samoa and Hawaii. (The luau happens Sunday through Thursday, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Kamaaina prices are available. For more information, call 941-LUAU.)
“We wanted to share with everyone the magnificent views of the Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon
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