Cheaper, Better Dining

Molokai Culinary Center News Release

Danish pastries for 24 cents? Cookies four cents each? Dinner for about a buck?  Don Hill and the Molokai Culinary Center can show you how. Hill, a long-time resident of the island and well-known local chef, has just begun a new non-profit cooking school.

The school is aimed at several target groups. The first are homemakers and caregivers, especially those on tight budgets, food stamps and WIC. The school will teach them how to get the most nutrition for their money, including how to shop.

Students can also learn from the school.  Young children can learn about nutrition, especially the vital role played by fruits and vegetables.  Older students will learn to cook, and even to earn a living from this skill.

Another target audience is new graduates who are “between jobs.”  For those not able or willing to go to college, the school will teach students the job skills, vocabulary and technique they require to be useful in a commercial kitchen.  Some of these may move on to culinary school and become chefs.

Visitors to Molokai can also benefit from the cooking school.  The school plans to showcase local ingredients, planning, teaching and serving complete menus from our own island.  One of Hill’s long term dreams is to create and co-ordinate a “Holoholo Dinner,” an all day event which begins by visiting food producers, then moves to the kitchen, and finally finishes with a sit-down dinner of local food.

The Molokai Culinary Center is established as a non-profit business, though has not yet obtained 501 (c)3 status. Cooking lessons are offered free of charge, but donations toward food costs or donated food such as venison, produce or fish is appreciated.

Hill and the Center are convinced that both good nutrition and pleasant dining will contribute to not only a better and longer life, but a happy family.  They are prepared to work with any other island agency which shares this value.  For further information contact Don at 553-5804, uncldon@aloha.net, or catch him at Friendly Market, where he gives quick cooking lessons in the grocery aisles.