A Must-see Film For Hawaii Foodies
If you’ve given any thought at all to the issue of sustainability and to how terrifyingly dependant we are on imported food, Bob Bates’ beautifully directed documentary Ingredients Hawaii is something you must see.
The film premiered two weeks ago in front of an audience of movers and shakers in the “new” food movement, including chefs, bartenders, baristas, line cooks, busboys, agricultural students, foodies, bloggers, craft brewers … and even a farmer or two.
Ingredients Hawaii lets the people active in our sustainable food movement speak for themselves.
We see Dave Caldiero (town) at work with children at Waikiki Elementary School, gardening and creating a worm project that ends up benefitting both the school and his restaurant. As enthused as the children he mentors, Caldiero’s passion for food and for the soil is inspiring.
We see sustainability questions answered easily by Alan Joaquin owner of FarmRoof as he demonstrates his rooftop gardening success in Honolulu and Waimanalo.
At Sweet Home Waimanalo, Kevin Vaccarello shares that his restaurant rooftop garden yields hundreds of pounds more than even he thought possible, giving his locally grown mesclun mix the smallest eco print in the Islands.
Ingredients Hawaii also takes us to Mahuahua Ai o Hoi, to taro patches tended by volunteers, to He’eia Pier, where Mark Noguchi and his team have created a renaissance of local food and rediscovered a community gathering place, and to the world of Aloha Harvest, where food that would be discarded by restaurants and stores is collected and delivered daily to hungry families around the island.
Home gardeners encouraged by Foodscapes Hawaii yield enough to feed families from their own backyards, and throughout this inspiring documentary, people describe the joy of growing and eating fresh food.
