By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Waipahu Intermediate eighth-graders Lucia Salazar and Aisha Tripodi help chef Sam Choy serve students.

---

Choy gives schoolkids
words to chew on

With good talk and good food,
the restaurateur sets out
to help at-risk students

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

Taking cooking classes was the last thing local boy Sam Choy had in mind when his mom stood patiently in line to enroll him at Kapiolani Community College.

His mother had heard the school was graduating "culinarians." He didn't even know what the word meant.

"What dat? Scientist?" he thought. All he could say after she had signed him up for three classes was, "I'm hungry."

The restaurateur on Monday spoke to two dozen Waipahu Intermediate students about his beginnings, urging them to stay in school, learn from mistakes and set goals.

His nearly 21/2-hour visit kicked off the "Forget Crime; Learn to Cook the Grinds" program in public intermediate and middle schools across the state. It's a partnership with BOC Gaspro, Sam's Club, Honolulu Police Department and the Hawaii Air National Guard.

The program combines Choy's love of cooking and his desire to help youths who need a hand dealing with situations at home or with peers, and may need just a nudge in the right direction. He also encourages students to eat healthy and explore careers in food service.

From baby's first luau, to graduations and anniversaries, nothing brings people together quite like food, Choy said. "I got thinking -- what more natural for me to do food with them and get them involved?"

A visit to the Hawaii Youth Correctional Center recently gave him a real sense of the need for a program such as this in the schools, he said.

When he arrived at the facility, one of the wards asked him, "What, DUI?" assuming Choy was forced into coming only because he had to perform community service. Choy proved them wrong.

He talked story with the kids and had them cooking in no time.

"I really got them loose," Choy said. By the time he left, the boys were crying and singing to him.

"Food has been good to me," he said. "I want to share." And with the Waipahu students, Choy shared some more.

"What your name, cuz?" he asked a boy in the audience, rubbing the boy's shaved head before moving on.

"When I started, I was skinny like him," he said, pointing to another boy.

Later, he autographed photos and copies of his cookbooks, with son Sam Jr. at his side. Father and son spoke with the students who crowded around them, regaling them with tales about catching sharks in Samoa using breadfruit as bait, or hanging out with the Hawaii sumotori in Japan. "They eat vegetable soup, like stew," Choy said.

What sets Choy apart from other celebrities is his heart, said Waipahu Intermediate Principal Gary Takaki. As the parent of an intermediate school student, Choy knows how rough it can be for kids constantly being told what to do by adults.

The biggest problem for youths at this stage of adolescence is their lack of goals, said Kim Yamane, one of the school's teachers who works with at-risk youths. "We can tell them, 'You can be anything you want to be,' but it's not as believable as when someone famous comes in to tell them that."

"It makes you feel good inside that he chose to come, talk to us one-on-one," said eighth-grader Kawika Castilliano. "He's not getting money off of it."

"He's the bomb," said 15-year-old Lucia Salazar, using a term her classmates would reserve for the likes of actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

"I wanna own my own restaurant, too," said Salazar, who helped stir heaping mounds of chopped vegetables, fried tofu and chicken in a sizzling wok.

Choy talked about growing up in Laie, going to school in Kahuku "where a good day was coming home with your shirt on your back," and being told to do things he didn't always feel like doing.

Now, years later, he owns restaurants in Kona, Honolulu and Tokyo, has put out three cookbooks, hosts his own cooking show and has received numerous culinary awards.

Choy's fried poke, ahi steak and seafood laulau is now being served on United Airlines flights. He's cooked for Michael Jackson, the Eagles and the Rolling Stones when they performed here. At 27, he was the youngest chef working for the Hyatt Hotels.

He attributes his climb to "a combination of getting knocked down, dusting yourself off and getting back up again."

Being hired as a cook's helper right out of college -- but spending the next 18 months washing pots and pans -- was so discouraging he thought of quitting. To keep up his knife skills, he chopped up plumerias and whatever he could find in the yard until the neighbor told his mom.

But the words of his football coach at Kahuku kept coming back: "You can do or be anything you want to be in life." So did his dad's "no work, no eat" ethic.

Washing pots and pan was probably the best thing that happened to him, Choy said. He'd hurry so he could watch how the chefs operated. He observed who worked hard, who slacked and who would delegate. When he made chef, he already had ideas of what to do and what not to do.

Mistakes don't hurt, he said, noting he's burned a lot of rice and water in his time. Rebounding is what's important, he said. So is enjoying what you do.

The questions the students asked Choy showed they are wrestling with a lot of issues, said Jim Webb, president of BOC-Gaspro. "Hopefully we'll get kids aware at this age that there are different choices to make."