|
TheBuzz
Erika Engle
|
Celebrity chefs to share a venture and a kitchen
DONATO Loperfido and Philippe Padovani are scouting locations for a new restaurant and wine bar. Two chefs, one kitchen? What about the too-many-cooks thing?
They will alternate days and nights of lunch and dinner service, making hot and cold small-plate dishes of each others' creation, pairing each with a choice of two wines, according to partner Keith Kiuchi -- attorney by day, foodie by night.
The restaurant will also have retail cases for Donato's imported meats and cheeses as well as the chocolates Padovani makes with his brother Pierre -- and a new coffee line he is crafting.
So, will the restaurant be Italian, as were Donato's previous restaurants, or French, as was Padovani's?
"Mediterranean," Kiuchi said.
Two chefs, two cuisines, two chocolatier brothers, Donato's twin daughters, "there's a lot of twos there," Kiuchi said.
The restaurant will be called Elua, which means "two," in Hawaiian.
Padovani, one of the 12 founders of Hawaii Regional Cuisine Inc., closed his upscale Padovani's Restaurant last January after opening eight years earlier to rave reviews and lofty accolades from Gourmet and Wine Spectator magazines, to name two.
Padovani's was in a value-oriented hotel -- a lethal spot for fine dining. The restaurant company filed for bankruptcy in February 2005.
A year ago, he opened Chocolates by Padovani on Bishop Street.
Loperfido, meanwhile, closed Donato's Restaurant in Manoa Marketplace last Valentine's Day after declining to renew the lease.
He has since established an import business, Flavors of Italy LLC, which is up and running on Koapaka Street.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4747, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at:
eengle@starbulletin.com