STAR-BULLETIN / 1975 HECO home economists Esther Wetzel, left, Pat Rea and Julia Cabatu prepare for a cooking demonstration in 1975.

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HECO cookbook
travels through past

With the advent of the electric range, home economists at Hawaiian Electric Co. began providing advice on how best to apply heat to raw food.

'A Taste to Remember' Buy the book: At HECO's Customer Service Store, King Street and Ward Avenue Mail orders: Make checks to HECO, care of Corporate Communications, 900 Richards St., Honolulu 96813 Cost: $10, to benefit Aloha United Way (for mail orders, add $3 postage) Call: 543-5670 Also: HECO's 1991 cookbook, "100 years of Island Cooking," is $5 at the Customer Service Store

In the 1920s, lessons were a simple affair at the company's downtown showroom. They progressed into cooking classes at the Kaiser Dome (the original name of the Hilton Hawaiian Village Dome) and finally into "The Electric Kitchen," a televised cooking show that now airs at 4:30 p.m. Sundays on KITV (the Star-Bulletin prints recipes from the weekly broadcast).

Through all these decades, HECO has been collecting and testing recipes -- 5,000 are currently in its data base. So what's the obvious result? A cookbook.

"A Taste to Remember: Tropical Flavors from Hawaiian Electric Company," has just been released with 100 recipes tested over the years. Nearly 1,000 copies have already been sold, with proceeds benefiting the Aloha United Way.

Pat Rea, a retired HECO home economist who edited the recipes, says they cover the evolution of her department's role in consumer education. "Basically, the department started with a bunch of home economists who were trying to promote electrical appliances." This was when HECO actually sold appliances.

As time passed, the emphasis was on how to make use of your brand-spankin' new deep freeze (lots of recipes for frozen desserts), followed by roasters, waffle makers, toaster ovens and microwaves.

When Rea signed on in 1969, more than a dozen home economists were prowling the island, visiting schools, teaching electrical safety in scouting programs, making in-home visits to teach customers to use all those buttons on their new ranges, rotisseries, washers, dryers, dishwashers and trash compactors.

The job also included recipe development -- at that time the emphasis was on ethnic dishes and recipes for local fruits, she recalls.

They'd teach classes and publish recipe booklets. From these sources come "A Taste to Remember."

The cookbook has a definite retro/kamaaina feel, with some recipes dating back to the 1950s. Consider some of the titles: Broiled Hukilau, Polynesian Baked Chicken, Tropical Ambrosia ...

Rea said recipes from the "Electric Kitchen" era were purposely left out, as that show, launched in 1995, involves dishes created by guest chefs, not HECO.

The days of the HECO home economist are over, with Rea being among the last to retire. The old Home Service division is now Education and Consumer Affairs, more concerned with energy efficiency and safety.

Recipe development is no more.

Rea says this recipe was among the most popular from the days of the HECO cooking classes. It makes use of packaged cake and pudding mixes in combination with crushed pineapple and coconut milk.

Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes; remove from pan and finish cooling on rack.

Beat cream cheese with coconut milk and pudding; spread over cooled cake.

Spoon pineapple over pudding mixture, then cover with whipped topping. Sprinkle with coconut. Chill. Serves 20.