Wine, 4-course dinner priced at $70

The d.k. Steak House Winemaker's Dinner Series starts up again June 22 with a perennial favorite in Fred Scherrer of Scherrer Winery.

Patrons will have an opportunity to meet Scherrer and will be served a four-course dinner by chefs Jason Miyasaki of d.k.'s, Roderick Dizor of Sansei Waikiki and Keith Endo of Vino. Three 2-ounce wine pairings also will be served.

Price is $70 per person and seating begins at 5:30 p.m. Reservations are recommended.

The restaurant is in the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, 2552 Kalakaua Ave. Call 931-6280 or visit www.dksteakhouse.com.

Koloa Rum tops 100 others for prize

Koloa Rum Co. of Kauai won a gold medal in the dark rum category at the Rum Renaissance Festival in Miami last month.

Koloa's Kaua'i Dark Rum bested some 100 rums from around the world.

A panel of international rum experts gathered over two days to conduct blind tastings in eight categories.

“;Having Koloa Rum Company win a Gold Medal in their first year of participation at the Rum Renaissance Festival is a tremendous recognition of their efforts and their people,”; said Paul Artrip, host of the American Artisan Rums booth, which included Koloa.

Visit www.koloarum.com.

Retirement house cook wins award

Holiday Retirement Hawaii Kai's executive chef, Darrell Aoki, was named “;Holiday Chef of the Year”; at the 2010 Annual Food Service Culinary Conclave.

The weeklong convention in April at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., featured 25 of 315 Holiday Retirement chefs.

Aoki oversees the day-to-day operations of the kitchen and directs food preparation. He joined Holiday Retirement in 2001 from Zippy's, where he was a cook, eventually working his way up to executive sous chef. In June 2008, Aoki was promoted to executive chef.

Cooking event benefits 3 students

The Sub-Zero and Wolf Student Cooking Demonstration and Tasting Event raised a total of $2,310 from ticket sales to benefit student finalists in the 2009 Tom & Warren Matsuda Scholarship Culinary Competition.

All of the proceeds were distributed to finalists Meng-Ling Erik Kuo, Tate Nakano-Edwards and Rena Suzuki to help further their education and culinary careers.

Guests at last month's event were treated to an appetizer by Kuo, salad by Nakano-Edwards and entree by Suzuki. Each student prepared the dishes in a cooking demonstration during each of three seatings.