Spice Up Your Next Hawaiʻi Vacation with a Culinary Class
Hawaiʻi hotels and resorts, including Kaimana Beach on Oʻahu, offer cooking and baking classes that are fun for both locals and visitors.
Chef John Taube IV takes a small pillow-shaped piece of pasta dough and, using a butter knife, presses it down at an angle and rolls it. “Essentially, you want that torn sort of look,” he explains. Then he takes the small piece of dough and puts it on his thumb, making a kind of miniature hat with it.
And there you have it: homemade orecchiette pasta.
“You’re doing a wonderful job,” Taube says, walking around the kitchen of the Hau Tree at the Kaimana Beach Hotel in Waikīkī. He’s the restaurant’s culinary director and executive chef, but tonight he’s our pasta-making instructor.
“You guys are hired,” he jokes, as he watches another group of students filling agnolotti sheet pasta with a truffle-packed fonduta that they made earlier. Another group is busy chopping olives, tearing fresh basil leaves and slicing campanelle pasta as it comes out of a commercial extruder.
One guest slices campanelle pasta from an extruder.
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
The hotel started offering pasta-making classes as part of its monthly La Dolce Vita Series, in which guests learn to make three different types of pasta, each from a different region of Italy. Taube and his team then prepare a multicourse, family-style dinner with the pasta that guests enjoy with Italian wine pairings in the hotel’s second-floor private dining space, complete with a panoramic view of the sun setting in Waikīkī.
The response has been so positive, the hotel extended its classes through 2024.
Guests enjoy cocktails—and sunset—at the Kaimana Beach Hotel.
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
The Kaimana Beach Hotel isn’t the only Hawai‘i hotel that offers culinary classes. The Moana Surfrider, a Westin Resort & Spa in Waikīkī hosts the Moana Masters of the Craft interactive cooking classes, followed by lunch. Past classes have highlighted such dishes as seafood paella, classic gumbo and French macarons. And the Four Seasons Resort Hualālai on Hawai‘i Island offers private, hourlong cooking classes for its guests.
Taking culinary classes on vacation has been trending for years. These classes allow travelers to learn—in a hands-on way—about unique ingredients, traditional techniques and cultural connections to food. Plus, the meal you help make may end up being the most memorable one of your vacation.
La Dolce Vita Series: The Art of Pasta, Kaimana Beach Hotel, O‘ahu. Cost is $225 per person, which includes dinner and wine pairings. Visit kaimana.com for more information.
This story was originally published in our Spring 2024 issue. Buy a copy here.
