Hawaii Caterer Gains World Exposure
Local Catering Business Contracted for APEC Dinner Functions
November 11, 2011
The international attention Hawaii is getting with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit creates a great opportunity for local businesses to showcase their products or services.
One local catering company, located at Aloha Tower Marketplace, is doing just that through food.
Hawaii's culinary industry is all about highlighting the freshest local ingredients. And to prepare gourmet meals with food from all over the islands for top dignitaries is a big deal for the industry.
“For the cooks, for the farmers, for the growers, it's huge. I mean, these guys have been working their whole lives, and to have their heart and soul being put on a platter for the world to literally taste and see is probably pretty rewarding,” said Peter Foster, chef and owner of Memoirs.
Foster said he's humbled to have the opportunity to serve at least two private dinners for U.S. and foreign leaders in town for APEC.
His team has been preparing for this week over the past few months and will be serving up to 100 guests, somewhere between Waikiki and Kahala. Read more at kitv.com...
Local Businesses Showcase Their Products During APEC
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Kiss the Chef: Haute 5 Chef's Tables in Hawaii
For the ultimate chefs table experience, make your ocassion a private affair with haute local personal chef, Peter Foster. Memoirs Hawaii offers an unforgettable experience whether it be at a beachfront home, garden setting, chartered yacht, or commercial location. Chef Foster can work his magic anywhere you choose offering custom menu options to fulfill all of your culinary fantasies. Read more at Haute Living...
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Memoirs
Sample the services of private chef Peter Foster
December-January 2008 • By: Alice Keesing
Link To Article
It’s still early at the Commercial Fishing Village at Pier 38, but Honolulu’s top private chef Peter Foster is fueled up on caffeine and picking up his catch of the day at Fresh Island Fish. The top-quality onaga and hamachi are bound for a private dinner party at a swanky Black Point address that same night. It’s the first stop in Foster’s day, as he personally tracks down the freshest ingredients for the five-course meal. Next stop is Chinatown where he searches out rich yellow wonton and crisp, fragrant produce. Then it’s on to his client’s home where the 24-year-old preps the meal that will be served to six people in the ocean-front dining room, complete with wine pairings, waiter service and Bernardaud dinnerware.
Oh, the luxury. Since Foster became a private chef two years ago, Honolulu’s upper crust has been soaking it up. His company, Memoirs, has served up exclusive memories for its clients on boats and beaches, remotes hillsides, lawns and lanais. His clients have flown him to Bangkok, New York and Colorado - just to cook for them. And he’s already booked into next year’s holiday season.
From washing dishes in California at the tender age of 15, his path took him through the Culinary Institute of America and on to top restaurants in Germany, New York and San Francisco. But it was those fish that lured Foster to Hawaii, where under the mentorship of local notables Alan Wong and George Mavrothalassitis, his classical training evolved to embrace the elegant simplicity of island-fresh ingredients.
“I don’t like to overpower the flavor of the fish or the feeling of freshness,” he says. “Just let the fish shine.”
When creating new dishes, Foster finds his epiphanies while jumping off the rocks to go surfing, or sometimes while he’s sitting in Honolulu’s bottleneck traffic. He’s built relationships with local suppliers and is constantly looking to expand his palette of ingredients.
“I’d like to bring the seasons to Hawaii,” he says. “This holiday season I plan on spending a lot of money with Fed Ex, shipping out things that are seasonal on the Mainland that we can’t get here like apples, mushrooms, squash, pumpkins - everything that reminds you of the fall season.”
For Chef Foster, the job is all about the intimate connections that food can forge. He strives to keep his bookings smaller in size - too big and it gets too much like catering, he says with a grimace. His company is called Memoirs because he aims to create an occasion that writes itself on all of his clients’ five senses.
“Your menu is like your memoir, it’s the way the food tastes, your sight, the way you felt, the table conversation - I’ve seen good food turn people who probably hadn’t spoken to each other for years into lovers again,” he says, and starts laughing, “Then they kick me out of the house so fast.”
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Watch Chef Peter: Fish Preparation and Cleaning
Peter Foster Memoirs: Fish preparation and cleaning from Timothy Lewis on Vimeo.
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