Chef Lance Nitahara’s Hawaiian Roots & CIA Flare with Pooch Rivera

Join us for an illuminating conversation with the extraordinary Chef Lance Nitahara as he takes us on a personal culinary journey from the tropical shores of Oahu to the esteemed Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and beyond. Discover how Chef Lance masterfully marries his Hawaiian heritage with classical culinary traditions, transforming these influences into an innovative approach that has earned him global acclaim. In this episode, we also welcome Pooch Rivera, who spices up the dialogue with creative dishes like an Asian-inspired Reuben and lamb fajitas, crafted using versatile Aussie Select products.

Chef Lance shares the thrill and pressure of competing in high-stakes culinary events, drawing deeply from his Hawaiian roots to showcase unique flavors despite logistical challenges such as sourcing authentic ingredients. Amid the cultural shifts he experienced moving from Hawaii to the CIA, Chef Lance discusses not only the culinary adjustments but also the strategic mindset required to excel in competitions. His approach to coaching emphasizes rigorous practice, a philosophy that has empowered many of his students, including the promising Sechan Park from South Korea.

As we navigate the intricate world of culinary education, Chef Lance provides valuable insights into the

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Chapters

• 0:47 Chef Lance Nidahara's Culinary Journey
• 7:10 Overcoming Competition and Cultural Differences
• 12:47 Mastering Culinary Competition and Tradition
• 17:54 Culinary Education and Career Paths

Transcript

Carl Fiadini: 0:47

Hello food fam. This is the Walk-In Talk Podcast where you will find the perfect blend of food fun and cooking knowledge. I'm Carl Fiadini your host,. Welcome to the number one food podcast in the country. We're recording on site at Ibis Images Studios, where food photography comes alive and I get to eat it. Chefs and food buyers. Try Aussie Select's fully cooked, pasture-raised Australian lamb. Enjoy flavors like agave, rosemary, tikka masala and more, available sliced or whole. Discover more at aussieselectcom.

Carl Fiadini: 1:16

This week we have the talented chef Lance Nitahara joining us and, trust me, you won't want to miss this. He hails from the stunning shores of Oahu, hawaii. Chef Lance has a culinary journey that spans across the globe. He's taken his roots from the islands, blending them with rich culinary traditions learned at the Culinary Institute of America. That's the CIA baby. It's fascinating how he navigates the world of flavors and today he's here to share that experience with us.

Carl Fiadini: 1:47

But that's not all. But wait, there's more. Chef Lance isn't just an incredible chef. He's also an educator, shaping the next generation of culinary talent. He's been recognized for his outstanding contributions to culinary competitions, coaching students to national victories With his unique perspective as an instructor and competitor. He'll well, we're going to dive deep into that, and what that means is he's going to bring the Big Island flavors to a global audience. That's basically what it means. I tell you what today, in-house, we have the Pooch Rivera, hello, hello. Yes, my man, how you know like it's. I mean, this was whirlwind, you know, came in late last night, as it always is.

Pooch Rivera: 2:31

Yeah, You're here While the French Quarter burns as we speak. Guys, there's a big fire in the French Quarter, so shout out to everybody in New Orleans and that whole culinary scene down there. It's kind of crazy. Yeah Well so, everybody, if you don't know Chef Pooch, he's from Louisiana, from New Orleans, and yeah, you just got word over there on the the Royal Sinesta Hotel, which is right across the street from Restaurant Revolution. Yeah, it's just kind of crazy.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 2:55

That's a big property, that's a big deal.

Pooch Rivera: 2:57

With the Super Bowl and such coming, so it's kind of crazy.

Carl Fiadini: 3:01

All right. So today you made some really, really pretty dishes. Let's talk about it Go.

Pooch Rivera: 3:06

Well, we use Aussie Select, which is a proud sponsor of ours, and I was always wondering how I could do something with Aussie Select, being that you know it is a cured meat. So we decided we were going to do play on a Reuben we did kind of an Asian flair Reuben in honor of Chef Lance coming on the show and so we did a little ginger marinade, inix law and carrots. We se a little ginger marinade in ixlaw and carrots. We seared off the the lamb which was it was a prime rib, it's lamb prime rib which was kind of unique to use. Never really thought of using that as a prime rib, but it was really cool seared that off with, obviously with the help of john, we plated that up and made it look beautiful I can't do anything without john these days, guys. That's the truth and it was delicious. So we did that.

Pooch Rivera: 3:45

And then we transitioned into fajitas. So so we know we've been saying we need to do fajitas so many times and we never really figure out how to do it and I was like let's use the Aussie Select and let's use the prime rib to see how that worked out beautifully. You know, I was a little worried that we wouldn't get a lot of that flavor, of the Mexican flavor, in there and it really transitioned in well. It tasted so good with all the roasted vegetables, all the above. But Aussie Select, guys, is something that any it's your chef's best friend, you know it cuts out a lot of corners and a lot of you know back in the day you wouldn't want to buy something that was already pre-cooked or pre-made. These they're made for chefs, so it's out there. It's the best product you can buy and reasonably priced $12 to $15 a.

Carl Fiadini: 4:23

that would have stayed, guys I know that jack jacklin's gonna be super, super happy. All right, without further ado. I mean. By the way, listen, beautiful, beautiful stuff you made today tastes good too. Johnny, you gotta give all the credit to the food stylist. Johnny, I mean seriously, come on all right, without further ado. Chef lance, how are you?

Chef Lance Nitahara: 4:44

sir, I'm doing. Great thanks for having me on.

Carl Fiadini: 4:47

I am so excited about meeting you in person the US Culinary Open in February over at the NAFM show in Atlanta. Me too, I want to start with your prodigy, because we had a phone call the other day, a fairly long call, about an hour, and you were really hyped up on this kid. Talk about him.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 5:07

His name is Sechan Park. He hails from South Korea. He's a student at the CIA, where I teach, and he was never my student. However, he was my competitor that I coached for this past year's SkillsUSA competition that was held also in Atlanta and the same convention center we're doing the US Culinary Open at. I mean, this kid is amazing. The reason why I chose him to be my assistant was his mindset is just so focused and driven when it comes to culinary competition. He's a machine. He really is. He's got a lot of experience already. He represented South Korea in WorldSkills the WorldSkills competition, international competition beautiful food coming from this kid. He you know, I say kid, he's 19 years old and he is just amazing. When we work, when we work together and we practice together, he's he's literally cooking circles around me. I am the privileged one to have him at my side.

Carl Fiadini: 6:09

That kind of leads into this competition. You're up against some heavy hitters, beard Chefs and Michelin Chefs and Food Network winners and whatnot. How does having the right sous chef, in this case your assistant how does that fare for you with your nerves going into this competition?

Chef Lance Nitahara: 6:30

I've been thinking about that for a while. With Seitan, having him as my assistant for me, I can sleep better at night because I know that I have, you know, one of the best young people out there young chefs out to help me with this. It's kind of like when I was in culinary school, I was actually the assistant for the certified master chef exam. I feel like, you know, I gave it the best go that I could give, although I was not nearly as talented as Sechan is, but I feel better having him on my side During practice. He's saved our food more times than I have. My confidence level has increased by, you know, 20 fold having him as my, as my assistant.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 7:10

But looking at the competition I know, on on the, on the website we can, we can see who our competitors are and I kind of, you know, sort of looked into their backgrounds and looked at them. It would make anyone nervous, obviously, because there's a. You know there are people that I'm competing against that you know I I could only dream to have the kind of experiences that they've had, the kind of chops that they have. So for me, the more I look at it, the more I guess nervous I could get and the more uneasy I could get and the more you know pressure that builds upon me. So I've decided to go the other route and just not really worry about that at all, if that makes any sense.

Carl Fiadini: 7:55

It makes a lot of sense and I know that because of your culinary background from where you're from in Hawaii, that's probably going to find its way into what you're doing there. Are you able to talk about that a little bit?

Chef Lance Nitahara: 8:10

The theme of my menu really is the flavors of my childhood, or at least the flavors of Hawaii, sort of encapsulated into three modern takes on, not necessarily singular Hawaiian dishes, but preparations, Hawaiian preparations utilizing some Hawaiian ingredients that we've, we're going to be able to procure and bring to the competition ourselves, but also techniques.

Carl Fiadini: 8:39

So when I do taste these flavors it does bring me back to my, to the flavors that I remember in my childhood for the record, uh, listeners who have not been to hawaii yet in their lives when you get off the plane there and chef, we talked about this the other day once you, when you get off the plane, the first thing it's a small airport, it's outside. You step off and the first thing you realize everything smells like flowers. It's just, it's it's in the air and it's amazing because you've you, you realize that it's paradise and you're in it and it's beautiful. And if you can capture just that and and and have that in your in your dish, chef, I feel like that is going to. I mean, it's a winner. I'm just saying yeah.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 9:29

I think, well, one of the things that I'd like to do is capture some of that terroir, and the only way that we're going to capture some of that terroir, or at least the nuances of the environment, the effects of the environment on the ingredients of Hawaii, is to get some actual ingredients from Hawaii to be able to use in the competition itself, which I am, you know, hopefully going to be able to do. There are a number of ingredients that the Department of Agriculture in Hawaii has actually deemed impossible or illegal to take out of Hawaii and ship over, but I'm looking for ways to sort of get around that. What are some of those items? So, things like Hawaiian lehua taro, so like real, actual taro that the Hawaiian taro used for making poi and other things like hulolo and other taro preparations Without actually Department of Ag inspection and certification, you can't ship them out nor take them out of Hawaii.

Pooch Rivera: 10:30

Is that because they touched down in california first?

Chef Lance Nitahara: 10:33

I. I don't exactly know why the that rule is in place. I have a feeling that it's because they want to keep those crops exclusive to hawaii and they don't want people propagating them outside of hawaii. Partly that. And then also invasive species, so maybe some pests you know pest transfer in between hawaii and the mainland. So so I'm looking to sort of get around that with certain ingredients. I think I may be able to talk to the the authorities there once I because I am going for a business visit in a in a couple, in a few weeks, so that I'll be able to maybe possibly get something going.

Carl Fiadini: 11:11

What was the culture shock? To go from small town Hawaii to the CIA?

Chef Lance Nitahara: 11:17

I think the biggest culture shock was was the weather In Hawaii. It's one season, you got one season, all year round Coldest. Coldest it gets is maybe low 60s, high 50s in some places. So you know, coming here right now, you know it's, you know in the low 40s, and so you know that that took a little bit of getting used to. Although I do enjoy winter, you know I do I just don't like shoveling my driveway after, after a longer winter nobody likes it.

Pooch Rivera: 11:50

Yeah, yeah chef, how would you describe how you you apply your mentoring, your teaching philosophy to culinary competition?

Chef Lance Nitahara: 11:58

I do coach, when I, when I do coach culinary competition, one of the things that we focus on is the method of, of practice, and so when I talk, talk about best methods of practice, we want to practice exactly the way that we're going to compete right? So I mean, I guess the term is, you know, when they say practice makes perfect, really perfect, practice makes perfect. And so you know, cutting corners when it comes to practicing with my competitors really doesn't get us anywhere, because all it does is handicap us in the end. So what we do is we want to set ourselves up, set up the kitchen, as close to competition as possible, and our timeframes are exactly, you know, the same timeframes that we're going to be competing in.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 12:47

I get it, I, you know, we, we, we try to get it down to the absolute minute detail, which is why Nick and Polly Barrington at the US County Open I think they're they're, they're sick of my emails already, because I've been, you know, I email them probably three or four times a week with all these little tiny minutia, details. But this is, this is how you know, this is how we roll when it comes to practice, so that we are absolutely ready and that you know we can plan for contingencies and we can plan for things that can go wrong. If anything can go wrong, we will plan for it to happen. You know, to the point where you know we've got little mini first aid kits in our pocket, you know if we would cut ourselves so we can, you know, take care of it right, then and there, instead of searching for a first aid kit.

Carl Fiadini: 13:33

If anyone missed it, the secret is preparing, but preparing perfectly, and you're putting a lot of time into this. How often are you and your assistant actually practicing?

Chef Lance Nitahara: 13:49

So we have been practicing once a week for the past, I believe almost three months. Now two or three months and so and those are five to five to six hour practices. We're going to transition to twice a week after this, after the break.

Carl Fiadini: 14:05

Yeah, yeah, that's serious and and I think it's really, it's funny, but great that you're stalking the competition, by the way, just well no, your competition.

Pooch Rivera: 14:17

But that's serious you're, you're a competitor.

Carl Fiadini: 14:19

Man, you're a competitor man, I appreciate it.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 14:22

Yeah, yeah, no. So I I've I've had to sort of, you know, pull back from that because again it it does play with my mind for a little bit, but I think it's more important when you're a competitor, what's more important is to stop the judges to know what the judges are like. You know what kind of culinary world are they coming out of. And you know three of the four judges are all they're CMCs.

Carl Fiadini: 14:46

They're master chefs. Like that's got to be more pressure than the competitors.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 14:49

Sure, absolutely. And I've worked with and, being at the CIA, I've worked with a bunch of master chefs. They're people too, but when it comes to competition they're a different breed.

Carl Fiadini: 15:01

Are you trying to say that they bleed? Come on man, they don't.

Pooch Rivera: 15:05

What I've found from certified master chefs is that they like to stand on the traditions, and so that sometimes, in my opinion, from a culinary world, makes it a little bit easier, because you can kind of go traditional and use traditional sauces, traditional things that they would pick up on, but at the end of the day, look, this is a big deal, it's the first one. It's the big deal, it's the first one. So I mean, I think that everyone's coming correct, whether it be the competitors to the judges, to the whole city. The whole culinary scene in Atlanta is ready for this, which is pretty cool.

Carl Fiadini: 15:40

I think it's going to have a lot of fanfare behind it and a lot of people there to cheer you on, cheer everyone else on and really make this a big event. I think what's fascinating is how, chef, how you're balancing traditional methods and modern techniques between French and Hawaiian cuisines. I think that is a story in and of itself, because you've figured out a way to implement, you know, some Hawaiian culinary into your program.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 16:03

Yes, so the Hawaiian class that I teach it has a mix of both traditional Hawaiian foods and, I guess, local Hawaiian, modern, local Hawaiian foods, which really are an amalgam of all the different cultures that have sort of found their way to Hawaii, and Hawaii really is truly a melting pot, right? So you have these two different eras. You have the ancient Hawaiian era, which you know. They came over on canoes and they basically brought over, you know, a handful of crops and you know, and pigs and chickens, and really that's really what they had, besides the coconuts and fish that were already on the island. So that was, that's your ancient Hawaiian cuisine, which is very simple, very just, straightforward, simple cuisine, not too many cooking techniques. But then, you know, then you fast forward to later with all these cultures coming to Hawaii and you have, you know, immigrants from all over the world coming and bringing their cultures in and all of a sudden, local Hawaiian cuisine is something totally different in, and all of a sudden, local Hawaiian cuisine is something totally different.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 17:14

But the ingredients that grow in Hawaii I mean, there are a vast amount of ingredients, but the real locally sourced ingredients that and many of them are canoe crops from ancient Hawaii do work well with a modern, even French, technique. So we try to put some of that in there. But in my menu for the US Culinary Open I have, you know, preparations like I'm using breadfruit and I'm taking breadfruit and making a gratin or a dauphinois with it, and so breadfruit works very similarly to potatoes, and so potato dau dolphin, raw, obviously is a classic French technique, but it works beautifully with breakfast.

Pooch Rivera: 17:54

I did a one-year apprenticeship, acf, back in the day 94. And I was always told and I had ambitions to go to CIA or do the Disney program and it was kind of coerced into going into the ACF program and doing a one-year apprenticeship, which I very much appreciate. Now, what are the biggest challenges that culinary students face these days?

Chef Lance Nitahara: 18:15

I think that when it comes to doing an apprenticeship, versus getting a degree in an accredited program like the CIA, because there are others out there. I think the main difference is the understanding of possibly food science and what's going on on a molecular or scientific level when it comes to your food. That, to me, that's, in my opinion, I think, the biggest advantage of having a degree, or at least a degree from the CIA and coming into my class, because I employ a lot of food science in there. But then beyond that, you know you now also have, I guess, a career ceiling, if that makes any sense, where you know you can start off at a certain after you graduate from the CIA or from other culinary schools. You can start off at a certain, I guess, level in the kitchen, where we talk about being either a, you know chef de partie or chef de cuisine, instead of starting off in prep and work your way up from there. Or you also can, you know, branch off to these other you know, these other facets of the food service industry, or really food or the gastronomy industry in general research and development, food systems, even institutional cuisine.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 19:42

I think that the way that things are going now, like especially with the CIA.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 19:46

We're considered the I guess the term now is the world's premier food college, and so we're looking at degree, or looking at the CIA, more as a college or university type of education rather than just a culinary school these days.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 20:02

So we have, you know, five different, you know, culinary majors now, and we just started a master's program at the CIA, whereas before, you know, you could get an associate's degree and then, you know, when I graduated, there was one bachelor's degree available and I got that bachelor's degree in culinary management. Now, you know, we have food science, we've got, you know, food systems and a number of other, even specializations. The apprenticeships, though, although I do also and I'm also an advocate of apprenticeships and even vocational school programs, simply because there are some people who are not necessarily cut out for an academic-based culinary school. Going into those programs, you know, you get real-world experience, dirt under your nails and elbow grease, dirt under your nails and elbow grease and it's something that's an invaluable thing for young people to really, you know, form their chops before they, you know, before they get out there and really, you know, start their careers. So I think that I think both have their pros and cons.

Carl Fiadini: 21:13

And it really is an interesting topic. I feel like maybe after the show into 25 chef, we can have you back on for a longer session and get into this a little bit further, cause I do want to get in. We don't have time today, but I want to get into your a little bit of your actual history in the kitchen. But let's, let's. Let's say that we're going to catch up at NAFM, and you know we're going to catch up at NAFM, yeah, and you know we're going to have the whole crew there, video, the podcast, the whole nine yards, so we'll get into it.

Chef Lance Nitahara: 21:44

How do people find you on the socials? So that's funny because I've kind of stayed off of the social media. I'm kind of a ghost out there. I do have a LinkedIn account, but that's pretty much it. You can find me on the CIA website. I do have my email address there, but that's about it. I try to stay off of social media as much as possible.

Carl Fiadini: 22:05

I can't blame you for that. In many instances. All right, chef Lance Nidahara. You can find him on LinkedIn and I really appreciate you coming on the show today, chef. Happy holidays, chef Poo. I really appreciate you coming on the show today, chef. Happy holidays, chef Pooch. Appreciate you coming in. Thank you, sir. Glad you came in for this. John, as always, you're, you're amazing. Check out that Aussie select guys. We appreciate you. Thank you, we are out. We'll see you next time.