Koko Head Cafe

Born and raised in Honolulu, Robynne Maii is the chef and owner of the award-winning restaurant Fête in Honolulu’s Chinatown. A proud alumna of Punahou and ‘Iolani School, Robynne pursued modern dance and English at Middlebury College before obtaining culinary and pastry arts degrees at Kapi‘olani Community College. She began her culinary adventure at Kaimuki’s 3660 on the Rise, cooking under Chef Russell Siu and Padovani’s Bistro and Wine Bar, in Waikīkī where she transitioned to full-time pastry cook under Chef Pierre Padovani before leaving to New York for graduate school. After earning her master’s degree in food studies from New York University, Chef Robynne went on to work at Union Pacific and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.

Robynne has also worked for Gourmet Magazine, Kitchen Arts & Letters Bookstore and played an integral role in developing and teaching the culinary program at The Art Institute of New York City and CUNY’s Kingsborough Community College. She was named the 2022 James Beard Award Foundation Best Chef for the Northwest and Pacific Region on her first nomination. Robynne is the first Hawai‘i-born recipient to win this award in 19 years and is the first Native Hawaiian woman to win a James Beard Foundation award.

Roy Yamaguchi is an American celebrity chef/founder of a collection of restaurants that includes: Eating House 1849, Humble Market Kitchin, GOEN Dining + Bar, and Roy’s Worldwide. He is revered for his exceptional culinary skills and is known as the innovator of Internationally Influenced, Hawaii Inspired cuisine — an eclectic blend of California-French-Japanese cooking traditions created with fresh ingredients from the Islands.

He is the first from Hawaii to have been honored with the prestigious James Beard “Best Pacific Northwest Chef” Award in 1993 and has earned numerous honors including California Chef of the Year (California Restaurant Writers Association) Gault-Millau Top 40 (Forbes FYI), Top 50 Cuisines in America (Conde Nast Traveler), Fine Dining Hall of Fame (Nation’s Restaurant News) and the John Heckathorn Dining Excellence Award (Honolulu Magazine).

Yamaguchi was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. His Hawaii roots are tied to his paternal grandfather who started a tavern and the Yamaguchi General Store in Wailuku, Maui in the 1940s. He attributes his appreciation for food to his grandparents and his Hawaii-born father and his Okinawa-born mother. Upon graduating from high school, Yamaguchi enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York where he received his formal culinary training. After graduating in 1976, he accepted numerous positions at some of the most prestigious California restaurants at the time: L’Escoffier, L’Ermitage, Le Serene, Michael’s, and Le Gourmet in the Sheraton Plaza La Reina. In 1984, Yamaguchi opened his first restaurant, 385 North, in Hollywood and in 1988, he moved to Honolulu to open the first Roy’s Restaurant in the suburban neighborhood of Hawaii Kai.

Yamaguchi is also known as a television personality, hosting six seasons of the PBS series, Hawaii Cooks with Roy Yamaguchi, which was broadcast on more than 300 stations in all 50 states, as well as in over 60 countries. Equally notable, he was featured on the Food Network’s My Country, My Kitchen that takes him back to his roots in Japan. Yamaguchi also competed as one of twelve of the nation’s most notable chefs on the first season of Bravo Channel’s Top Chef Masters and also appeared as Iron Chef Asian, in the first American incarnation of Iron Chef USA.

In 2004, he launched a “Roy Yamaguchi” brand of cookware that sold on the Home Shopping Network. He has published four cookbooks: Pacific Bounty, Roy’s Feasts from Hawaii, Hawaii Cooks: Flavors from Roy’s Pacific Rim Kitchen and Roy’s Fish and Seafood.

In addition to the acclaim his restaurants have received, Yamaguchi’s personal influence and community involvement have placed him among the most influential chefs in the nation. In 1996, he gave the commencement speech to the graduating class of the Culinary Institute of America and in 2009 was elected to their Board of Trustees. In 2011, Yamaguchi was nominated by the late U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye and earned a political appointment under the Obama Administration to the board of the Corporation for Travel Promotion, now known as Brand USA. He was one of eleven board members for Brand USA and has used his culinary and travel experience to help promote the U.S. as a premier travel destination. He was also part of the U.S. Department of State’s American Chef Corps, a network of chefs from across the United States who have agreed to be resources and elevate the role of culinary engagement in America’s formal and public diplomacy efforts.

Yamaguchi partnered with Swiss-based MSC Cruises, the world’s largest privately-owned cruise company. He introduced Asian Market Kitchen, a specialty pan-Asian restaurant on board the cruise line’s new next-generation ship, MSC Seaside and MSC Seaview which sails year-round from Miami to the Caribbean. (agreement currently suspended due to COVID-19.)

Yamaguchi, co-founded and chairs, along with Chef Alan Wong and Denise Yamaguchi, the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival, which has become Hawaii’s premier food and wine destination event. He established the Tom and Warren Matsuda Scholarship Fund, providing scholarships to students to attend the Culinary Institute of the Pacific. Founding the Roy Yamaguchi Annual Golf Classic, Yamaguchi has been instrumental in raising more than $850,000 for Imua Family Services and celebrated the 25th anniversary of the golf classic in 2023. Yamaguchi also serves as committee member, trustee and or member of numerous nonprofit boards including: U.S.- Japan Council, Go For Broke National Education Center, Culinary Institute of America and the Culinary Institute of the Pacific.

As of January 2, 2024, Yamaguchi has taken on the role of executive director of the Culinary Institute of the Pacific (CIP) at Kapiʻolani Community College. His appointment was approved by the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents in November 2023. He will be overseeing the credit and non-credit programs, culinary research, food innovation, internships and apprenticeships. As executive director, he will also develop and implement the new CIP restaurant at Diamond Head—the crown jewel of the program—and oversee its operation.