Kualoa Ranch

Wow. We pinch ourselves every time we get the chance to return to Kualoa Ranch. This spectacular slice of land on the windward coast of O’ahu was once a place of refuge for Hawaiian kings. Now it’s home to a 4,000-acre nature reserve and working farm that occasionally doubles as a Hollywood film set (an impressive list of movies and TV series were filmed here, including Jurassic Park). When it comes to table views, this is just about as beautiful as it gets. Majestic mountains and verdant valleys are surrounded by secret beaches, tropical fruit orchards and ancient aquaculture ponds brimming with oysters and shrimp. Not to mention herds of happy grazing cows, heritage pigs and a plethora of fresh vegetable beds—all part of Kualoa’s diversified agricultural program, which offers responsibly raised food to the local O’ahu community. We’ll get a taste of all that goodness with our meal from guest chef Ed Kenney. Ed’s helmed the field kitchen quite a few times since we first started coming to O’ahu back in 2012. He’s also a regular James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: West. Born on the island and hugely passionate about his local food and farming community, Ed runs each of his celebrated O’ahu restaurants on the premise of “local first, organic whenever possible, with aloha always.” That’s our kind of chef.