{"id":14031,"date":"2025-07-14T14:38:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T00:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/?p=14031"},"modified":"2025-11-13T08:17:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T18:17:35","slug":"2025-kalani-high-school-student-wins-localicious-recipe-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ja\/2025-kalani-high-school-student-wins-localicious-recipe-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalani High School student wins Localicious Recipe Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Halia Kaaua of Kalani High School wanted to incorporate her favorite foods \u2014 fish and \u02bbulu (breadfruit) \u2014 into her dish for the 2025 Localicious\u00ae Recipe Contest. Kaaua\u2019s \u201cSweet Sea,\u201d a dish made with locally sourced a\u2018u (marlin) and \u2018ulu, was the winning dish at Sunday\u2019s Hawai\u02bbi State Farm Fair in Whitmore Village. The three contest finalists competed in a live, 30-minute cook-off in front of family members and fair goers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s theme, \u201cReimagine Your School Lunch Plate,\u201d gave students the opportunity to showcase their culinary skills while celebrating the importance of local agriculture and healthy eating in Hawai\u02bbi. Hawai\u02bbi high school students submitted original recipes for healthy main dishes that they wanted to see on their school menus. Recipes must have featured a locally grown, caught or raised product.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very grateful to have the opportunity to compete and represent Hawai\u02bbi and local ingredients,\u201d said Kaaua, a rising senior who received $400 for the winning dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"students<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In her comments to the judging panel, Kaaua noted a\u02bbu is a fish that\u2019s sustainable and not overfished in Hawai\u02bbi. Before tasting the three dishes, judges interacted with chefs while they were cooking on stage. The judges were Hawai\u02bbi State Department of Education Superintendent Keith Hayashi, Christopher Garnier, assistant professor at Culinary Arts Culinary Institute of the Pacific at Kapi\u2018olani Community College, and Christyn Senda, Hawai\u02bbi Gas\u2019 Director of Project and Business Development on the Clean Energy Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI used these ingredients because I know kids, parents and administrators want their keiki to eat healthy and also want to know what they\u2019re putting in their kids\u2019 bodies is nourishing and supporting and giving back to the community,\u201d said Kaaua.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"students<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mark Angelo Ragonton, a rising senior at Molokai High School, was the runner-up for his Tsunami Elote Shrimp dish made with locally sourced shrimp and corn. Ragonton, who received a $300 cash prize, credited his teacher Tiare Hubbard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe taught me a lot of things I didn\u2019t even know about culinary,\u201d Ragonton said. \u201cI just wanted to thank her for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"student,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Skye Alvarado, who graduated from Kaiser High School in May, finished third and received $200 for her Guava BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich with Whole Grain Bun and Liliko\u02bbi Coleslaw made with locally sourced guava and liliko\u02bbi puree, chicken, and cabbage. Guava was the starting point for her recipe idea and subsequent discussions with instructor Mari Wills helped develop the final dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels great,\u201d Alvarado said of Wills attending the cook-off. \u201cShe\u2019s so skilled as a chef. She\u2019s so inspiring. If you ever get a chance to work with her in the kitchen, you\u2019ll learn a lot of things. She has taught me things I wouldn\u2019t have even thought of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"plating<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"students<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"plating<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"plating<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"plating<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"plating<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"plating<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"plating<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the Localicious\u00ae contest, including this year\u2019s winners of the complementary Localicious\u00ae art contest for K-8 students, visit\u00a0www.hawaiiagfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Halia Kaaua of Kalani High School wanted to incorporate her favorite foods \u2014 fish and \u02bbulu (breadfruit) \u2014 into her dish for the 2025 Localicious\u00ae Recipe Contest. Kaaua\u2019s \u201cSweet Sea,\u201d a dish made with locally sourced a\u2018u (marlin) and \u2018ulu, was the winning dish at Sunday\u2019s Hawai\u02bbi State Farm Fair in Whitmore Village. The three contest finalists competed in a live, 30-minute cook-off in front of family members and fair goers. This year\u2019s theme, \u201cReimagine Your School Lunch Plate,\u201d gave students the opportunity to showcase their culinary skills while celebrating the importance of local agriculture and healthy eating in Hawai\u02bbi. Hawai\u02bbi high school students submitted original recipes for healthy main […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":14044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"10837,10914,10412,9771,16234,9747","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","wp_popup_display_lightbox":0,"wp_popup_suppress":"","wp_popup_trigger":"","wp_popup_trigger_amount":0,"wp_popup_disable_on_mobile":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":21,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/P1083765-1024x677.jpg",1024,677,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Stanley Lee","author_link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ja\/author\/stanley-leek12-hi-us\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":21,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":21,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":306,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":21,"category_count":306,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 08:29:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_status","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}