Chef Felix's Vegan Ohana Dinner in Kona

On a recent trip to Kona, Hawaii to visit my mom and her husband, my mom’s neighbor, who is a local chef named Luis Felix (A.K.A. Chef Felix), invited all of us over for a farewell dinner at his and his wife’s home. Chef Felix has worked in corporate kitchens to high-end resorts, cooking meals for Track and Field Olympian Allyson Felix, and even President Barack Obama! So it was an honor that he asked to cook for us!

Chef Felix told us he does not usually cook vegan food, but he knew Marianne is vegan, so he took it on as a challenge. And boy did he deliver! Our menu for the evening consisted of three courses and an appetizer with very unique and fresh ingredients (he literally cut fresh herbs from his herb garden in front of us). Here’s what we had:

The Beginning:

The South African Butternut

South African butternut squash soup topped with avocado pickled onion pico

This soup was like a warm, welcoming hug, and the pico was probably the freshest I have ever tasted.

First Course:

Sesame Tofu Summer Roll & Aina

Seared sesame vinaigrette tofu, lettuce, and carrot tossed in cilantro sweet chili, and a small herbed beet salad

Everything you love about a summer roll, but even better with the chili sauce! The dressing in the herbed beet salad was amazing.

Main Course:

Torched Cauli Dal Risotto

Torched cauliflower and ginger garlic hamakua mushrooms atop dal risotto

It’s really hard to pick what was my favorite dish, but if I had to, I’d say it was this risotto. This was a dish that would instantly cheer me up on a bad day. This was Jeff's favorite dish as well. Look how restrained I'm being from gobbling it down!

Third Course:

Fruits in the Pink Dress

Fresh carved fruit medley accompanied with Li Hing Mui Vinaigrette

A very simple dish of cut up fruit with Chef Felix’s secret pink sauce. I’ve been sworn to secrecy about what’s in the sauce, but it gave the fruit a mighty zing that lit my tastebuds up. He says everyone who tries it loves it and it can be used on just about everything. I’ll be looking for some bottled versions in the stores, Chef Felix!

All of the flavors were so different and unexpected, but went really well together. It was like discovering new foods for the first time!

Accompanying Chef Felix as his sous chef was his lovely wife, Michelle, who is also an amazing person that I think everyone should get to know. And for entertainment, we had their adorable boxer dog, Baby Felix, who loved on everyone!

We really enjoyed our time at Chef Felix’s table and I hope we can get together with them again the next time we go to Hawaii to visit my mom. We could really feel the passion Chef Felix has for creating unique, fresh, and innovative dishes. He and Michelle made us feel like family and it was an experience we will definitely remember. To put it all in one sentence: Chef Felix is pure heart.

Aloha from Chef Felix's table! 🤙 A perfect ending to a wonderful trip.

Currently you can find Chef Felix creating more incredible and unique dishes at Ola Brew in Kona, HI. Here is their website to learn more about the Felixes: https://thefelixs.com/aboutus/, and they also have a fun YouTube channel where Chef Felix shows you how to make mouthwatering dishes, including ones he made for Allyson Felix, and President Barack Obama: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFelixsKitchen

Wanna have an experience like this too? This was obviously not a chef’s table experience that we signed up for this time, but we have done awesome experiences like this in the past (see this post about our experience in Puerto Vallarta). If you’re interested in doing a cooking class, or having a private meal cooked for you in a chef’s home during your next trip, we have lots of resources to find that for you. Just mention you’d like to do so, and we’d be happy to help!