Kaimana Chee has learned from the likes of Gordon Ramsay on Masterchef and Alton Brown on Cutthroat Kitchen, but he’s learned more from the people he feeds as chef ambassador with Hampton Creek — the Just Mayo folks.
Chee shows food service staff in hospitals, K-12 and university kitchens “how to prepare foods in a healthy way. Healthy food can be delicious food.” And it can be a life-changer. Take the cardiac patient forced to go eggless and give him a vegan cookie — talk about improved quality of life.
A self-taught chef with an IT background, Chee finds his Food Network experience pays off with his work with Hampton Creek. “I think quickly on my feet, improvising, finding creative ways to improve meals on the fly, whether it’s in in small kitchen feeding 50 or a big kitchen feeding 1,000.”
Chee brings a personal approach to the job. “I like talking to patients, asking what are their favorite foods are and how can we make them a little better.” That’s not his Food Network skill set, that’s just the culture he grew up with and loves. Chee’s from O’ahu, where everyone’s “touchy-feely and family-centric. People invite you over the day they meet you. Everybody hugs.”
Even as the government works to weaken nutritional standards for school lunches, Chee works to deliver more. “We have to get people excited about healthy food.” Big words from a guy who “had problems with vegetables growing up — I hated them,” he admits He’s making sure no one else suffers the same fate. For the school kids in Ames, Iowa, Chee, filled kid-sized pots with edible dirt made from mushrooms and wild rice and planted vegetables in them. “They ate the vegetables,” Chee says. “It was absolutely inspiring.” Chee inspires grownups, too. He teaches food service how to celebrate vegetables by applying their culinary arts, lavishing vegetables with spices, herbs and the soy and wasabi and tropical fruits he favors. “We can braise, roast, sear vegetables, fry them, grill them.”
Chee’s changing lives, but his work with Hampton Creek has changed him, too. Though not vegan, “I have a different perspective about food choices, a deeper understanding. If you’re vegan, it can be limiting to go out.” Not if he can help it, though. At his Baltmore restaurant, Uncle’s Hawaiian Grindz, he now offers a daily vegan special and has added more plants to his own diet. “I’ve eaten more vegetables in the past year than I had in my 39 years of living. I eat more plants. I eat more sustainably, I live more sustainably.
“I took my whole crew to the farms so they could meet farmers we’re buying our food comes from. I never would have thought to do that before Hampton Creek,” he says. “Everyone should be connected to where their food comes from.”
Chipotle Chickpea Salad
Recipe courtesy of Kaimana Chee, used by permission from Hampton Creek.
2 cups chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
3/4 cup Just Mayo
1 cup black beans
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced
Salt
Mix chickpeas, lime juice, onions and black beans in large bowl.
In a small separate bowl, mix Just Mayo and chipotle. Combine with beans and season with salt to taste.
Serves 8.