Hi there —

Happy June! This always feels like the best month to me (spoiler alert: it’s my birthday month! 🦀). It’s probably still a holdout, many many years later, of the school’s-out-and-summer-is-here bliss, but the days feel long, the dinners feel relaxed and homey, and I feel energized.

How are you feeling this June?

Whatever you’re feeling, we’ve got a great show for you this week:

Episode 131: Sheldon Simeon

This week, we’re joined by chef and author Sheldon Simeon to discuss his debut cookbook, Cook Real Hawai’i.

Sheldon is a native of Hilo, on the Big Island, and grew up with a love for food. He learned how to cook (and how to cook for others) from his family, parlaying his interest in the craft into an impressive restaurant career.

After graduating from the Maui Culinary Academy and an internship at World Disney World, he rose up the ranks of Hawaiian restaurants, serving as executive chef for the opening of Maui’s much anticipated Star Noodle. (He earned his first James Beard nod that year, with a 2011 Rising Star Chef of the Year nomination, and helped Star Noodle secure a Best New Restaurant nomination from the Beard Foundation.)

The accolades kept rolling in (Food & Wine People’s Choice Best New Chef of the Pacific & Northwest, for one), and before long, “Top Chef” producers had recruited him to join the show’s 10th season in Seattle. He quickly won audience support and was one of the final three finalists. (Sheldon returned for Season 14 of the Bravo show in Charleston; he won the Fan Favorite award in both seasons.) More restaurants followed, including the beloved Tin Roof, Sheldon’s first solo restaurant which opened in Maui in 2016.

And now, a cookbook: We're treated to Cook Real Hawai’i, Sheldon's collection of 100 recipes that he says “embody the beautiful cross-cultural exchange of islands.” From Hawaiian traditions to influences from around the globe—Asia, Portugal, the Philippines—Sheldon offers recipes for everything from wok-fried poke to crispy cauliflower katsu to chocolate birthday cake butter mochi.

Get Cooking Today: Buy Cook Real Hawai’i from Bookshop or Omnivore Books

Recipes This Week:

Paid subscribers will get access to these three featured recipes from Cook Real Hawai’i this week—Chicken Hekka, Chocolate Birthday Cake Butter Mochi, and Li Hing Mui Palomas. Subscribe today so you never miss a recipe!

Salt + Spine is supported by listeners like you. To get full access to our exclusive content and featured recipes, and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

We've got a great show for you today: Sheldon joins us to talk about his career and his debut cookbook. Of course, we also put him to the test in our signature culinary game.

Thanks for joining us to #TalkCookbooks!

–Brian & the Salt + Spine team

P.S. This week, I recommend reading the latest from Soleil Ho: The limits of comfort food in a time of national horror

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