Family Ingredients

Hawaiian hula dancer, cultural practitioner, and sustainable hunter Anela Marie Kawehikulaonalani Evans shares the love and respect she has for her island home. Join Family Ingredients as we follow Anela from the hunting grounds of Lana’i Island to the largest hula competition in the world, the Merrie Monarch Festival.

Sustainable agriculture is making a comeback at the Lac Courtes Oreilles Community College in Wisconsin. Hawai‘i chef Ed Kenney visits the college and learns about their successful efforts in rehabilitating the soil to grow organic, tapping into their heirloom Native American seed bank.

Utilizing indigenous ingredients and food traditions to create a brilliant contemporary cuisine is at the heart of an emerging indigenous food movement among young Native American chefs. Tashia Hart, culinary ethnobotanist, shows Chef Ed Kenney how to take indigenous ingredients to create a contemporary dish.

Valerie Kaneshiro, a mixture of Japanese and Native American, was raised on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe reservation in Wisconsin, her mom’s ancestral home. Forced to leave her home at 15, disconnected from her Indian roots she so loved, Valerie tells a story of loss and rediscovery and all the lessons learned while sharing an ingredient to a cultural dish found in Wisconsin and Hawaii.

Different varieties of fiddlehead fern are used in traditional Ojibwe and Hawaiian dishes. Chef Ed Kenney takes a tour of a family farm on Kaua‘i to learn about the Hawaiian variety, pohole, and how to harvest it.

Chef Ed Kenney and, singer-songwriter, Jack Johnson visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium to get a behind the scenes look at the aquarium and grab a snack at the same time.

Chef Ed Kenney visits singer-songwriter, Jack Johnson, to talk about Jackʻs fondest memories of his father, fishing and growing up on the North Shore of O‘ahu. Smoked fish was a constant whenever Jack fished with his father and takes him back to special moments spent with him.

Singer-songwriter, Jack Johnson takes Chef Ed Kenney down memory lane to "bomb the hill" on borrowed skateboards in Trinidad, CA, just like Jackʻs father did when he was younger.

Chef Ed Kenney and singer-songwriter Jack Johnson travel to Northern California to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and learn about the harmfulness of plastics in our oceans. During this visit they make a lifelong impression on Makana (gift), the aquariumʻs ambassador for plastic free oceans.

Hawai‘i chef Ed Kenney talks story with Aunty Lei to find out what it was like growing up on the island of Lāna‘i. In Hawaiian they call her elder or “kupuna". She shares her stories joyfully and we are a better community for it.

Laulau, a traditional Hawaiian dish, is usually made with pork or chicken. However, Hawai‘i chef Ed Kenney learns how to make laulau with venison from Anela Evans, Lāna‘i sytle. The magic of a pressure cooker cuts down cooking time by hours!

On their culinary adventure, Hawai‘i chefs Ed Kenney and Andrew Le learn how to make che lam, a Vietnamese style mochi made from rice and Pandan. Pandan is used in Vietnam for many things including tea and seasoning. Can you describe what its flavor is?