Featured Chef: Chef Andrew Le

Restaurant: The Pig & The Lady
Hobbies: Cycling, hiking, eating out, BBQ at other peoples’ houses
Favorite book: L’astrance by Pascal Barbeau
Favorite ingredient: Fish sauce

What’s your favorite memory of food?
Personally, it always goes back to eating with people, specifically family. Whenever we have a Sunday get together, we are always cooking something and it’s always communal.

What or who inspires you?
My mentor, Kevin Chong taught me what it takes. Patience, hard work, willingness to do anything, and an incredible amount of humility, especially when you’re growing. Everything is new, everything is scary. He taught me that you need all those qualities to be successful.

Kevin was super passionate about food, almost to a fault. He treated it like it was life or death. Cut this onion wrong? Cardinal sin! The experience gave me a lot of discipline. Repetition makes it automatic.

And, of course, my family. Your family will always get your back. It’s great that what we do, ties into what our family is all about.

How would you describe your current style of cooking?
Cooking with Vietnamese sensibilities with local ingredients. It’s life inspired.

Do you have a favorite junk food or guilty pleasure?
I’m a sucker for katsu donburi. I’ll always be happy with that. That’s from Okata Bento days (growing up in Kaimuki).

When someone is visiting Hawaii — other than your restaurant, of course — where do you recommend visitors eat?
Breakfast: the nook, Morning Glass Coffee

Lunch: Tamashiro Market, Ethel’s Grill, Helena’s Hawaiian Food, or Andy’s Sandwiches & Smoothies

Dinner: Mitch’s Sushi, Mai Lan (get the crab curry), Nanzan Giro Giro, Sushi Izakaya Gaku

Dessert: MW

What’s your favorite vacation memory?
Eating Hakata Ramen in Fukuoka at 3 a.m. from a truck blasting Enka music. It was the middle of winter, we were walking back to the hotel, and we saw this truck coming and it was completely steaming. It was the first time I had really delicious ramen. It was cold out, the soup was hot, and the noodles were perfect. At the end it just made you feel super good.

In your opinion, why is Hawaii such a great destination for food?
Because it’s pretty much genuine all around. It may not be high-end everywhere, but it’s always cooked from the heart, especially the hole-in-the-wall places. There are stories attached to the food: “my grandpa made this,” “we’ve been making this for ages,” “my family makes this,” etc.

Every island is unique, and there are so many fun or interesting regional foods. When I went to Kauai, I heard about Goteborg sausage and learned about the UFOs! They make these upside down musubis, with fried Goteborg sausage instead of spam, forming a little bowl for the rice. UFOS are hamburger patty in a yeasty dough.

What will you be creating for Hawaiian Airlines’ in-flight meal?
I’m cooking what I would crave, in the style of cooking that we do at the restaurant, including, Coconut Tapioca Yogurt with Fresh Fruits and Thai Basil, Green Papaya Salad with Crab, Burrata with Kim Chee Putanesca, Smoked Chicken Wings Thai Style, Stuffed Portobello Mushroom Sliders, Dark Chocolate Cookies with Coconut Horchata.