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DELICIOUS DISHES
Chef Glenn Chu and his Indigo Restaurant
Glenn's
introduction to cooking started early. Born in Honolulu, he grew up in a large
Chinese-American household where food and Taoist traditions were integral to
daily life. As a child, he often observed his grandmother at her huge outdoor
wood-fired wok as she prepared elaborate dishes for family meals, holiday
celebrations, and her weekly ma jong parties. She was a diminutive woman with a
commanding personality, and her exacting standards and meticulous attention to
detail made a lasting impression on the future chef. Glenn left the
islands to attend college in Michigan where he graduated with a degree in
business. While still a student, he became interested in cooking, inspired by
Julia Child and his introduction to Mediterranean cuisine. Eventually this led
him to establish a wholesale cheesecake and catering business. But after living
in the Midwest for ten years, Glenn was ready to come home. He returned to
Hawaii to open his first restaurant, RoxSan's, a fashionable French bistro and
patisserie, followed a few years later by Hajjibaba's, a traditional Moroccan
restaurant. Currently, Glenn
is executive chef and owner of Indigo, his award-winning restaurant, housed in
a charming hundred-year-old building adjacent to a newly restored theatre in
Honolulu's Chinatown. Indigo has been a popular destination since it opened in
1994. A five-time winner of Honolulu
Magazine's "Hale Aina" awards, Indigo attracts a loyal local
clientele as well as visitors from around the world. The 160 seat restaurant
and surrounding garden is often the site for pre and apres-concert meals -- the
casual but exotic atmosphere and original menu make it a favored destination
for special celebrations and intimate romantic dinners. Executive chef and
owner, Glenn Chu, draws widely upon his Chinese heritage and Hawaii's bounty
for inspiration, as well as frequent trips to Asia. He defines his cooking
style as, "giving the illusion of Chinese cuisine, but really, my dishes
include elements from other Asian and non-Asian cuisine." Food editor,
Kaui Philpotts wrote in the Honolulu
Advertiser, "Somerset
Maugham would love Indigo. So would Joseph Conrad. It's got that ambience. It's
everything you ever dreamed the Orient at its most dangerously romantic should
be." Indigo is listed
among the "great places to eat" in "Hawaii Gets Real," an
article in the March/April 1995 issue of Metropolitan
Home. American
Express's Departures magazine
included Indigo in the March/April 1998 "BlackBook" section. "At
Indigo, Glenn Chu combines his solid background in other cuisine (French,
Moroccan) to produce fabulous, unusual dim sum. Ask for a table in the romantic
Thai-style garden in back." Tanya Wenman
Steele wrote in the September 1997 issue of Bon
Appetit magazine, "Indigo is an oasis of tropical glamour... Chu
offers Chinese cooking, with its emphasis on balance and harmony, done his way,
with elements of Mediterranean, French, and even Moroccan cooking." Glenn appears on
television often. Watch for him! Edited by Kerry
Cohen |
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TM