Ali’i Kula Lavender Chef Profile:
Chef Jason Raffin
We would go out to eat frequently and my palate was pretty diverse from a young age. My first restaurant experience was making dumplings with a hoard of grandmas at Yang Sing in San Francisco at the age of 11. I grew up eating pho, pupas, baklava and tapas, so my curiosity into cultural cuisine started when I began trying to make it at home as an adolescent.
Ali’i Kula Lavender is honored to showcase a new face to the Maui culinary scene: Chef Jason Raffin. We had a chance to chat with Chef Jason Raffin to ask him all about his lifetime of developing his culinary inspiration.
Candid in his quest to give back to the community, Chef Raffin is highly involved in several non-profit endeavors. One of which is the Chef Collective, a local initiative driven by the recent effects of Covid-19. The efforts of the Chef Collective address the need to help local farmers while helping support our communities in need.
Chef Raffin’s culinary passion started an early age and led him through the Culinary Institute of American. He then went onto several successful ventures in San Francisco and beyond. Just take a look at his Instagram page here for a peek at his magic.
You can read more of our interview with Chef Jason Raffin below, and check out two amazing lavender recipes he was kind enough to craft for us!
Two Featured Recipes by Chef Jason Raffin
A spin on traditional side dish in the Hawaiian Cuisine. Our signature Culinary Lavender adds something unique to this tangy and invigorating concoction, topped with a beautiful and subtle hibiscus dashi. A little goes goes a long way with Lomi Lomi Salmon and the same could be said for the part history has played in creating this wonderful dish. Read up on it in our full blog.
We aren’t sure if we want to serve this with a toasty slice of bread, tossed in a pasta or devoured straight off the spoon, but one this is for sure, we want to share it with friends. This recipe is so easy you could certainly make it enough to try it every which way. Impress your guests and satisfy the cravings of savory olives and robust lavender.
Five Questions about Chef Jason Raffin
Tell us about your culinary career?
I have been endlessly passionate about cooking since a child and began working in restaurants at the age of 14. After graduating from UMass Amherst with a BS in Restaurant Management as well as the Culinary Institute of America with an Associates in Culinary Arts, I went on to stage at many San Francisco institutions including, State Bird Provisions, Rich Table, Coi, and Atelier Crenn before co-opening Scotland Yard. I then went on to lead the culinary teams of Finn Town Tavern and Comstock Saloon where I expanded the food program and gained accolades for innovative dishes. I now live in Lahaina where I founded a non-profit called Chef Collective for Covid which funds local farms, empowers regional chefs, and feeds vulnerable communities. I have a cookbook being released in 2021 called Keto Like a Chef which ventures into elevated keto cuisine.
What do you think stirred your passion for the culinary arts?
I was drawn to cooking because my bothers and I were hungry and no one else in my family cooked. We would go out to eat frequently and my palate was pretty diverse from a young age. My first restaurant experience was making dumplings for an entire day with a hoard of grandmas at Yang Sing in San Francisco at the age of 11. I grew up eating amazing pho, pupusas, baklava, and tapas, so my curiosity into cultural cuisines started when I began trying to make it at home as an adolecent. My parents supported my passion and gave me the freedom to work with a workers permit from the ages 14-18 at local restaurants to explore my passion. These experience compounded them.
After 2020, the year themed with all the things home, we bet you have some at-home favorites. Can you tell us your favorite dish to enjoy at home?
I love making large roasted hunks of meat, whether it is a braised lamb leg or a prime rib. There’s something carnal and mesmerizing about a centerpiece like that for dinner. Also the best part… leftovers.
We know you are highly motivated in a non-profit endeavor, can you share more about that?
Chef Collective is 100% donation funded and partnered with the Lahaina Baptist Church with a mission to fund local farms to feed covid effected communities by delivering guest-chef multi-course dinners. We work with farms by purchasing their less sought after produce and transform it into restaurant quality dishes. Chef Collective is focued on delivering quality and extending compassion through the care and dedication to not only flavor but presentation. Each guest-chef created 2-3 dishes which is delivered directly to the doors of the needy recipients.
You can find out more about this on going Chef Collective at chefcollectiveforcovid.com.
What’s ahead next for Chef Jason Raffin?
I am working on my cookbook, Keto Like a Chef, which will release in 2021. As a chef consultant and part owner I am also working on a burger concept in San Francisco called Mission St. Burgers which will debut March 1st. Chef Collective for Covid with continue through June as this pandemic does not seem to want to end, and I am also accepting consulting and private chef inquiries.
