Knights of the Dining Table

Catch up with the Chaine des Rotisseurs, pacesetters for opulent island dining.

 

Shannon Wianecki

 

Photography by Ron Kawahara  |  Jason Moore

“Closed for Private Party” reads the sign on the door of your favorite restaurant. Peering inside, you see a beribboned officer flanked by guests dressed to the nines. The officer lays a sword on the shoulder of the man before him. “Vive la Chaine!” shouts the group, raising champagne glasses and welcoming this latest initiate to their ranks. The wait staff files in, delivering one exquisite course after another: a parade of translucent oysters plucked from the sea that very day in Kumamoto, Japan, poached Tahitian prawns, and veal medallions awash in white asparagus béarnaise. Hanging in the background is a striking red-and-gold coat of arms.

You glance up and down the street.

You’re still on Maui, though the ceremony inside dates back to the year 1248 in France. The coat of arms, with its golden shield, larding needles and turning spits engulfed in red flame, belongs to the Chaine des Rotisseurs, a descendent of King Louis IX’s royal poultry roasting guild. What, pray tell, is a medieval society of French goose roasters (well-regarded professionals in their day) doing in a modern Maui restaurant? Why, nothing less than celebrating a long-standing tradition of fellowship, fine dining, and the pleasures of the table.

Now that you know what to look for, you’ll notice the Chaine coat of arms prominently displayed in Maui’s finest dining rooms—signifying that the restaurant has entertained the elite group of gastronomes. Royal guilds fell out of fashion during the French Revolution, but food-loving Parisians revived the Chaine in 1950. Local chapters, or bailliages, sprang up around the  globe, dedicated to promoting the culinary and enological arts through example, education, and camaraderie. Hawai‘i residents (who jump at any excuse for a feast) were quick to join. Maui’s bailliage will celebrate its 30th anniversary this October.
For the past three decades, local chefs have used Chaine functions as an arena to outdo one another. Last summer at Café o Lei, Chef Dana Pastula treated the Chaine to 16 adventurous tastings, including poached egg with chanterelle foam and honeyed fig stuffed with Roquefort—each course artfully paired with wine. Chef James MacDonald dramatically “beheaded” a magnum of champagne with a saber, while models decked out in Maggie Coloumbe’s sultry fashions sauntered around the dining room at I’O. Building on the tradition of goose-roasting, Chef Bev Gannon plied Chaine members with a foie gras sampler at her home in Hali‘imaile.