Sam Choy facts for kids
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Sam Choy during a meeting with Eni Faleomavaega
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| Cooking style | Pacific Rim cuisine |
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| Education | Kapiolani Community College |
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Current restaurant(s)
Sam Choy's Kai Lanai
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Television show(s)
Iron Chef America
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Award(s) won
James Beard Foundation Award for America's Classics (2004)
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Sam Choy Sr. is an American chef, restaurateur, and television personality known as a founding contributor of Pacific Rim cuisine. Sam sold his Kai Lani restaurant on Big island 2 years ago per an employee in late September 2023, and in October 2023 they announced it was permanently closing.
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Biography
Choy is the son of a Chinese father, Hung Sam Choy, and a German–Hawaiian mother, Clairemoana. He grew up in Laie, Oahu. Choy is an alumnus of the Kapiolani Community College's Culinary Arts program.
One of his first jobs as a chef was at The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. He would then return to Hawaii, where he eventually opened a chain of restaurants. Choy helped develop and popularize Hawaii regional cuisine. In 1991, Choy founded the Poke Festival and Recipe Contest.
In 2004, Choy's restaurant Sam Choy's Kaloko in Kailua-Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii, was named by the James Beard Foundation as one of America's Classics restaurants. The award recognizes "beloved regional restaurants" that reflect the character of their communities.
Choy has appeared in several Food Network programs, including Ready.. Set... Cook!, Chopped’s first Grill Master Tournament, and Iron Chef America.
He is good friends with Emeril Lagasse, who has appeared on Choy's TV show Sam Choy's Kitchen on KHNL. Lagasse has also mentioned Choy by name several times in his television shows; one of those times he was making Poke on his live TV show, and added peanut butter to the Poke- Choy's "secret ingredient". In 2015, Choy broadcast a series on YouTube, Sam Choy In The Kitchen.
Choy has designed Hawaiian-inspired dishes for American Airlines’ first class passengers to and from Hawaii.
Personal life
He is married to Carol, with whom he has two sons, Sam Jr. and Christopher.
Choy lives in Kona District, Hawaii.
Restaurants
- Created Huki Lau Cafe (no longer owned by Choy, Laie, O'ahu, Hawaii)
- Sam Choy's Breakfast, Lunch, and Crab (Closed in 2013)
- Sam Choy's (Tumon Bay, Guam - Closed)
- Sam Choy's Kai Lanai ( Big Island, Hawaii)
- Sam Choy's Seafood Style Island Grille (Pearl Harbor, O'ahu, Hawaii)
- Sam Choy's Kahului (Queen Kaahumanu Center, Kahului, Maui - Closed)
- Sam Choy's Lahaina (Front Street - Closed)
- Sam Choy's Poke to the Max (Seattle & Tacoma, Washington)
- Pier Nine by Sam Choy (HPU Campus, O'ahu, Hawaii)
- Holoholo Grill (Kauai at Koloa Landing Hotel)
- Sam Choy’s Ohana Diner (Bowl Incline, Incline Village, Nevada)
- Sam Choy's Kaloko (Kaloko, Hawaii - Closed)
See also
- Cuisine of Hawaii
- Iron Chef America
- George Mavrothalassitis
- Poke (Hawaii)
- Alan Wong
- Roy Yamaguchi
