Aloha and welcome to our first Pop-Up episode of Maitre d’ Diaries the Podcast, where we record interviews from our visits to colleagues in restaurants around the country and the world.

On Dante’s most recent visit home he had lunch at Fete in Honolulu with his dear friend and sustainability proponent, Natalie Aczon, after which we had the pleasure to interview the co-owner of Fete, James Beard Award-Winning Chef Robynne Maii.

Dante has been boasting about Robynne and her husband Chuck Bussler’s restaurant Fete since it opened, and he was bursting with hometown pride two years ago when Robynne won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest & Pacific.

Robynne and Dante have more than Honolulu and a love of sustainability in common, though. During our chat we discovered that both Dante and Robynne boast Rocco di Spirito’s Union Pacific as their first job in New York City. Listen in to hear about how she came to work at the world renowned Kitchen Arts & Letters, how it connects to her unique New York 911 story, what made Robynne and her husband Chuck decide to move back to Hawaii and open Fete, and much more!

@robynnemaii @asknataliehawaii @fetehawaii @chuckbussler @beardfoundation @roccodispirito @kalnyc @mattsartwell @zunicafe