A fun, hands-on, family-oriented Hawaiian language culinary experience
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ABOUT KANAKA KITCHEN
Kanaka Kitchen is a culinary experience that teaches participants how to use traditional and local ingredients, as well as traditional and modern cooking methods to create healthy, delicious meaʻai.
We provide both fun hands-on in-person and online experiences using locally-sourced foods for all ages.
We use what is grown from the ʻāina, as we remind ourselves that good food doesn't need to cost lots of money.
Kanaka Kitchen immerses participants in an atmosphere of aloha, as well as ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, providing easy-to-follow instructions in the Hawaiian language.
It doesn't get more ʻono than that!
Kanaka Kitchen LIVE
is a hands-on, in-person culinary experience. This is more than a cooking class. It’s a space to reconnect—with our meaʻai, Hawaiian language and culture, and each other.
Virtual Kanaka Kitchen
is a hands-on, virtual culinary experience. Prepare ʻono food with our Kanaka Culinary Experts from the comfort of your home. Whether you are in Hawaiʻi or across the world.
Kanaka Kitchen for Groups
Interested in hosting a Kanaka Kitchen for your school, organization, or company—whether for students, staff, or friends? Contact us to explore the best options for your group, available live or virtually. We’ll work with you to create an engaging and memorable experience.
Meet the
Kanaka Culinary Experts
Makana Oliveros-Kahakalau and ʻIʻini Kahakalau, a husband-and-wife duo, bring over 30 years of collective culinary experience, serving delicious and distinctive Hawaiʻi-inspired cuisine that has nourished thousands of Kanaka.
Raised in families where food was both sustenance and tradition, Makana and ʻIʻini have been hunting, harvesting, and preparing their own food since childhood. As cultural practitioners, they weave ʻike and pilina into their work, sharing the deep familial connections to food through stories, chants, songs, proverbs, and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi.
One of their greatest joys is passing on this knowledge through fun, engaging, and interactive experiences that connect people to culture, community, and ʻāina.
Interested in hosting a Kanaka Kitchen for your organization or group?
We can host Kanaka Kitchen almost anywhere from outside picnic tables to inside a fancy kitchen. We have over 30 years of cooking delicious and unique Hawaiʻi inspired food that have fed thousands of kanaka.
OUR MEAʻAI
Here are some of the delicious meaʻai we can cooking together using locally sourced foods:
