How to Help Local Keiki Have a Mele Kalikimaka

Long-time foodie and gourmet home cook Lisa Atkinson has transitioned her passion into a private chef and catering business, serving family style meals, gourmet tasting menu events, or something in between, under the name of Paradise Creative Cuisine, LLC. She began cooking at eight years old, under the tutelage of her matriarchs. After living in France for a year, Lisa began to educate and expand her palate and learn to appreciate seasonality, sustainability, and local food cultures including her own Native cultures. She’s traveled the world searching for the perfect ingredients. She’s cooked elk, duck, and buffalo from Oregon; sampled numerous varieties of pork in Sardinia; tasted red deer with gravy, and whitebait sandwiches in New Zealand; shared community favorites of musk ox, moose, Eider duck, halibut, and crab in remote villages in Alaska; downed local meat delicacies in Ireland and Scotland; and is now a voracious subscriber to Maui Nui Venison. Transplanted from the rainy Pacific Northwest to sunny Hawaiʻi Island, Lisa is excited to blend her passion for food with her love of sharing that food with her new community. Blending Island favorites and traditional Native ingredients with a global perspective—the results are delicious!