While growing up in Malaysia, Ingrid Chan was always interested in the hospitality industry. Tourism, including restaurants and hotels, held a fascination for her. With land so precious in Malaysia, gardening was limited. Her aunt’s home, however, was landscaped with
While growing up in Malaysia, Ingrid Chan was always interested in the hospitality industry. Tourism, including restaurants and hotels, held a fascination for her. With land so precious in Malaysia, gardening was limited. Her aunt’s home, however, was landscaped with ornamental plants and a huge rambutan tree that filled her tiny backyard. Though not involved in the garden, Ingrid fondly remembers the peaceful feeling she got whenever she visited the spot. She has brought some of that tranquility to gardening in Hawaii almost 20 years later.
Today, Ingrid owns and manages Mi’s restaurant, home schools her two girls and gardens daily.
“I truly love all the parts of my life. Gardening to support the restaurant has been a wonderful addition,” she said.
After graduation from high school in Ipoh, Malaysia, north of Kuala Lumpur, Ingrid continued her education at an acclaimed Swiss Hotel Management School in Switzerland. There, she studied various aspects of the hospitality industry and was launched into a series of culinary experiences from her internship in Saipan to jobs in Zurich, Singapore, and Las Vegas. In 2001, she met Morgan Starr who was also doing restaurant work in Nevada. Within a year they married and decided they’d prefer life on a tropical island to theirs in the desert. Hawaii was an obvious choice.
While packing for their move, Morgan was offered a job as chef at the Beach House restaurant at the Four Seasons Resort, Hualalai. Ingrid began work at the Kona Brewing Co., first as a server and soon as an employee trainer. She and Morgan bought a house in the Kaloko area and started dreaming of owning their own restaurant.
Before taking this major step, they took some time off from their busy lives to decide how to actualize their dream. During this break they tested their fortitude by camping throughout South America. A year later, they were ready to start their new life. In 2006, Morgan and Ingrid installed a 10-by-20-foot roofed structure to cover their tent at their newly acquired Ranchos property. Morgan helped a friend build his house and then the two started building a house for Morgan and Ingrid.
Once the house was completed, the roofed structure was transformed into a greenhouse. Ingrid said Morgan was always the gardener in the family.
“He loves growing things and would always put in a garden wherever we lived,” she said. Gardening in the Las Vegas desert was always a struggle, so Morgan was delighted to find gardening in Hawaii was relatively easy.
Before they opened Mi’s Italian Bistro in Kealakekua in summer 2007, Morgan started planting in earnest to supply the new restaurant from his garden. Ingrid made it clear that the garden was to be his project. Basil, rosemary and oregano were the first plants in the ground. Squash and beets soon followed. As Morgan’s job as executive chef became more demanding Ingrid found she needed to help out by watering the plants and doing occasional weeding. The more she worked in the garden, the more she liked it. Today, she loves it.
Early every morning, Ingrid heads for the garden and delights in the meditative tasks of watering and weeding before she starts her busy day. Her two girls, Yi, who is 8, and Mei, who is 6, are a big help and the garden is part of their schooling. Almost everything they do in the garden is a learning experience. Science and math lessons are essential parts of the gardening experience. Creative arts and spiritual growth are also included in their gardening activities. The girls have created some wonderful rituals around seed sowing. They make up songs and sing while they work to encourage the seeds to grow and to welcome the new plants to their garden.
“Plants are living things. I think they also have feelings. You can see that if you pay attention in your garden,” Ingrid insisted.
She knows her healthy garden is a result of their care and the connection she and the girls have with the plants.
When asked what she likes to grow best, Ingrid paused and said, “I love young leafy tomato plants that grow so quickly and produce such wonderful tasting fruit.” She then went on to wax eloquent on the merits of her other favorites. “Beets and arugula both have wonderful flavor and they taste great together.” In addition to the actual beet root, Ingrid listed many uses for the plant’s greens. When she cooks at home, she often uses the greens in soups and salads as well as in stir fried dishes.
Everything they grow, as well as lots of the local produce they buy for their restaurant, is organically grown. At their new restaurant location in Waterfront Row on Alii Drive in Kailua-Kona, they will be incorporating plants Ingrid has been growing to decorate the interior, as well as their large lanai. Though most of the herbs she grows are used in Mi’s recipes, decorative specimens of rosemary, oregano, basil and lavender will grace their new space allowing diners to add a pinch of fresh herbs to their meals.
In May, they closed their Kealakekua restaurant to focus on getting the new venture going. They are currently serving lunches and dinners in the new location with a grand opening planned for Father’s Day, June 19. They missed the opportunity to serve local moms on Mother’s Day, they want to make sure that Father’s Day is well celebrated. The restaurant is now open daily 11 a.m. until 10 p.m.
Supplying the new larger restaurant has meant a gardening expansion, but Ingrid and the girls are up to the task. They’re planting more beets, basil, arugula and tomatoes to keep a steady supply going to the restaurant. Ingrid declares the additional work is fine. She truly enjoys her life and said that she’ll continue to do her best every day and stay open and flexible as the inevitable challenges appear. We can all learn from her example that a busy life can include gardening and that gardening can actually enhance your life regardless of how busy it may seem.
Diana Duff is a plant adviser, educator and consultant living on an organic farm in Captain Cook.
