About us

Two cooks, one
kitchen, one island.

Big Island Grinds is Mele and Kimo. We've been married thirty-one years and cooking together for all of them. The catering started as a favor and turned into a life.

Auntie Mele

Menus, rice, sweets, peacekeeper

Mele grew up in Kalapana back when the road still went through. Her mother ran the kitchen at a small plantation-era camp and taught her to cook by feel — a pinch of this, a handful of that, taste it, fix it. She handles every menu conversation with our families, builds the grocery lists, presses every single musubi, and makes the haupia the night before because it has to set right.

If you ask her what her favorite thing to cook is, she'll say "whatever's in season." If you press her, it's the poke.

Uncle Kimo

Fire, pig, grill, heavy lifting

Kimo learned the imu from his uncle in Ka'ū. He's the one who shows up at 4am the morning before a luau to start the fire, and the one who stays up watching the pit through the night. When he's not cooking for the business, he's fishing off the rocks near Punalu'u or fixing something on the truck.

He doesn't say much at events. He just nods, refills the pan, and keeps the line moving.

How we work

Same-day cooking, always.

Nothing gets made the night before except the haupia and the marinades. If your event is Saturday, we're shopping Friday afternoon and cooking Saturday morning.

Island-first sourcing.

Fish from Suisan when we can, pork from a ranch up in Waimea we've used for fifteen years, taro and sweet potato from a small farm on the Hāmākua coast. Not every ingredient — but the ones that matter.

We cap the calendar.

We only take about forty jobs a year. It's the only way to keep the food right and still show up to our own grandkids' birthdays.

Referrals over marketing.

Every family that hires us came through somebody. We like it that way. It means we already know your aunties before we meet you.

Ready to talk?

If you've been pointed our way, we'd love to hear about your gathering.

Get in touch →

Two cooks, onekitchen, one island.