MAHIMAHI MUSUBI: COSMOPOLITANIZING STRATEGIES IN HAWAIIAN REGIONAL CUISINE Benjamin Burroughs University of Nevada, Las V egas W. Jeffrey Burroughs Brigham Young University-Hawaii Hawaiian Regional Cuisine (HRC) is an haute cuisin e that us es hi gh quality island-grown foods in combination with local ethnic fl avors and global techniques to form what we term an "e ngin ee red cosmopolitan cuisin e. " This intentionally developed regional cui sin e is analyzed through tl1 e work of tree chefs who are noted practitioners of HRC. Linking the backgrounds of these chefs witl1 tl1 eir recipes examines tl1 e impact of global cultural flows on tl1 e production of cosmopolitan cuisin e. A number of "cos mopolitanizing strate- gies" are interrogated that position HRC concurrently witl1in multiple regis- ters: global, regional, and local. Examples of tl1 ese crosscutting strategies include disruption, performance, and hybridization. The hybridity present in HRC, as a central cosmopolita ni zin g strategy, both incorporates but also reaches beyond the local. HRC is discussed as a contact zo ne where waves of commodity, culture, and tradition collide to form an engin ee red regional cuisine to was h up along global shore s. IN AUGUST OF 991, A DOZEN CHEFS FROM AROUND HAWAI'I met at the Maui Prin ce hotel for what th ey termed a Hawaiian Cooking Symposium. After several days of discussion they reso lved to help each other in a new organization they call ed Hawaiian Regional Cuisine (HRC ). Th e che fs were accomp li shed in their car ee rs but generally not household names. Many were executive chefs at resort hotels and some owned their own successful restaurant s. Of the twelve, only Roy Yamaguchi (owner of Roy's on Oahu ), Pacific Studies, Vol. 37, No . 3-Dece mber 2014 147