GRAND WAILEA
Executive Chef Eric Faivre has designed a trio of buffets that will leap to the top of your list of best holiday meals on Maui. Thanksgiving Day offers a Grand Lu‘au with entertainment and a hosted bar. Along with the traditional lu‘au menu will be turkey with giblet gravy, cornbread stuffing, homemade cranberry-Maui Gold pineapple sauce, and pumpkin and arugula salad with dried mango, toasted pine nuts and a spritely white balsamic dressing. Desserts include strudel, pumpkin cheesecake and maple creme brulee.
The Grand Wailea’s Christmas buffet begins with crab-and-roasted-corn chowder with Tahitian vanilla and cognac. An eggs Benedict station will offer Canadian bacon, kalua pig, or grilled shrimp topped with a choice of three hollandaise sauces. The Grand is a Waldorf Astoria hotel, but its Waldorf salad has a Maui spin: fresh spinach, macadamia nuts, kiawe-smoked pork belly and Surfing Goat Dairy cheese with a spicy orange-cinnamon vinaigrette. Entrees include Malama Farms Berkshire pork wrapped in brioche with a truffle bordelaise sauce, prime rib, pan-seared lobster and roasted portobello gnudi. For dessert, choose from a Yule log, pies and cakes and MYO ice cream sundae station.
Chef Eric’s New Year’s Day buffet will get your 2014 off to a happy start with grilled chicken breast with chanterelles, wok-fried salt-and-pepper shrimp, bacon doughnuts and other earthly delights. Your hardest choice? Deciding which Grand buffet to attend. I say, do all three.
3850 Wailea Alanui, Wailea
Reservations: (808) 875-1234
Buffet Hours: Thanksgiving 5–8:30 p.m. • Christmas Day 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m. • New Year’s Day 7 a.m.–1 p.m.
