open mind, empty stomach

Jay Theiler from Snake River Farms and Ray Signorello from Signorello Estate recently hosted a couple “Kobe and Cabernet” dinners in Honolulu. Both Snake River Farms and Signorello Estate are family owned operations that focus on quality. Snake River Farms, America’s preeminent Wagyu producer, first entered my radar when I had their buttery soft and delicious beef at Vintage Cave. Signorello meticulously produces small batches of premium wines in Napa. This was some serious beef and wine. My wonderful and talented friend Malia scored an invite, but is busy eating her way through South America, so I was able to go in her stead. The venues for the two dinners were the Plaza Club and the Outrigger Canoe Club; I went with the latter and was treated to a spectacular sunset over the ocean before dinner started.

I sat at Jay and Ray’s table and was pleasantly surprised to see a few familiar faces join us for the meal. The hosts told us about their operations and explained each course and pairing. The party started with Snake River Farms Wagyu filet tartar. An extremely generous portion of very good meat came paired with an interesting full-bodied Signorello Hope’s Cuvée Chardonnay, which is named after Ray’s late mother.

Next was Snake River Farms kurobuta pork belly, the Wagyu of pork, that came with a simple frisée citrus salad and was also paired with the Cuvée.

The belly was followed by my favorite dish of the night, a perfectly cooked and simply seasoned Snake River Farms Wagyu New York steak with green peppercorn demi that was paired with Signorello’s Cab.

The final course was a Snake River Farms Wagyu ribeye wellington that was liberally showered with truffles and served with Signorello Padrone, named after Ray’s late father. Unfortunately, my ribeye was cooked to a tragic medium-well. Fortunately, the silky smooth Padrone was more than enough to make up for it.

Dinner was nothing short of phenomenal. Snake River Farms’ Kobe-style beef is the best you can get short of flying to Japan and Signorello wines are quality even I could taste. If you’d like to try the highest quality steak available on Oahu, try looking for Snake River Farms at BLT Steak, Budnamujip, Michel’s at the Colony Surf, Stage, and Vintage Cave.