04/30/2026
Congratulations!
Big Island Chocolate Festival Names Culinary, Farm Winners
Students Awarded $5K in Scholarships
WAIKOLOA, HAWAI‘I ISLAND—Three Hawai‘i college culinary teams were awarded a total of $5,000 in scholarships at the recent Big Island Chocolate Festival at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa. Also announced at the festivalʻs gala were winners of the Peopleʻs Choice Awards, best cacao bean and bean to bar.
Presented by the Kona Cacao Association (KCA), the 13th annual festival was a three-day celebration of chocolate that included a guided farm tour, college culinary competition, chocolate farmers market, agriculture seminars, culinary demos and the festive gala.
A total of 22 college students hailing from Maui, Kapiolani and Leeward Community Colleges participated in the annual college culinary competition. Plated desserts were critiqued using an American Culinary Federation rubric focusing on taste, texture, appearance and creativity. Scholarship sponsor King’s Hawaiian presented three teams with awards.
Taking first place with a $2,500 scholarship was Hawkins Ko and Chase Ignacio of Kapiolani Community College, followed by Rhiannah Ulit and Ralf Bartolome of Leeward Community College with a second place $1,500 award and Eden Chung and Daniel Tada of Kapiolani Community College with a third place $1,000 award.
“Supporting Hawai‘i culinary students is a mission we embrace at the King’s Hawaiian 'ohana,” said Heather Campbell, King’s Hawaiian’s innovation pastry chef and competition judge. “It’s an honor to contribute not only to our future culinarians, but also to support the journey of their faculty and supporters.”
Other college competition judges included Chef Stéphane Tréand, M*F Patissier Chocolatier; Four Seasons Resort Lanai Executive Pastry Chef Bruce Trouyet and Chef Maria de los Milagros Miceli of Four Seasons Lanai.
Earning People’s Choice Awards at the festival gala were the Fairmont Orchid for Best Savory, the Outrigger Kona Resort and Spa for Best Sweet and the Mauna Lani, Auberge Resorts Collection for Best Decorated Booth.
The Best Cacao Bean award was won by Martin Mazzanti of Ocean Grace Farms in Kalaoa-Kona. Best Bean to Bar winners were topped by Four Seasons Resort chefs Bruce Trouyet and Maria de los Milagros Miceli, who won first place. Ken and Connie Melrose of Primavera Farm in Kealakekua earned second while Executive Pastry Chef Daniel Sampson of the Fairmont Orchid won third. Bean judges were Dr. Raven Hanna, Dr. Nat Bletter, Maddy Smith and Ann Tuomela while Chef Treand, Chef Campbell, Dr. Nat Bletter and Maddie Smith critiqued Bean to Bar.
Additional festival winners are the 2026 beneficiaries: Kona Dance & Performing Arts, ACF Kona Kohala Chefs Association, Center for Spiritual Living Kona and participating culinary students.
(Photo) Three teams of the BICF’s annual college culinary competition were awarded a total of $5,000 in scholarships from King’s Hawaiian. Pictured from left is the second place team of Rhiannah Ulit and Ralf Bartolome of Leeward Community College, first place team members Hawkins Ko and Chase Ignacio of Kapiolani Community College with Kona Cacao Assn. President Farsheed Bonakdar, third place team of Eden Chung and Daniel Tada of Kapiolani, and Chef Heather Campbell of King’s Hawaiian. Photo courtesy BICF
