Farsheed Bonakdar: The Chocolate Guy in Hawaii
Some people are true forces of nature in their niche. When it comes to cacao and chocolate on the Big Island of Hawaii, Farsheed Bonakdar is both a force of nature and a DaVinci-like visionary of the future of that tasty treat in Hawaii.
Hawaii is just on the edge of the temperature zone, the demarcation where the cacao bean will grow. Most of the agricultural attention has been on Kona coffee, a crop that has been cultivated for almost 150 years. Yet cacao is making a hefty surge and is the focus of both on-island consumption and export. The major chocolate concerns are always looking for new sources of the bean, and ones with a distinct taste to boot.
Yet until Farsheed stepped in a few years back, the cacao industry appeared to be wallowing in confectionary neutral as it couldn’t quite amp up to the next level. The Big Island Chocolate Festival (BICF) had been around for a while, yet was a collection of growers who didn’t have the time or energy to get to a collective vision and action plan.
Bonakdar has a wealth of all-over-the-world experience. He has lived in six countries, including his native Iran, and speaks six languages. In terms of education, his first interest was math, then art. He now looks at food production and processing as art. And in the world of chocolate, art is fitting.
Getting to Hawaii was a bit of an unplanned turn. Farsheed noted “I lived in 4 different states in US, then went to Hawaii based on a friend’s request to check his property and possibly start a retreat where guests would enjoy healthy vegetarian foods, meditations and various therapies. That never happened but instead I purchased a piece of property in a remote area. I did not like the quality of mixed greens available, so I decided to experiment.” As he began to troll the options in this area, a close friend in California introduced the idea that with his resort connections, why not chocolate? The planting of the first cacao tree gave the visionary roots.
As that crop grew, the resulting connections and customers probably were key to the next step in moving the BICF and industry to the next level. Unknowingly, Farsheed’s purchase of the now famous 42-inch chocolate fountain might have been one of the big pushes the event needed. Instantly, he became the “Chocolate Guy in Hawaii.” His business, The Cocoa Outlet, has steadily grown each year and provides both consumer products and ingredients for restaurants and resorts.
Chocolate now had a face and visionary in Bonakdar. The next logical step was a plan, and he crafted an event at a high-end resort with famous chocolate chefs. “I had come to know a lot of celebrity chefs, and the first one I invited was chef Jacques Torres, who came and helped set up our various competition parameters besides the student competition, in categories like best plated dessert, best bonbon, best savory, best bean to bar, best fermented Hawaiian bean” he noted. The result was competition drove both the amateur and professional chefs to create brand new and amazing dishes.
In Hawaii, events have a way of bringing business, education and culture together in a manner not duplicated on the mainland. The results have been amazing with the BICF. He took over a struggling Kona Chocolate Fest in 2012, and together with six women, formed Kona Cacao Association, a non-profit organization that puts on the BICF. He now serves as president of that group. Even more amazing is how the event has both grown in popularity and impact. It has donated over $120,000 to various beneficiaries. It has served to highlight cacao, Hawaii’s newest cash crop through farming seminars and chocolate classes.
Pretty amazing considering Farsheed Bonakdar wanted to be an architect.
Here are some links to Farsheed’s world