Ku‘uipo Lorenzo | Highway Inn

Ku‘uipo Lorenzo

has been a hostess at Highway Inn’s Kaka‘ako restaurant for four years and has worked in the hospitality and visitor industry for 47 years. She is a past Kamehameha Day Parade Pa‘u Queen (2014) and has spent time living abroad and dancing hula. She volunteers with several non-profit organizations and is currently a board member of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Her Tūtū’s Kitchen dish, “Slumgallion,” was created by her popo (grandmother). “I was 12 when I asked her to make soup, and she came up with Slumgallion. It’s a name she made up because I used to say to her, ‘Oh, let’s just go slum around,’ you know, go out and wander around, have fun. It’s basically a hamburger stew that melds together several different cultures.”

How did you learn to cook?

Popo taught me how to cook when I was 10 years old. My father died at a young age, and as the oldest of five children, I had to feed my siblings while my mother worked. What started out as a chore soon became my passion. I want to pass this recipe down to future generations in my family to remind them that cooking and eating as a family is good for the soul. It makes me happy to see them all enjoying a delicious meal together.

Slumgallion is our February 2019 Tūtū’s Kitchen dish