Neil Murphy took a circuitous route back to Hawaii. The New York native first lived on the islands beginning at age 17, when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and they subsequently stationed him at Pearl Harbor. After the service, he attended the Culinary Institute of America and quickly signed on at River Cafe, working with chefs like David Burke and Charlie Palmer. He eventually crossed the East River and helmed the kitchen at Park Avenue Café. Since 2004, he’s worked for pioneering Hawaiian chef Peter Merriman and now oversees Merriman’s restaurants on the Big Island, Maui and Kauai. On September 27, immediately following my meal at the Big Island flagship, we spoke by phone, and Murphy shared further insights.

What’s the biggest challenge in operating multiple restaurants?

Every restaurant has a different challenge. Consistency is the biggest challenge, and having people listen to you. If I say I want something cooked this way and get on a plane to Maui, how do you get somebody to do something when you’re not there?”…sometimes the dish itself needs to be reworked. How do you set guys up for success? You make it easy for them.

What’s the biggest challenge in operating a restaurant in Hawaii?

It’s very difficult to make good numbers, your bottom line is difficult to achieve because the price of energy, which is 80% more than the price on the mainland…the price of energy drives it. The price of my energy bill is $5000 a month here, in New York, it’s 800 bucks…Also, there’s a small labor pool. You hire a cook, he’s never cooked before. Maybe he was a painter, worked in the sugar cane fields, maybe he worked with cars.

What’s the criteria for a dish that goes on your menu? Does it change from island to island?

On all our menus, we have several dishes that are Chef Merriman’s signature dishes. Chefs become stewards of those dishes to make sure the consistency’s there. For the rest of the menu, the criteria, we look for everything to be at least 90% local, fresh herbs of the garden, so far we’re at 100%. We do spinach with asparagus, I’m still at 100%. Butter comes from the mainland, so the dish is at 90%…Lots of guys are growing lots of different stuff. It’s a lot easier than when I first started. The other criteria for the dish, aside from it has to taste great, it gets to the table fast. At Merriman’s, we do great food fast.

When did you know that you’d become a professional chef?

I was a cook on a submarine for three years, 2000 feet below the ocean. It was a lot of work. To make all this food, and then at 6 o’clock, it’s all gone. When I got out of the Navy, I said I’d never cook again. I tried a couple other jobs, I worked on cars and worked on a chicken farm, tried timesharing. The only thing I was good at was cooking. I went back into it and started to have a good time. I went to CIA and the rest was history.

What was your very first night like working in a restaurant kitchen?

My first night, I was it a good kitchen, it was at River Café, under the Brooklyn Bridge. I was working with Charlie Palmer at the time, I just remember the tickets coming in so fast, and the chef used to expedite in French. He’s screaming at me, I look at the guy next to me, what the fuck is he saying? Oh it’s a vegetable plate. Why doesn’t he just say vegetable plate. It was very exciting. There was a lot of action, it was hot as hell. We used to take bets with guys on the line about who would pass out first. It was exciting. I was hooked for sure.

What do you look for when hiring somebody to work in your kitchen?

I really start with personality. I look to somebody who can take direction, who can be coached, and who’s a nice person. I also look for people to be respectful of other people in the kitchen, equipment and the product that we use. I can teach somebody to sautee, grill or to cook asparagus, but I can’t teach somebody how to show respect or be nice. If would be nice to have somebody who’s a great cook with a great personality, but I take the personality first, it’s a trade.

If you could only cook with one more protein, what would it be and why?

Pig. Pig represents the common guy, that’s for one. There are people in this world who will not eat pig, for many different reasons. Pig was also used by common man because it bred fast and you could get a pig to slaughter in three to four months. Cow, it would take a year and a half. Also, pigs would eat anything. Pig represents something really cool. The flavor of pork, and the fat that it has, it allows you to cook and not worry as much about what it turns out like, because you have the fat to confit, flavor or season the meat. With the fat, you can put ingredients on there, rosemary, garlic or ginger, and the meat soaks up the flavor, binds with the meat because of the fat. Things will be flavorful and moist, more so than deer, lamb, or grass fed animals…Because of that, it doesn’t take a lot to break it down…I don’t know if you’ve ever been on a farm, but a pig has a lot of personality. It digs, it snorts and pigs are really clean animals. It’s how they’re raised, just like beef, they have to live in their own crap, it’s not cool…When I was in first grade, the teacher used to say I was a pig on my paper because I wrote so sloppy. Maybe that’s why I like pig.

Who do you consider mentors, and what did they teach you?

I worked for a lot of good guys. My mentor was a guy named David Burke. David was my sous chef at River Café…David was also consulting chef for Singapore Airlines, and we used to travel the world together. He taught me that nothing was impossible. In the late ’80s, he was 20 years ahead of the time. No matter how much work, he came in and did it. He never said no, he figured it out. David had balls like an ox. One time, he wanted to do peas in a pod. I said, “Are you going to cook ‘em?” He said, “Why, they’re perfect the way they are.”

When New York Times wanted to do a story on turkeys, because Thanksgiving was coming around. Amanda Hesser called David and said, “How are you going to cook your turkey this year?” He said, “I’m going to cook it in the dishwasher.” We put turkey stock in the holding bin and we ran the turkey through the dishwasher 79 times so it was cooked 140 degrees…You can do anything you want, you don’t have to go by the book all the time…that’s creativity like no other chef.

Who’s the person you’ve never cooked with that you’d most like to cook with?

Probably my mother. My mom and I never really got along, never really saw eye to eye, and my mother was a great cook. She lives in New York. I’m going back in three weeks, she’s 87 years old, and next time I go back, maybe I’ll cook with her.