Maui Sunset Catering

Ken Claphan – Owner of Maui Sunset Catering

Ken Claphan is a private chef and owner of Maui Sunset Catering based out of Kihei. Ken is mostly a self-taught Chef, learning most of his skills from his family embracing old Polish, Scottish, Russian, Irish and Italian recipes. Ken’s fondest memory as a child is in the kitchen on Sundays cooking Dozens of Pierogi’s, and Golumpki from scratch for the family.

Ken’s culinary inspiration and enthusiasm comes from seeing his food bring joy to those he cooks for. He attended Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, Michigan where he studied Culinary Arts and Hotel, Restaurant management. Along his fruitful career he has had the privilege to work along side top Chefs at a variety of the worlds best restaurants.

Ken is an easy going laid back kind of guy. He moved to Maui 8 years ago where he started a new life chapter, embarking on new loves for the beach, surfing, Pacific Rim cuisine, Hawaiian Culture and the Island Lifestyle.

Hawaiian Language

The Hawaiian language (Hawaiian: ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi) is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaiʻi, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii. King Kamehameha III established the first Hawaiian-language constitution in 1839 and 1840.

For various reasons, the number of native speakers of Hawaiian gradually decreased during the period from the 1830s to the 1950s. Hawaiian was essentially displaced by English on six of the seven inhabited islands. As of 2000, native speakers of Hawaiian amount to under 0.1% of the statewide population. Linguists are worried about the fate of this and other endangered languages.

Nevertheless, from about 1949 to the present, there has been a gradual increase in attention to, and promotion of, the language. Public Hawaiian-language immersion pre-schools called Pūnana Leo were started in 1984; other immersion schools followed soon after. The first students to start in immersion pre-school have now graduated from college and many are fluent Hawaiian speakers.

A creole language spoken in Hawaiʻi is technically called “Hawaii Creole English”, abbreviated “HCE”. It developed from pidgin English and is often called simply “Pidgin”. It should not be mistaken for the Hawaiian language nor for a dialect of English.

There are only twelve letters in the Hawaiian alphabet, plus the ʻokina which is considered a consonant.

Hawaiian to English Translator