Ippy Aiona cooks on TV

WAIMEA, Hawaii: Waimea resident Philip ‘Ippy’ Aiona is hitting the culinary big time. He is one of the finalists in the nationwide TV program “The Next Food Network Star: Season 8″ and has made it through the first round of competition.

The 23 year old Hawaii Preparatory Academy graduate is the executive chef of Solimene’s in Waimea.

On the most recent episode, Aiona’s warm mushroom salad and diners impressed the judges enough to make it through the first round of competition.

As he stated in this introductory promotional video, Aiona injects Pacific ingredients into traditional European cuisine.

The show airs 6 p.m. Sundays on the Food Network channel.