Features Editor, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Betty Shimabukuro wasborn in Bellefonte, Penn., and moved to Hawaii at age 9. She graduated Kaiser High 1975, and UH 1979. Her first newspaper job was with the Pacific Daily News on Guam, followed by Florida Today, San Benardino Sun (Calif.), Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the Orange County Register (Calif.). She returned to the Star-Bulletin in 1995. Betty started food writing in 1998 and is well known for her weekly column "By Request." She is the author of the cookbooks "By Request" and "What Hawaii Likes to Eat."

Betty, everyone associates you with cooking. What are you doing now?
I am the features editor at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. This means I have responsibility for the Today section, seven days a week, and manage a staff of about a dozen writers and editors. Food writing and editing is one part of the mix, but because of my column and my cookbooks, people think I'm lucky enough to do that full time.

How did you get into that line of work?
I have a journalism degree from the University of Hawaii-I picked that major mainly because I was bad at everything in college except writing. I figured that gave me two options: an English major or journalism, and English didn't present a clear career path. So I chose this basically by process of elimination. Of course, it was also the era of Woodward and Bernstein, so there was something heroic about journalism. That said, food writing is a long way from investigative reporting. Life has it's own plan for you, I guess.

What part of your job gives you the most fun?
Without question, going out and meeting people, and listening to their stories. I'll never be the kind of writer who works alone, spending hours agonizing over one paragraph. Or the kind of food writer who spends a week in the kitchen trying one recipe 100 ways. For me the purpose is to find stories worth telling, and tell them in a way that grabs readers by the eyeballs and teaches them something new.

If you could subtract one thing away from your job, what would it be?
I was going to say the annoying phone calls, but sometimes that can be amusing. Like the lady who called on Christmas Eve and wanted a recipe for lilikoi cheesecake read to her over the phone. It was aggravating at the time, but pretty funny looking back. I do wish people would quit calling me to complain that they didn't get their newspaper today (call circulation, please!).

You've just recently published a new cookbook. What's it called?
I wrote What Hawaii Likes to Eat with Muriel Miura, who's a real veteran on the food scene. Most of the recipes are hers, except for a handful from my Star-Bulletin columns. I provided the "glue"-the introductions and commentary. It won the cookbook award at the Hawai'i Book Publishers Association Ka Palapala Po'okela book awards, which was pretty cool.

What's special about it? I mean, why should anyone buy yet another cookbook?
Well, it's pretty. But, seriously, people tell me it is a great overview of local food, from luau to plantation days to plate lunches to some fancy food. I think the strength is in Muriel's older recipes from restaurants long gone, and old family favorites. And the chapter on sweets is very b. Chantilly cake, dobash, cocoa puffs, red velvet cake...And it is extremely pretty.

Tell us a little about the private Betty. Do you have a family ?
My husband is Rob Perez, a reporter for the Advertiser. We have three kids. One is working in Baltimore to save the world by designing video games. One is at UCLA studying journalism (actually communication), despite all my advice to find a real job. And the last one is in middle school.

Apart from cooking and newspaper work what are the things you do most for pleasure?
I read a lot, mostly trash fiction, like murder mysteries and sci-fi. Or historical fiction, which is not as trashy. I'm also re-reading a lot of children's classics, like The Chronicles of Narnia. Unfortunately I also watch a lot of TV. And my stress relief is beading. I make earrings and bracelets by the bucketful-mostly while watching TV-and give them away. Want one?

Do you ever think of retiring? Why?
I think about retiring every time I get an annoying phone call from someone who didn't get his paper and can't understand why I can't personally find his carrier. Which is every other day.

What would you do if you did retire?
I'd hope to do some writing and maybe get a part-time, low-stress job close to home. I don't think a retirement of leisure is in the cards if I want to keep eating, although I have continual hope that my No. 1 son, the one designing video games, is going to hit the mother lode and be able to support me in my old age. I also hope to spend plenty of time with the grandkids I don't have yet.

A lot of journalists have a novel inside of them. Do you?
I once thought I'd write a science fiction novel for kids that involved retinal scanning and social engineering. But I've pretty much abandoned that, since the genre has advanced way beyond that point, and the only thing I came up with, anyway, was the main character's name: Chang.

Out of all your experience of life, what is the single wisest thought you’d like to pass on?
I tell young people in journalism this all the time: Don't be afraid to leave home. As great as Hawaii is, the opportunities are often elsewhere. You'll come back smarter and ber.