I’m Mark. I live in Honolulu, and I cook at home.

About five years ago I started eating keto and stayed with it. Not as a 30-day challenge and not as a personality. It stuck because I could keep making food I already understood — pork, ahi, shrimp, eggs, cabbage, SPAM Classic — without turning my kitchen into a bakery for sugar-free desserts. I still eat like someone who lives in Hawaii. I just skip the two scoops of rice and the sauces that are doing more sugar work than they admit.

Ketogenic Chef is the name I put on that cooking. I am a home cook, not a clinic and not a meal-prep company. The recipes here are the plates I make on a weeknight after Costco, or on a Sunday when the slow cooker is earning its counter space. If a dish needs an ingredient I cannot find at Costco, Foodland, Times, or Don Quijote, I usually do not bother publishing it. You should be able to shop this site on Oahu without a specialty order.

What you will find: kalua pig in a slow cooker, Kahuku-style garlic shrimp without the flour, spicy ahi on won bok instead of a rice bowl, musubi that uses an egg slab, Portuguese sausage with cabbage, ahi with ginger-garlic butter, mixed plates built from leftovers. What you will not find: pineapple-teriyaki “Hawaiian” food, keto poi, butter mochi, or a promise that a recipe will fix your health.

I am not a doctor or a dietitian. Nothing on this site is medical advice. I do not know your labs, your meds, or your grocery budget. I know how I eat — higher fat, moderate protein, low carb, meals I can cook in a normal kitchen — and I write that down so you can steal it and adjust it.

If you want a structured week, I put together a 7-day Hawaii keto plan with an Oahu grocery list. It is how I tend to eat: a late breakfast, an early dinner, leftovers on purpose. Use the window if it fits your day. Ignore it if it does not. The food still works.

Thanks for being here. Cook something this week. If it turns out, make it again.

— Mark Souza
Honolulu