Born and raised in Waiahole Valley. The youngest of five. The one who stayed in the kitchen longest.
Tisha is born and raised on Oahu, the youngest of five children. She grew up watching her mom, dad, uncles, and apo cooking in the kitchen, preparing all kinds of dishes — from simple weeknight meals to the elaborate spreads that marked every family gathering, every holiday, every reason to bring people together.
As the youngest, she was all over the place — spending lots of time with her mom and learning the importance of cooking. Not just the techniques, though those came naturally. The importance. That cooking is how you show people you love them. That a kitchen is not just a room but a promise — that no one leaves hungry, that everyone is cared for.
Tisha continues to live in Waiahole and still cooks all the dishes she grew up watching being made. She learned to make them herself and then taught herself how to tweak recipes to fit her needs — adjusting for her own family's tastes, for what's available, for the way ingredients change with the seasons.
In the Gernler household, cooking wasn't a chore. It was the center of life. The kitchen was where family gathered before the food was even ready. Where stories were told over simmering pots. Where children learned — not by reading recipes, but by watching hands move.
Tisha's mother Maria cooked the way the valley breathes — steady, generous, rooted. Her dishes drew from Filipino, Hawaiian, Japanese, and Portuguese traditions, the way so many island families do. There was chicken long rice for every gathering. Kalua pig for celebrations. Haupia set in the fridge for anyone with a sweet tooth. Each dish a thread connecting generations.
This cookbook isn't about impressing anyone. It's about preserving something real. The recipes in these pages are the ones Tisha learned by standing at the counter, watching her mother's hands. They're measured by feel, seasoned by memory, and served with the kind of love you can only learn in a valley kitchen.
Tisha's hope is that this book takes you back to your own kitchen — wherever that is — and inspires you to cook something that matters for the people you love.
What This Book Stands For
Every recipe in this book was shaped by family hands. No professional kitchens. No culinary school. Just mothers teaching daughters, uncles showing nieces, and apo guiding everyone.
Waiahole Valley isn't just a backdrop — it's an ingredient. The land, the water, the community. These recipes are inseparable from the place that made them.
No shortcuts to impress. No trendy techniques. These are the real recipes, exactly as they were passed down. Authenticity over aesthetics, always.
More than a cookbook, this is an invitation. Slow down. Use your hands. Feed the people around you. Remember why the kitchen matters.
Every recipe tells a story. Every story leads back to the kitchen.
Get the Cookbook — $19.99