Cooking Up Community with Robynne Maii ’96

When we get on Zoom, Robynne Maii ’96 sits, fittingly, in her kitchen at home. As chef and owner of the restaurants Fête and Mille Fête in Honolulu, Hawai‘i’s Chinatown, Robynne’s life revolves around spaces devoted to food. That’s not by accident. 

“Food has always been important in our family. Everything about family gatherings revolves around food,” she says. “My parents are not religious, but family dinner was like our religion, alongside education.” Even so, the journey to her current restaurant success was not a direct route. 

The first leg came when she decided to “get as far away from Hawai‘i as possible” for college. Middlebury fit that bill. All the same, settling into her new life in Vermont took some time.

“Honestly, it was so overwhelming,” she says. “You think that you’re smart and then you go to Middlebury, and you’re just surrounded by so many smart people.” Over time, Robynne discovered the spaces and communities where that feeling receded. Two of those were the Dance and English departments, the sides of her eventual joint major. 

Even while her dancing and writing remained front of mind, Robynne reached the end of senior year unsure of her next step. That changed after a chance encounter with a brochure for the New England Culinary Institute at the Center for Careers and Internships. 

“It was that same feeling that you get when you see a cute person across the room and you get those flutters in your tummy and decide to go say hi,” she says, the memory earning a smile. “It was so profound. I was like, wow, I could go to culinary school.” Which is exactly what she did.

Robynne returned to Hawai‘i to attend Kapi‘olani Community College for her culinary arts degree. The choice did come with complications, such as living at home after experiencing the independence of Middlebury life. 

“It was a very confusing time for me,” she says. “It was so claustrophobic to be in my parents’ home and regress to your 15-year-old self.” As a result, Robynne found herself once again with the urge to leave Hawai‘i. The answer? Moving to New York to pursue a master’s at New York University.

“I thought I was only going to be in New York for the duration of the degree,” she says, “but I ended up spending 15 years there.” During that time, she explored different corners of the culinary world. Robynne spent one stretch as an editorial assistant at the legendary Gourmet magazine, the result of having her resume noticed by another Middlebury alum on staff. Other roles included pastry chef at the Waldorf-Astoria and in the Kitchen Arts & Letters bookstore. None of it felt quite right. That is, until she and Jonathan Deutsch, a grad school friend, started their own culinary program.

Their home was Kingsborough Community College, part of the CUNY system. “I really believe in strong communication skills, strong writing skills, being present, and just how to think outside the box and innovate,” she says of the drive behind the program. “All the things I felt at Middlebury that also happened to feel like they were missing from a lot of culinary education.” 

Before long, she was secure in a tenure track position as part of that beloved university system and married to her husband Chuck Bussler. Yet, as is often the case, life does not like to play nice. During those years, Robynne and Chuck tried at length to start a family. Even after an extensive IVF journey, it did not happen for them. 

“I just remember being so miserable and sad and depressed and kind of aimless,” says Robynne. “You’re going to laugh, but the thing that brought the healing process was when I realized this wasn’t something I could study harder for. It was such a simple thought. That started the surrendering, the letting go, the forgiving.” That healing also involved lots of home-cooked meals, a joint act that brought Robynne and Chuck great joy. It also led them to a question—could they open a restaurant?

The motivation came in large part from lackluster experiences going out and spending money on food that fell flat, paired with the couple’s growing desire to vacate New York. The result? A decision, after years of finding ways to be away, return to Hawai‘i and develop Fête. 

“It was very important that we create a place that people felt welcome in,” she says. “We just loved the idea of people gathering and having the gathering be about them and having the food be a foundation.” In addition, they wanted to focus on locally sourced food to be fully rooted in the Hawai‘ian community. 

That community aspect is a central tenet of Robynne’s approach to her menus. “We take our relationships very, very seriously because for us, it’s a triangle. It’s the restaurant, the staff, our purveyors. It’s a partnership where we all have equal footing,” she says. ”It’s about community here and everything must be taken with care. No matter when you’re eating or what you’re doing.” For her, it’s an extension of the power of a meal that she experienced while growing up. It’s still serious business though, as she calls Fête and Mille Fête “the toughest and nicest kitchens in the state.”

In those kitchens, Robynne draws a direct line between her dance education at Middlebury and what she does every day. “The experience at Middlebury really shaped so much of who I am as a person,” she says. “We had such great tutelage in improvisation, and that’s what I do in the kitchen. Because of the way we source food, every day is different. The proteins look different. The ripeness of the fruit is different.” 

That spirit doesn’t stop with Robynne though, as her two key collaborators are women with dance training, which she says heightens the “performance” aspect of cooking. “The show must go on,” she says. 

As we wind down, Robynne leaves me with a story about a dinner she had at Momofuku with her brother, who did not attend Middlebury. While he insisted that he “wouldn’t go back and change a thing,” Robynne says that he begrudgingly told her he wished he had the same connections to his college friends that she did with hers. Robynne smiles again as she continues. 

“He understood how special our bonds were. I’m so close to my Middlebury friends still that he’s become friends with my Middlebury friends. The time at Middlebury was so sweet.”

Robynne Maii, alongside Rob Tod ’91, is a 2026 Alumni Achievement Award Winner for her culinary leadership and innovation. You can read more about the award here, and submit a nomination for 2027 here.