Helen Chock, owner and operator of Helena's Hawaiian Food, started a restaurant as a way to make a living and pay for her children's education. Along the way, her business became her passion, and her cuisine's reputation spread from Kalihi to the highest reaches of America's culinary world.

Chock, who died Friday of pancreatic cancer, left behind a 61-year legacy that earned awards and honors that she never sought.

"Every time she's gotten an award, we didn't know she would get it," said Elaine Katsuyoshi, Chock's daughter. But her mother was honored and appreciated the recognition, Katsuyoshi said.

Chock, 90, stayed active in the business until May, when she began feeling something was taking a toll on her body. She wasn't diagnosed with the cancer until June.

Chock entered the Hawaiian restaurant business when her brother's restaurant failed, leaving behind a fully equipped eatery, prompting her mother to suggest she take over, Katsuyoshi said.

Chock started with breakfast, featuring both Chinese and Hawaiian food. She soon abandoned both the breakfast service and the Chinese food, deciding to focus on the Hawaiian cuisine for which she became known.

In the beginning, the restaurant was a way to earn a living and put her children through private school and college, but in later years it became her passion, Katsuyoshi said.

"It became her life," she said. "Everything revolved around it."

In February 2001, Chock shut down her then-56-year-old business when the lease ran out at its hole-in-the-wall location at 1364 N. King St.

The popular fare included kalua pig, pork laulau, short-rib pipi- kaula and other ethnic Hawaiian foods.

Soon, however, Chock found a new location: 1240 N. School St.

Even when she fell last year, fracturing a wrist, she ordered her daughter out of the emergency room and sent her to the restaurant to make sure things got done. Appalled that people might think she was abandoning her elderly mother, Katsuyoshi said she protested but lost that argument.

"She did not want us to waste our time in the emergency room," she said, laughing at the memory of her mother's tenacity.

Chock's concern was always for her customers, Katsuyoshi said. When costs rose and prices need to go up, Chock would resist.

"She'd say, 'Oh, no, because the families can't come. When the prices go up, they won't bring the children,' " Katsuyoshi said. "She worried about those things."

After a lifetime of building the business, Chock's cuisine started to garner recognition in Hawai'i and abroad.

Most notable was the 2000 James Beard Foundation award for America's regional classic restaurants, although at first she wasn't too excited about the prospects of traveling to New York to accept the honor, her daughter said.

"She didn't know James Beard (an internationally known culinary author and founder of The James Beard Cooking School). It wasn't until we got there that she realized what a big deal it was."

Her mother also was recognized by HMSA and given the Ageless Hero Business Champion Award and was inducted into the Cultural Institute of the Pacific, Culinary Hospitality Hall of Fame, Katsuyoshi said.

The restaurant appeared on television programs including "Good Morning America" and the "Secret Life of Luau" by Jim O'Connor, she said. Helena's can also be found in tour guides on the Internet and books.

In April, the Friends of 'Iolani Palace honored Chock along with others as a distinguished woman in Hawaiian history.

Chock is survived by sisters Jane Hu and Irma Chang, sons Calvin and Steven, daughter Elaine Katsuyoshi and five grandchildren.

Her grandson, Craig Katsuyoshi, took over cooking in the restaurant several years ago, and his daughter is working there now.

The restaurant had been scheduled to close recently so the family could take care of some business.

Katsuyoshi said she thought her mother waited to die until the scheduled closure because she wouldn't have wanted to interrupt service to her customers.

The restaurant will reopen July 17 and a celebration of her life is planned for July 21.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.