The view from Four Seasons Lanai’s Malibu Farm.

IN MARCH, HELENE HENDERSON, owner and chef of Malibu Farm — the organic restaurant on Malibu Pier that serves the likes of Kate Hudson and Sean Penn — received an unexpected invitation from Oracle founder and chairman Larry Ellison to visit Lanai, the Hawaiian island he bought in 2012. “I met with Larry, and he asked how quickly I could get a Malibu Farm up and running, to which I said, ‘In six days.’ I went back, gathered a team of four people: a barista, who’s my son, a manager and two chefs,” she recalls of her travels to Four Seasons Resort Lanai at Manele Bay, which had just reopened after an eight-month closure and a reported $450 million face-lift. Six days after arriving the second time, Henderson unveiled her chic poolside outpost at the 217-room hotel.

This last-minute addition was a critical final step in Ellison’s efforts to turn Four Seasons Lanai into a sustainable luxury paradise with the specific comforts of home. In 2012, Ellison made waves (and provoked eye rolls) when he announced he was buying 98 percent of the island for a reported $500 million to $600 million. With 90,000 acres, two Four Seasons resorts (there also is The Lodge at Koele, a mountain retreat temporarily shuttered to house renovation workers that will finish its own remodel in early 2017), three golf courses and only seven-hours’ (indirect) flight from Los Angeles, the private isle always has been positioned to attract Hollywood — it just needed a little finesse. “People are looking for that old Hawaii experience that doesn’t exist anymore,” says hotel GM Tom Roelens. “Lanai is truly unique: You come to the island and have the place to yourself.”