Raised in Fiji and Samoa, NZ chef Robert Oliver is on a quest to popularise Pacific cuisine. Photos / Supplied
As host of TV’s Pacific Island Food Revolution, Robert Oliver draws 5 million viewers a week to a cooking show that hopes to lift the Pacific region back to good health. Now, Oliver has collated some standout recipes from the series into a cookbook.
What is Pacific Island Food Revolution all about?
Pacific Island Food Revolution uses the power of reality TV, radio and social media to revive local Pacific cuisine. Its cornerstone product is a MasterChef-style cooking competition where teams in Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and the Kingdom of Tonga compete to be crowned the Pacific’s best. It carries the message of healthy eating into the home via the same medium as the advertisements for all those sweet and salty packaged goods: the telly.
Why is a food revolution needed in this region?
The health numbers are dire. The top 10 most obese nations on the planet are all in the Pacific. This is new. Over the course of a generation, processed food has displaced the traditional diet, to dreadful effect. But the key to good health is in the Pacific backyard – in farms and markets, and in the rustic dishes Pacific grandmothers cook. The answer lies in local cuisine.
Which cooks from the television series inspired you the most?
There are different groups with different types of brilliance. A few I would say are Leo Vusilai and Knox Taleo in Vanuatu for their ability to convert traditional dishes into something that feels totally modern and “refreshed”. Also, Chef John Tu’u from Samoa for his ability to transform everyday crops into culinary treasures.
Pacific cooking is not exactly widespread in New Zealand. What’s the main thing for a home cook to remember before attempting these recipes?
I don’t know why it’s not well known in Aotearoa; we are a Pacific island ourselves. I’d roundly recommend Henry Onesemo’s TALA restaurant in Auckland’s Parnell to dive deep into contemporary Samoan cuisine, and to check out Bertrand Jang’s Sweet and Me in Onehunga for his spectacular Pasifika cakes. I would say that as good as the dishes from the book taste when made in New Zealand, they are even better made in countries where the coconuts are scraped freshly for the coconut cream. It’s the big Pacific asset.
What is it that makes the coconut such a great ingredient?