International chef links good food with tourism and agriculture

International chef, Robert Oliver is promoting the idea of using local food in fine cuisine in our hotels and restaurants which he is incorporating into a new book on South Pacific cuisine for publication by Random House.
He said the idea for the book came from his friend, Dr Tracey Berno, former head of the Tourism School at USP who wanted him to show Fiji chefs and cooks that local dishes are as worthy of being served in high class restaurants as any other cuisine.
Robert has travelled all over the Pacific to compile the book with the assistant his photographer, Shiri and the Cook Islands is the last of the countries to be visited.
In their travels, Robert has found an ‘emerging theme’ in each one of them and says Fiji is about diversity in cuisine, Samoa is about organic foods, Tonga is full of original foods, Vanuatu is about using the old ways, Tahiti represents French Polynesian elegance and Cook Islands is about glamour.
Robert was obviously influenced by our glamorous hostess, Maria Cowan-York in her castle in the air in Muri and her friends, Sylvia George and Lydia Marsh who prepared their favourite delicacies for him.
The finished product will be a glossy 300 page coffee book filled with gorgeous photos of people cooking their favourite dishes. Some recipes are traditional and some are not so traditional, but they are all made with local produce and ingredients.
The benefit of using local products is to reduce reliance on imported food and the book is about linking good food with the tourism experience. It also about providing a ready made local market for our agriculture products.
The idea has been enthusiastically received by the likes of resort owners, Tata Crocombe and Dorice Reid as well as by Tap Pryor and Teava Iro of the Organic Growers Association in Titikavaka. .
Robert is well acquainted with South Pacific cuisine having been raised in Fiji but then having moved to the USA where he ran his own restaurants before moving to Caribbean as a consultant chef to three large resorts which had 1000 rooms each. He is currently based in New Zealand.
The book is entitled Me’a Kai and will be released in April 2010.

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