Australian TV cooking series features Cook Islands
Cook Islands Tourism was thrilled to partner with Australian chef, restaurateur and TV presenter Peter Kuravita at his Sydney restaurant Flying Fish on 17 July for two events. Around 100 top travel and food media and industry partners were treated to a feast of Cook Islands flavours and some engaging stories of Peter’s journey around the Cooks filming for the Island Feast with Peter Kuravita series, sponsored by the Cook Islands Tourism media familiarisation program.
Peter guided prime time SBS television viewers around Rarotonga, Aitutaki and Atiu in the concluding two episodes of the series, broadcast this month around Australia. The hour of television exposure for the Cooks was valued at more than $AUD1m. Additionally, the associated SBS magazine Feast also ran a three page feature on the Cook Islands and many newspaper columns promoted the Cooks episodes as recommended viewing.
The TV shows featured glorious vision of the Cooks’ beaches, mountains, jungles, lagoons and reefs as Peter searched for octopus, caught freshwater prawns, learned to spearfish, hunted for mud crabs and went deep-sea fishing just metres from the coast. The many warm and welcoming Cook Islanders that Peter went fishing with and cooked with made the shows especially memorable.
“The Cook Islands took me by surprise, the beauty is amazing,” Peter told guests. “I don’t think I could have been taken to a place more special, it has everything from beautiful markets - with real people serving real fresh foods - to surf.”
“The Cook Islands was thrilled to be chosen to conclude Peter’s Island Feast journey,” says Cook Islands Tourism CEO Carmel Beattie. “The Cook Islands has arguably the best cuisine in the Pacific, thanks to an abundance of fresh tropical ingredients and fabulous seafood, and this beautifully produced series will do so much to bring the beauty, food and culture of the undiscovered Cook Islands to a much wider Australian audience. It is also likely to be sold internationally generating further return on our investment.”

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