Robert Oliver: Believing in Pacific cuisine

Chef Robert Oliver has made it his mission to promote local cuisine and ingredients, particularly in the Pacific.

He talks to Teuila Fuatai about why he believes in traditional Pacific food and diets, and the link he sees between good health and Indigenous cuisine.

 

My work as a chef, and my love of food, has taken me around the world. But the Pacific Islands, where I spent my adolescent and teenage years, have always had a special place in my heart.

Suva, in particular, has been a major source of inspiration. My family moved there when I was 11 — and I went from the dreary, sanitised supermarkets of New Zealand to the colour and liveliness of the market in Suva. Being there was like having all the lights come on at once.

Over the years, I’ve tried to give back to the communities I grew up in. The Pacific Island Food Revolution project, where we promote local cuisine, is part of that kaupapa. It brings all my experience and knowledge back to the places where I grew up.

In the 1990s and 2000s, I lived in North America and the Caribbean. I was really inspired by the farm-to-table movement, which emphasises the use of locally-sourced ingredients, often directly from the producer.

Through a friend, I was introduced to a Barbadian hotel owner who wanted his hotels to be supplied by local farmers rather than rely on imported food. He owned three resorts which had 21 restaurants between them.

At the time, most if not all the hotels in Barbados had these kind of “international sausage roll” menus, which basically consisted of pretty bad western food like pies and chips. Almost all the ingredients had to be imported for these menu items, even though they were terrible and so much money was going offshore.

My job was to turn that around. We wanted the menus to reflect the local cuisine, which meant giving the chefs the freedom to create dishes unique to their part of the world and culture. That allowed us to bring in local growers and producers as the major suppliers to these big hotels and resorts.

We were really successful, and over the years, I’ve worked with hotels in Fiji and Sāmoa to do the same thing. Not only did that ensure fresher, more nutritious and sustainable products, it also helped local producers and growers.

Eventually, that led to my first book Me’a Kai. I worked with Auckland researcher Dr Tracy Berno, whose area of expertise is sustainable development in the Pacific region, and Fijian photographer Shiri Ram. We created a regional cookbook for chefs to work from. It created excitement around Pacific cuisine, including in the overseas tourist markets that Pacific nations relied on.

In the process of creating and promoting that book, I returned to New Zealand in 2010, and resumed travelling and working around the Pacific. I spent a lot of time in Suva, which is like a second home to me, and where quite a few of my good friends live.

I soon learned how bad problems with diabetes had become, both in Fiji and the wider region.

I can’t count the number of times people would say, in casual conversation: “Oh, have you been tested for diabetes?” It seemed like everyone was suddenly talking about this disease. I’d been away from the region for 30 years, living in New York and the Caribbean, and the diabetes epidemic seemed to have emerged during that time.

The statistics shocked me. About 16 percent of Fijians over 40 were reported to have diabetes. Around 75 percent of deaths in the Pacific Islands were due to non-communicable diseases like diabetes. That was in 2011. Now, Pacific nations have some of the worst diabetes and obesity rates in the world. In 2021, for example, 23.3 percent of adults over 20 in American Sāmoa had diabetes, according to the International Diabetes Federation. In Fiji, the rate was 17.7 per cent, while in Kiribati it was 21.2 percent. 

Imagine if that was car accidents or cancer. We’d have a massive response in place to counter it.

I really wanted to know why this was happening, so I did some research. I also spoke to one of my friends who was a doctor in Fiji, and met the non-communicable disease advisor to the Fiji Ministry of Health, Dr Isimeli Tukana, who was dealing specifically with the emerging diabetes crisis in Fiji. Both of them said that the rise in diabetes was because of food.

Walking down the street in Suva — or any of the big towns in the Pacific — I saw what they were up against. You’re bombarded with big billboards and ads from food companies selling instant noodles, chips, fizzy drinks and the like. The ads on TV were just as bad.

These products are marketed as convenient. But, as we know, they’re also a fast-track to major health issues.

Of course, there’ve been public health policies targeting diabetes, but it was clear much more was needed. The nutrition campaigns, for example, often have a negative tone and tell us what we shouldn’t do: “Don’t eat this, don’t have that.”

But there’s very little positive reinforcement about how good our own food is — and how much better it is for us and for the planet.

I thought I could do something to help.

I developed my love of Pacific food when I was growing up in Fiji and Sāmoa. The original Pacific diet was based on seaweed, fish, coconuts, tropical fruits, all the greens and all the complex carbohydrates. It was basically a superfood diet. So promoting a truly Indigenous food culture in the Pacific would be super healthy, super robust, and culturally affirming.

Actually, a lot of people in the Pacific still eat those good foods. Fish, taro, breadfruit, bananas, coconuts — they’re still a big part of the island diet. The trouble comes from the prevalence of highly-processed foods and fatty meats which have been introduced into the islands. The central Pacific, in particular Fiji, Sāmoa, and Tonga, has become a dumping ground for low-quality meats like mutton flaps and turkey tails.

Globalisation has also brought an advertising juggernaut for foreign foods. That compounds the displacement of local ingredients and food. You don’t, for example, see posters for vegetables. But you see posters for colourful sugary drinks and junk food. It’s helped to create this kind of “west is best” mentality.

Together, these things have had a shocking effect on domestic health in the region, as well as somehow coming to define Pacific food to the outside world. Things like canned corned beef (or pisupo) are often associated with Pacific mealtimes even though it’s a western product.

The idea behind the TV series Pacific Island Food Revolution, was to connect with the hearts and minds of our communities. To talk about the food that we have in Pacific homes and eat as families, and to celebrate the food of the people of these islands.

Eating local, and valuing the cuisine of your people, is about much more than health. Food is at the core of who we are. It’s what our mothers make for us. It’s our cultural sense of self. It is us.

In the Pacific, food strengthens and creates communities. The story of food is also the story of people. There’s wisdom, there’s survival, there’s knowledge in the growing of crops and methods of food gathering. It goes way beyond the recipe.

Reconnecting communities to that knowledge sits at the heart of the work I do. I’m not inventing anything new. The show and cookbook we’ve created is simply a platform for local talent, stories and ideas. It’s a way to get that information out there, so everyone can see the benefits and strengths in Pacific food traditions.

For instance, in the food industry, “organic” is a luxury brand. It represents the top-end of value in food and health. In the Pacific, organic farming is a replication and validation of the original Polynesian and Melanesian agricultural methods. It’s a result of Indigenous history and knowledge of the natural environment.

I don’t have a favourite Pacific dish or recipe because there are so many that I love. Each recipe is also connected to a special person and story that’s been passed on to me.

As for ingredients, ota (or river fern), which is beloved in the Melanesian islands, is one of my favourites. It’s the ultimate green, packed with nutrients. You can always find bundles of ota in the Suva market on Saturdays. It’s a bit like pikopiko in Aotearoa but far more delicate, and delicious when cooked in hot salted water or steeped in a bit of lemon juice and salt.

I also love ivi or ifi, which is the Polynesian or Tahitian chestnut. They’re plentiful when in season and best bought pre-cooked in the market so you can add them to dishes. When ivi is done in the lovo or umu, they have a delicious, sweet, nutty flavour. I also love ivi added to cassava patties or sweet cassava cake. Mayline Roy, a chef in Vanuatu, makes Simboro with ifi. Simboro is a ni-Van dish where vegetables like manioke or cassava are grated, wrapped inside a cabbage leaf, then cooked in coconut cream. Simboro are like a tamale, ni-Van style. The filling can be anything, and Mayline’s ivi recipe is incredible.

Of course, there’s also nama or limu, which are sea grapes. In Fiji, you can buy nama at the market on Saturdays with an edge of moli or lemon and a piece of chili and kora (fermented coconut). Everything gets mixed together and it’s amazing — a quintessential Pacific flavour. There’ve been many attempts to make nama export-ready, but it’s really only good fresh from the ocean.

Now, more than ever, eating and valuing local cuisine is essential in the Pacific. And it’s not just about health. There are potent and powerful links to climate change too. When you import food that’s made in factories, rather than eating food grown locally that sequesters carbon, we know that has negative impacts on the environment. Connected to that are issues of food sustainability, and the costs and logistics of importing food.

Maintaining biodiversity is also relevant to food choices. In the Pacific, the local cuisine requires a range of crops, not just the ones which grow well for export. Focusing too much on export value can result in certain crops being marginalised because they don’t have an overseas market. When that happens, local crops and the cultural knowledge linked to them can disappear.

It’s why the growth and health of all the different types of taro, and all the uvi (ufi or yam) and the nama which make Pacific cuisine special, are important.

All these unique ingredients contribute to the nutrient value of the plate and have a specific role in an ecosystem. It’s why I believe a food revolution is not just about health — it’s also about a women’s revolution, a climate change revolution, and a biodiversity revolution. By thinking carefully about what we eat every day, we can create true social change through a food movement that reconnects Pacific families and communities to Indigenous cuisine and knowledge.

I know Pacific cuisine can put Pacific people on the right side of history. Climate change, biodiversity, health and wellbeing — these are the big things we’re all facing. And, really, the answers are already within Pacific communities and families. The key to good health is literally growing around us. It’s sitting in the markets, in the farms, in the villages, and in the recipes that Pacific grandmothers cook.

There is a delicious answer to the cultural, economic, and physical health challenges of Pacific families and communities. And I’m so proud to do my bit in that journey.

 

Robert Oliver is an Auckland-based New Zealand chef who was raised in Fiji and Sāmoa. He has developed restaurants in New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Sydney, “farm to table” resorts in the Caribbean, and food programmes in New York City. His books Me‘a Kai and Mea‘ai Sāmoa were both honoured in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

Robert has also been a judge in the New Zealand version of My Kitchen Rules, and co-hosted the cooking show Marae Kai Masters on Māori Television. He now hosts the television show Pacific Island Food Revolution, which takes place in Fiji, Sāmoa, Tonga and Vanuatu, and has been supported by the Australian and New Zealand governments. Robert has also been awarded a New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to the food industry and Pacific communities.

Eat Pacific: The Pacific Island Food Revolution cookbook, edited by Robert Oliver and published by Massey University Press, was released last month. It can be purchased here. You can also watch episodes of the TV series here.

As told to Teuila Fuatai. Made possible by the Public Interest Journalism Fund.

E-Tangata, 2024