Chef Robert Oliver struggles with the word “development”.
As a Kiwi chef working in the development space throughout the Pacific region he was raised in and loves, Robert says he is the one who is being “developed” in the process.
His passion to learn about the Pacific, its people, their cultures and their cuisines comes from within.
“I was raised in Fiji and Samoa … many of my close friends still live there, and I would do anything to help these countries out,” Robert says.
Having worked all around the world, from developing restaurants in New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Sydney, “farm to table” resorts in the Caribbean and food programmes feeding homeless people and African immigrants with AIDS in New York City, Robert is back in the Pacific to develop agribusiness and agritourism through raising awareness about traditional cuisine, and by encouraging local chefs to use local products in the hospitality industry.
He sees chefs as key actors in the tourism chain, and along with the cuisine they produce, help contribute to a place’s local identity.
“Food underpins relationships, food brings communities together,” Robert says.
“It is the tourist led industry that local farmers are trying to reach, and what will connect tourism and agriculture is cuisine.”
The Chef Ambassador for Le Cordon Bleu, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands presented REAL PASIFIK, a television series based on the food culture of the South Pacific in recent years, and his passion about connecting tourism and local agriculture is highlighted throughout each episode.
This passion and desire to help the Pacific has also been captured in Robert’s first book, the Gourmand World Cookbook Award-winning Me’a Kai: The Food and Flavours of the South Pacific, written with Dr Tracy Berno and Fiji photographer Shiri Ram.
In 2013, Robert released Mea’ai Samoa: Recipes and Stories from the Heart of Polynesia, which won the Best TV Chef Cookbook in the World 2013 at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Beijing.
“Chefs are agents of change … my job is to migrate cuisine and give it a global place.”
Robert has recently been in Samoa, attending the 2nd Pacific Agribusiness Forum, where he presented on Successes in the Pacific in linking agriculture and tourism: the perspective of the chefs.
He also spent two days training chefs from the tourism industry in Samoa along with fellow NZ-based chef Colin Chung, which culminated in a Chefs for Development: Contemporary Pacific Island Cuisine dinner, where the chefs used only local foods to make stunning, and mouth-watering dishes.
Robert is delighted to see progress is being made throughout the region in the area of agribusiness and agritourism, having spent many years listening to the conversations being had.
“I do feel it coming to a point of action now,” he says.
Women in Business Development Inc (WIBDI) in Samoa has a Farm to Table programme which Robert helped to implement after working on similar models in the Caribbean.
“There are over 800 organic family farms operating in Samoa now which supply coconut oil to the likes of The Body Shop – this type of business does not disrupt society and culture but it creates entrepreneurial opportunities based on those things.”
The Pacific Agribusiness Forum has been another opportunity for Robert to demonstrate where he and his projects fit in the development space.
“Peoples’ perception of me is as an entertainer as I am on TV but I work in the development space.”
Pigeon-holed as an entertainer, Robert wants funders to realise his potential to create action through powerful narrative about cuisine.
Teaching people about using traditional cuisine in the tourist industry obviously has flow-on economic benefits for locals, while educating people about eating the food their ancestors have eaten for years can make a huge impact on the health of a nation.
“The packaging of cuisine – in cookbooks and TV – is how to get the message across,” Robert says.
Pacific Cooperation Foundation (PCF) is looking forward to collaborating with Robert in the near future, to help spread this message.