TV Show Encourages School Kids to Discover Pacific Cuisine

TV Show Real Pasifik Encourages School Kids to Discover Pacific Cuisine

Real Pasifik is a new food and travel television series currently screening at 4pm Saturdays on TV One which aims to change the way the world thinks about Pacific cuisine.

If the only thing you can think of when asked to describe our national cuisine is a hangi, then you're not alone. This is an issue faced across the South Pacific as traditional cooking techniques and dishes have been pushed aside in favour of the cooking methods and tastes of European settlers, or in the case of many of the smaller island nations, the tourists' taste buds.

So while variety is indeed the spice of life, does it need to be at the expense of losing part of our own food heritage? This is just one of the questions posed by new TV series Real Pasifik presented by acclaimed chef, Robert Oliver. Oliver was born in New Zealand and brought up in Fiji and Samoa where his passion for food evolved. It is Oliver's passion and flair for Pacific cuisine that truly sets him apart from many contemporary New Zealand and indeed Pacific chefs.

Oliver has experienced huge international success with his culinary work and his first cookbook Me'a Kai: Food and Flavours of the South Pacific won top prize at the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris, being awarded 'Best Cookbook in the World' 2010. When praising Oliver's book, Gourmond described Pacific food as the 'last undiscovered cuisine'. It is a key aim of Robert Oliver and Real Pasifik to have New Zealand and the world recognise Pacific fare as a world-class cuisine in its own right.

The production company responsible for bringing Real Pasifik onto our television screens, Zoomslide, is also taking a grass-roots approach to promoting traditional Pacific and Aotearoa fare through a recipe competition for New Zealand secondary school students.

New Zealand school students have been invited to participate in the competition that requires students to seek out and cook a traditional South Pacific based recipe. Students are encouraged to use any means available to them to discover what real Pacific food is about and to also make good use of local ingredients. Competition entries are to be judged on their appearance, use of local ingredients and the accompanying background stories.

All entries will be published on the Real Pasifik blogsite – realpasifik.com (competition details can also be found here) and the winning entry will receive a school visit from Robert Oliver himself.

Perhaps it’s time to take our own cue to expand our culinary repertoire to include a touch of South Pacific flair.

Real Pasifik airs at 4pm Saturdays on TV One through to October 19.

About Zoomslide
Real Pasifik is the brainchild and passion piece of Grey Lynn based production studio, Zoomslide and Robert Oliver. Zoomslide is a value based company and was matched to Oliver when he launched his book Me’a Kai in 2010. Zoomslide has invested in the project over the last two years with Managing Director, Heather Lee, bringing in Anna Marbrook as the series director. Zoomslide produce film, television, video and transmedia content for a vast array of clients both within New Zealand and abroad. The team are excited to see their efforts coming to fruition with the imminent screening of Real Pasifik on TV One.

For the Real Pasifik series, NZ On Air is a major funding partner and TVNZ is a broadcast partner. Visit Real Pasifik's blog site at www.realpasifik.com

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