Celebrated kiwi chef Robert Oliver has finally brought fine Pacific cuisine to the world's largest Polynesian city with his new restaurant Kai Pasifika.
It's been one of Auckland's greatest culinary mysteries: why hasn't fine pacific cuisine been available in restaurants in the world's large Polynesian city.
For celebrated kiwi chef Robert Oliver it was a contradiction that needed fixing, so six months ago he co-founded Kai Pasifika at the top of Mt Eden Rd in Newton.
"There was a lot of questioning around why there wasn't a Pacific restaurant in Auckland," says Oliver.
"I think part of the reason is that while Pacific people know how good the food is, the perception of the food through tourism is not great.
"Many Pakeha travellers who don't have access to Pacific homes have a bit of a negative or ill-informed idea of what Pacific food is about."
Having been raised in Fiji and Samoa and having worked in restaurants across the Pacific Rim, America and the Caribbean, Oliver knew exactly how to go about changing those perceptions.
The menu is packed with traditional Pacific dishes such as Cook Islands and Samoan style raw fish, Polynesian brown sugar chicken and goat curry but almost all come with a contemporary twist.
"All the dishes go down well but there are a few that people really are tickled by like our pork belly which we cold smoke so it evokes that umu flavour.
