KEY POINTS:
That Anton Oliver is going to make someone a lovely husband. With his love of renaissance art and his desire to save Otago's penguins combined with his ability to hold a rugby scrum steady, he's got that strong and sensitive thing going on, which makes him top-notch crumpet
for the thinking woman.
It turns out there is another string to his bow - he's a dab hand in the kitchen, as he proved when he and All Black team-mate Isaia Toeava assisted culinary queen Peta Mathias, in a promotion of New Zealand produce at Marseilles' leading cooking school.
As is becoming increasingly apparent, every New Zealand organisation with even the vaguest notion of getting a foot in France's commercial door is trying to use the All Blacks as leverage. And it's easy to see why.
Meat & Wool New Zealand, which organised the promotion along with the New Zealand Embassy and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, fights a losing battle most of the time on the public relations front.
The French - and this isn't up for debate as far as they are concerned - have the best produce on the planet and obviously the best chefs to work with it.
Unfortunately, they are not self-sufficient in lamb and can only provide for about 90 per cent of their needs.
New Zealand lamb fills the gap, not that anyone would know, as the French don't like to admit they are importing and no restaurant would ever list the origin of the meat if it wasn't French. Never.
Which is why on those other occasions Meat & Wool New Zealand has held similar promotions, the French media has been otherwise engaged.
But get a couple of All Blacks to come along, wear silly chefs hats, chop herbs, toss in olive oil and then slam in the lamb and there will barely be room to move for TV cameras and inquisitive journalists.
On the menu were mussels with a ham and cheese crust, followed by lamb with a green salad and "Maori" potatoes. It was pretty simple stuff but boy did Oliver look handy with that knife.
Mathias didn't need to show him how to chop the garlic, his blade was flashing a la Gordon Ramsay before she'd even given the order to cut. Toeava was less certain but, bless the poor lad, he lives at home with mum and food has a way of appearing on his plate without him setting foot into the kitchen.
He looked handy when it came to eating, mind, though he admitted he was a little at odds with the menu - corned beef and taro would be his desert island meal.
In the greater scheme of things, both men will have plenty of bigger memories by the time they return home. But for Meat & Wool New Zealand, the day Oliver and Toeava teamed up with Peta Mathias will remain a highlight for some time.
