Peta Mathias, culinary crusader

Eat seasonal food and buy locally, says author Peta Mathias.

The mere thought of Peta Mathias shopping for a dinner party brings on waves of inertia. This celebrated food lover insists on trekking hours across town to gather her produce. What's wrong with a simple dash to the supermarket?

"Because it makes me so happy to visit all the small producers - and if you live in a dream world like me, it does take ages to shop for a dinner party. Most people don't want to live like that."

In her latest book, A Cook's Tour of New Zealand, Mathias meets a surprising number of food producers, even if it wasn't always at a leisurely pace. The author's eighth foodie book is an A-Z of her gastronomic travels, a mix of provocative recipes and musings on everything from childhood Christmas performances to our lack of sex appeal.

"We have one of the most adventurous palates I know but New Zealanders are the least sexy people in the world. We could do with more flirtation in the air."

If we labour over love, at least Mathias acknowledges our skill for whipping up fancy produce. After 10 seasons as host of Taste New Zealand, Mathias has her favourites on the culinary trail and only these feature in the book. An outspoken culinary crusader, she's serious about supporting our local producers.

"It's so important we support our local producers, if we don't they're not going to survive. The message is clear - eat seasonal and buy local."

If the people behind the products are dull, you wouldn't know it; Mathias' writing is just as colourful as her trademark paprika topknot and scene-stealing outfits. The travelling chef visits bunny farms in Pukekohe, savours wild food on the West Coast and salivates over mature cheese in Canterbury. But it's the butcher's tale that everyone will relate to.

As Mathias writes: "This is an art that needs to be supported. A good butcher doesn't pre-package the meat, doesn't cover it in plastic and doesn't disguise it in ghastly sauces and terrifying marinades."

Mathias is also a keen supporter of the Slow Food Movement, whose followers love a bit of dirt with their veg and plenty of bacteria in their cheese. They have appropriated the snail as their symbol.

"These people believe we have been enslaved by speed and a fast life and the only way to oppose this folly of mistaking frenzy for activity is to eat flavourful food."

Sure slow food devotees are eccentrics, says Mathias, but they have a passionate manifesto to safeguard our food and wine heritage.

"It's about taste, not globalised taste where every hamburger tastes the same in every country. It's also about maintaining food that could otherwise become extinct - like the Maori potato and its 18 different varieties."

Maori have a tradition of fermenting food and Mathias was honoured with a raw fermented crayfish prepared by Rapaera Black from the Ureweras.

"I could tell she was preparing me for the gastronomic thrill of a lifetime. It was possibly the worst thing I have ever put in my mouth - and that includes the huhu grub on the West Coast."

During her years touring the country, Mathias says she's come to appreciate the depth of culinary knowledge; people like Ron Clark from Nin's Bin in Rakautara, famous for its cooked crayfish.

"Clark used to keep diaries about the habits and lifecycle of the crayfish and that knowledge should never disappear. Thankfully, his son now owns the place and he's gained all that knowledge from his father."

Still it's difficult to keep a gastro-nomad trussed up in the South Pacific, when there are other tastes to be savoured offshore. Next year, Mathias returns to France to tutor a cooking school based in a 17th-century farmhouse. And you can guarantee the lessons will involve one slow trip around the markets.