Cooking Beyond The Kitchen

By Robert Oliver

Cooking shows rule television and food television is its fastest growing segment. The public addiction to cooking shows and adoration of celebrity chefs underscores a societal appetite for the people-to-people connectivity that cooking creates.

Way, way back, the domestic kitchen was largely the domain of housewives and cooking considered a functionary duty. But that is truly a dated notion, a relic, as every Joe Blow and his proverbial dog are now foodies. I laughed when I saw a cartoon in the “New Yorker” recently in which the waiter stiffly asked a diner if everything was okay as he hadn’t taken a picture of his food yet. Fuelled by the hugely successful global reality cooking shows Masterchef and My Kitchen Rules, chefs have gone from being virtually invisible to being the new rock stars and, although sneered at by some, these shows have got everyone cooking. Who would have thought that the simple act of cooking a meal could gather such momentum and in effect develop national conversations.

This level of influence- in effect, being present in everyone’s living rooms – is the stuff that folks in the political and the development worlds can only dream of.

Recently I worked on a case study about a group of Pacific Island chefs. Now, this is a region that is not particularly present on international television and most people out of the Pacific would be hard pressed to name a chef in the region. No Gordons or Jamie’s here! They live in islands whose television markets and thus television budgets are small with relatively little global reach. So they’re not “famous” in the typical sense. But as I worked with these chefs, my idea of celebrity was turned on its head.

Take Chef Dora Rossi. Dora is based in Samoa- a small Polynesian nation with a stunning organic farming presence- fully 35% of the island is certified organic. A local women’s collective called “Women in Business Development” gather organic supply from the family farms and enact the farm to table process to supply Dora’s two Apia restaurants. Why is this extraordinary? Because Dora knows exactly what she is doing- instead of using imported goods, which has largely been the norm for Samoa, Dora and a handful of other chefs here are working to keep valuable food dollars in the country and are consciously creating a food chain that is uniquely Samoan. High quality organic food is one thing; the people are another. In Dora’s world, its the farmers that matter. In a highly connected community- Samoa is a nation of just 180,000 people- this is tangible and real. Dora’s food choices affect people she knows. She knows the farmers and wants them to flourish. Dora’s brand is bound to the farming communities here, to that of the betterment of her nation. “What I’ve been trying to do is create sustainable food. Sustainable tourism is very important to me. So ideally, we’d like to attract the tourists who will spend money and support the local farmers and local businesses.

Jesse Lee takes it to a whole new level. This young chef returned to his homeland of Samoa after years in New Zealand determined to make a difference. He opened his restaurant Palusami specifically to elevate the status of Samoan cuisine and thus provide the vital link to Samoan farm supply. “I like to buy from our local market because I like to give back to them as well. The point of our restaurant is to help the local economy

In Fiji I met Chef Rainal Sahai. Rainal leads the kitchen brigade at Paradise Cove resort on a relatively remote island in the Fiji Islands. The villages around the resort are not only vital to his supply- his resort and his menu choices are vital to the village economies. Rainal is mindful of this and works hand in in hand with farmers to make a system, and menu, that works well for all. “Sustainable sourcing means having a relationship with the people who supply us with our products, built on integrity and trust regarding the environment, social values, product quality, and information sharing — a relationship that can become an honest and long-lasting partnership.”

For these chefs and many others in the region, the easiest way to do business would have been to work with the well established and efficient supply lines of the food importing companies on island. So why didn’t they? Why do it the hard way?

As I talked with them, I realized that what fuels them is nothing based on the deliverables of their job description, nor are they seeking attention or public adoration. Instead, each of them has a quiet but profound and personal commitment to their local communities. Each has identified their way of bettering their communities through the way they do business. It’s heartfelt, not ego driven nor necessarily logical. It may not always make better business sense, but it does make better human sense and allows them, through their choices, to live meaningful lives. In the Pacific- food creates communities and strengthens relationships, so in a way this way of doing business is culturally apt. They are truly cooking beyond the kitchen. To me, these chefs are the real celebrities, a new genre, and I look forward to one day seeing these chefs, their communities, their cuisine and their stories being told in living rooms around the world.

To read more about these chefs and other case studies see our Successful Businesses page.