Robert Oliver

Robert Oliver is a New Zealand chef who was raised in Fiji and Samoa. He has developed restaurants in New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Sydney, "farm to table" resorts in the Caribbean and food programs feeding homeless people and African immigrants with AIDS in New York City.

Robert returned to the South Pacific to write his first book, Me’a Kai: The Food and Flavours of the South Pacific (Random House, New Zealand), with Dr. Tracy Berno and photographer Shiri Ram. Written with a development mission to connect Pacific agriculture to the regions tourism sector, Me’a Kai stunned the food world by winning top prize, "Best Cookbook in the World 2010," at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris, considered to be the Pulitzers of cookbooks, beating the books from NOMA and The New York Times.

Robert is Chef Ambassador for Le Cordon Bleu, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. A television series REAL PASIFIK based on his work and the food culture of the South Pacific was released world wide in 2014.
Robert released his second book "Mea'ai Samoa: Recipes and Stories from the Heart of Polynesia" ( Random House, New Zealand) in October 2013 and this book won the BEST TV CHEF COOKBOOK in the World at the 2014 "Gourmand World Cookbook Awards".

He is one of the judges on the hit cooking series "My Kitchen Rules New Zealand" and a co host on the Maori cooking show "Marae Kai Masters" for Maori TV, New Zealand.

www.robertoliveronline.com