Robert Oliver MNZM, whose father Tagaloa Faa‘tautele Dennis Oliver was a trail-blazing development practitioner in the South Pacific, was raised in Fiji and has developed restaurants in the United States, ‘farm to table’ resorts in the Caribbean and food programmes in New York City. His books Me‘a Kai (2009) and Mea‘ai Samoa (2014) were written to connect Pacific agriculture to the region’s tourism sector. Me‘a Kai was named Best Cookbook in the World at the 2010 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Eat Pacific (2024) won the Best South Pacific Book in the World award at the 2025 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
Robert has been the host and judge of the TV series Real Pasifik, My Kitchen Rules New Zealand and Marae Kai Masters. He is the founder and host of Pacific Island Food Revolution, a television-led social movement designed to revive the traditional cuisines and food systems of the South Pacific. He is also a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center 2025 Alumnus and an ambassador for the Institute of Gastronomy, Culture Arts and Tourism, Barcelona; Le Cordon Bleu New Zealand; and the Period of Food Table Initiative, Washington DC.
