Making A Meal Of It With Kai Time On The Road

PUBLICITY RELEASE
MONDAY, AUGUST 24 2009

Making A Meal Of It With Kai Time On The Road

From cheese to modern-day hangi to chocolate, the latest season of Maori Television’s KAI TIME ON THE ROAD - premiering on August 30 at 7.00 PM - is a culinary journey from entree to dessert.

The show’s star, chef Pete Peeti, tastes his way through local fare from the Coromandel to the Waikato and Bay of Plenty in this seventh series, and cooks up a storm of mouth-watering dishes along the way.

Pete gives rewena (Maori) bread a modern twist in Rotorua and tries novelty chocolate in Te Arawa; he samples the cheese at Matatoki and checks out a commercial hangi maker south of Matamata - before concocting his own hangi in a pie.

“It’s just great to go to little places around the country to see what people are up to,” he says. “It could be at a restaurant, or food from a marae, a processing factory or a normal home kitchen.”

Going behind the scenes at Maketu Pies was a bonus for the enthusiastic chef and pie lover, while a lesson in fermenting corn - Kaanga Pirau or Kaanga Wai - in Te Teko was a real learning curve.

“It’s a delicacy for the older people, but it’s basically a dying art these days,” says Pete.

Local kaimahi man Charlie Elliot showed him how the corn is taken off the cob and stored in sacks placed in fresh water where it is left to ripen for three to four months.

Pete, who had never cooked with fermented corn in his 25 years as a professional chef, made it into fritters he says went down well with the guests.

“It was an experiment that worked so it was a lucky break,” he laughs.

KAI TIME ON THE ROAD is produced by Rotorua-based Maui Productions who also make the advice panel show WHATUKURA - MAREIKURA and ultimate Maori warrior reality show TOA: TOA O AOTEAROA for Maori Television.

Co-producer Jo Santamaria says the recipe for the show’s success is that it deals with real food and real people: “It’s the total package. Kiwi-made, kiwi food, kiwi fun and it shows us as New Zealanders on screen.”

“We took it out into the field because Pete is that real Kiwi bloke. He loves hunting and fishing, but he also loves to cook and somehow he manages to put it all on a plate in the middle of the bush and make it look like a four star meal.”

Tune into Maori Television and let Pete Peeti tantalise your taste-buds in all-new episodes of KAI TIME ON THE ROAD, starting on Sunday, August 30 at 7.00 PM.

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