A Life of Kai

When did you fall in love with food? I fell in love with food at a very young age. Seriously, it was love at first bite. Even as a kid I would dream of having my own restaurant, and I remember going to a garage sale and buying a plastic index box full of delicious-looking recipe cards – there must’ve been well over two hundred. I still remember the design I had in my head of the restaurant I was going to build in my backyard during the school holidays – complete with diagonal floorboards and woven flax mats. My brother and I would pretend we had a restaurant, and would write the menu and set the dining table real fancy. I would cook, and he would be the waiter.

What were meals with your family like growing up? Meals were always together as a family, either around our dining table, or in a spot in my grandparents’ living room/dining room, during those frequent times when the whole house would be jammed with cousins. When we ate at my grandparents’, they always ate last. They would look on in admiration at all of their moko enjoying their kai, and my grandad was frequently heard to be saying, “We’ll have our kai later, we’ll have our kai later. You want more? Here, have more.”

I’ve definitely inherited the generous spirit of my grandparents when it comes to kai. However, I remember our first argument as a married couple was over roast potatoes. We had friends coming for dinner and I was peeling the spuds for the roast. My husband said I was preparing way too many, and I said, “No – there’s not enough.” Let’s just say we ended up eating leftover roast potatoes for a few days after that! Today our meals are always around the family table, with our three children – including a teenager who has the appetite of a wild beast – and oftentimes friends or whānau. A dear man we once knew said, “If we end up with extras at our table, we just put out another pair of chopsticks.” We always start with a karakia and waiata to bless the kai, and there is always lots of thanks to the cook at the end.

What inspired Kai? Kai was essentially inspired by our life of kai. From the earliest of memories such as that first, memorable taste of homegrown kamokamo mashed with butter, to being nourished with kai grown from the garden, caught or gathered, or cooked with love. I started curating the book before I even had a publisher. I just knew I had to capture my nana in her kitchen and my grandad in his garden before it was too late. From about five years ago, I started capturing the life of kai of our whānau – little stories and anecdotes, and creating and trialling recipes. I felt like I was gathering a basket of knowledge and treasure, and I couldn’t wait to bring it all together in print form. My nana passed away in 2019, and I treasure the time I had with her in her kitchen, learning how to “burn the sugar” for her famous steamed pudding, learning about warm hands for making dough and observing as she would proudly unveil the hāngī made in her oven in her little kitchen.

Glossary. Hāngī, food cooked in an earth oven. Kai, food. Kamokamo, a variety of squash. Karakia, to bless the food with incantation or prayer. Moko, grandchildren. Waiata, song. Whānau, family.