Food that feels
I’ve always found solace in food. To me, food is so much more than sustenance or something we consume. It’s connection; it’s care; it’s the act of looking after someone. In so many ways, food is love.
I think so often we miss the opportunity to connect the food on our plates back to the people who grew, produced, transformed or prepared what we eat. Every food creation, product or business began from someone’s desire to feed someone else. There’s always a story, and the more we know about the ‘why’, the more we can appreciate the offering.
When we think about food, often we think about it at face value. How it tastes, how it looks, how much it costs, and how it fuels us through our busy days. But as we race between meals and moments, we miss the opportunity to observe how food really makes us feel – on an emotional, physical, societal, and even spiritual level. It is all so deeply connected.
I think there’s something maternal, feminine, and deeply caring about being fed by someone else. If you recall your favourite food memories, it’s likely they’ll remind you of loved ones. For me, it’s the sweet caress of Nana Merle’s sultana cake, my mum’s sticky honey soy chicken nibbles, and the giant mugs of milky Milo that my high school friends and I drank at sleepovers. These memories can sometimes be less about the food and more about how you felt at that moment in time.
Our food memories are profoundly personal, they become the stories of our past, and they make up a huge part of who we are. Chefs are often driven to help us recreate these nostalgic feelings by evoking childhood memories and getting us to connect back to the moments and people we hold dear in our hearts.
In an effort to create more moments of connection to people and place, as part of my role with Eat New Zealand, we will be working to shine a light on our indigenous food stories and our cultural heritage through a nationwide food event called Feast Matariki. With Matariki becoming an official public holiday on Friday 24 June, this is a monumental moment for our culture and our country.
From 13 to 27 June, we are collaborating with Ngāi Tahu to deliver a series of food events across New Zealand, including Ōtautahi, allowing us the opportunity to find Aotearoa’s unique food stories and hold space for them to be told. It will be a new wave of connection to who and what we are as a food nation and a celebration designed to unite us all, no matter our backgrounds. Our vision is that Matariki becomes a time when we come together as family and community to give thanks for our food, for this amazing country and for all it can provide. Ultimately helping further connect us back to ourselves.