Team Tonga, Tuiohu Mafi and ‘Amelia Asi were recognized today for placing second in the regional Pacific Island Food Revolution (PIFR) cooking show competition.

New Zealand High Commissioner HE Tiffany Babington and Australian High Commissioner HE Adrian Morrison presented the duo with certificates at the New Zealand High Commission office in Nuku’alofa.

Entering the second season of the cooking competition against participants from Fiji, Samoa, and Vanuatu, Tuiohu said their approach was to keep their recipes simple and only use ingredients that are found in Tonga.

“The ingredients we used are found across ‘Eua, Ha’apai, Vava’u, Tongatapu, and the Niuas.”

One of our recipes was a pele cake, he said. Pele is a local spinach-like vegetable found in most Pacific countries.

'Amelia said she really enjoyed the experience and reaching the finals of the show.

Tuiohu Mafi is a catering instructor at the Tonga Maritime Poly Technical Institute, while ‘Amelia Asi is a staff member of the International Dateline Tanoa Hotel Food & Beverage team.

Recipes from the first season of the cooking show can be found on the Pacific Island Food Revolution website [2].

PIFR background

The Pacific Island Food Revolution (PIFR) was launched in April 2019, covering four countries, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu.

It aims to promote local healthy food as the answer to the high rate of non-communicable diseases in the Pacific, including Tonga, while also contributing to economic development, tourism, gender, agribusiness and climate change through good food choices.

Celebrity chef and PIFT founder, Robert Oliver said the NCD crisis in the Pacific is a very recent phenomenon.

“The uniqueness of PIFR is that we provide a Pacific solution to our health woes – that solution is literally in our backyard: our local healthy food.”

Oliver believes change won’t be quick, and it could take up to eight years.

“We’re working with our evaluation partners and experts in behavioural economics to monitor the impacts.”

The show was funded by the Governments of Australia and New Zealand, and broadcast across 24 Pacific TV networks in 14 Pacific countries, reaching over five million viewers.