17 May 2011 Lincoln University Planning Director cooks up world-beater

She wasn’t on television’s MasterChef programme, but Lincoln University Planning Director Dr Tracy Berno is another big Kiwi winner in the cooking world!

Tracy has co-authored a cookbook called Me’a Kai: The Food and Flavours of the South Pacific, which has been named Best Book of the Year in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

Me’a Kai celebrates six South Pacific nations, their culture, cooking and festivities.

“The book is an outcome of a research project I worked on in the Pacific,” says Tracy. “Two issues identified in the research were the need to highlight the food of the Pacific in a way that would appeal to the tourist palate and the need for a resource, such as a cookbook, to communicate this.

“Chef Robert Oliver and I put the book together to remind South Pacific cooks that their food is as good as any. We want to improve the quality of the food offered to the South Pacific region’s tourism market, so that the demand for the food is increased and local prosperity grows as a result. The book is underpinned by a philosophy of sustainable tourism, sustainable agriculture and sustainable cuisine. It is much more than a cookbook.”

The book is already being used in cookery training and has been the basis for a recent promotion of tourism and trade between New Zealand and the Pacific islands.

“The book is a unique partnership between a chef, an academic and a photographer, all of whom share a passion for the people, cultures and food of the South Pacific.  The project has been very rewarding in itself, so having the book acknowledged around the world is stunning.”

A total of 154 countries entered books in 53 categories in the awards and Me’a Kai was up against strong competition. Joining it as finalists for the Book of the Year Award were NOMA by Rene Redzepi, The Essential New York Times Cookbook by Amanda Hesser, and Natura Kuchini Polskie by Wojcieh Modest Amaro.

“To be in competition against NOMA  -  one of the most talked about cookbooks of the year, by a chef who is widely regarded as the greatest chef in the world at the moment  -  was just astounding,” says Me‘a Kai publisher Nicola Legat of Random House New Zealand.  “Not to mention that Amanda Hesser’s New York Times Cookbook was an instant classic, a truly remarkable book.”

Tracy says her background as an academic definitely had a role to play in the production of the cookbook. Her participation in the book is the outcome of an agriculture and tourism linkage project she worked on in the South Pacific.