Capturing Polynesian flavour

Press, 15 December 1983, Page 15

Capturing Polynesian flavour

It was no oversight on Gwen Skinner’s part that the New Zealand section of her book, “The Cuisine of the South Pacific,” contains not a mention of pavlova or roast lamb. For this is no ordinary book of recipes, even though it contains almost 400. It is Gwen Skinner’s way of helping people to know more about the Polynesian and Melanesian island dwellers of the vast South Pacific, from tourist meccas such as Tahiti to the remotest atoll. “I wanted it to be more than a cook-book. I wanted it to be a cultural and historical book as well,” she said in Christchurch this week. The result, 2 Ya years in the writing, is a “cook-book” which would be as much at home in the “social studies” section of any library as it would be in the kitchen. Gwen Skinner’s insight into the history, culture, and development of the South Pacific islands was gathered from years in a cruising yacht and hundreds of hours spent with anthropologists and islanders themselves. During her varied career she has modelled for such London “glossies” as “Harper’s” and “Vogue,” been a magazine and newspaper journalist, written three books, and spent six years cruising the oceans of the world in the 12m motor-

sailer Swanhilde, which the Skinners built in their Auckland backyard. Gwen Skinner was navigator, cook, and mother in Swanhilde. “I love sailing, but I don’t want to sit out at sea for months on any more long ocean passages, watching the sea go by. I’ve got too much to do and such a short time to do it in,” she said yesterday. Among other things, Gwen Skinner’s time is taken up looking after her mother, aged 92, in Auckland, working as a professional violinist, and writing another book. While making no apology for not including even one New Zealand roast lamb recipe in “The Cuisine of the South Pacific” — “I didn’t think there was any point in telling people about what they eat every day” — Gwen Skinner saw a marked contrast between the food of the rest of Polynesia and that of New Zealand. Although such staples as the coconut, taro, and breadfruit could not be grown in this country, “the culinary challenge was taken up with fish, fowl, and ferns, and out of the steamladen hangi came a cuisine unique in the South Pacific,” she wrote. While the Maori did not have some of the foods available on islands further north, they had ready access

to a tremendously rich supply of seafood, and also did not have to survive famines

in the wakes of hurricanes. Gwen Skinner said she had prepared every one of the 400 recipes in her book. Looking slightly out of place among the photographs of more traditional New Zealand dishes is a real “cholesterol special” — a grilled mutton bird surrounded by chips with a fried egg on top. Cooking on the other South Pacific islands and atolls, while still basically simple, has developed and been enriched by the influences of French,’ Indian, Indonesian, Chinese, and other ethnic groups, according to Gwen Skinner. “I have tried to show what it takes to get that intrinsic island flavour, the flavour that you and I

wouldn’t get if we just cooked up a taro,” she said. While the islanders had. been keen to help, she had found it difficult to get precise quantities of ingredients for recipes. “Depending on how many they are cooking for, it is just a pinch of this, and a pinch of that, and a bit of luck. They have done it so often,” she said. Gwen Skinner’s husband, Bernie, a former world yachting champion in 18footers, and her son, Paul, are preparing to leave Sydney for a long cruise in the Indian Ocean, but she will not be going with them. “If I feel like it, I will just fly up and join them when they get to where I want to be,” she said.