Kia Eats the World’s heartfelt celebration of Māori ingredients, culture and community makes it one of the year’s most enjoyable local series.
As a self-professed foodie and lover of food shows, I was excited to learn chef Kia Kanuta was launching his own show. I’m a long-time follower of food-related television – from Martha Stewart and Rick Stein to Anthony Bourdain and Action Bronson – and there aren’t many cooking shows I don’t enjoy watching. I was particularly eager, though, to see a young Māori chef presenting his own show in Aotearoa.
The first thing that struck me about Kia Eats the World was how similar the opening was to that of Parts Unknown, the iconic travel-documentary show hosted by the late great chef Anthony Bourdain. The quick cuts between grainy film scenes combined with rock music were familiar and gave me Bourdain-shaped hopes. But the intro was a red herring.While both shows include travel and are hosted by chefs with an edgy alternative vibe, that’s where the similarities end.
Produced by Mahitahi Media for Whakata Māori, Kia Eats The World follows Kanuta around Aotearoa as he showcases uniquely Māori kai, elevating it with his decades of cooking experience. From diving for kina in the Waitematā to eating rotten corn, the 20-minute episodes shine a light on kai that is often overlooked in non-Māori culinary circles.
The first episode is about kina. Kanuta and longtime friend Jono Thevenard go diving for kina and serve up a series of dishes showcasing the often overlooked humble sea urchin. Think everything from corn custard to a kina and kūmara crème brûlée. The duo say they want to encourage more people to eat kina, a species causing significant damage to kelp forests around Aotearoa.
In the second episode, Kanuta visits a special maara kai in central Tāmaki Makaurau, where he harvests some rare heritage varieties of kūmara, such as Tokatoka gold and reka rawa, and kamokamo flowers. This is followed by a visit to west Auckland’s Piha beach, where Kanuta goes foraging with Lucas Parkinson, the executive chef from local restaurant Aryeh. They gather sea asparagus and feature horokaka and dehydrated pōhutukawa stamens in an incredible array of meals with uniquely New Zealand flavours.
Even a self-proclaimed foodie like me learnt a lot about our local cuisine in just the first two episodes. But what I really loved was seeing New Zealand cuisine and Māori culture woven throughout. Food aside, the real star of the show is Kanuta. There’s no pretentiousness here, he’s all authenticity, standing proud in the fact he started as a potscrubber at the Avondale RSA. He admits in the introduction of each show that he’s still on a journey to reclaim te reo Māori. The vulnerability adds to his likeability, though some of the repetition of his life story could have been left on the cutting room floor.
At times, too, the show seems pulled between identities. Is it a travel show? Is it a cooking show? Is it an exploration of ingredients? Sometimes you wish it would find a focus and lock in.
Still, watching Kia Eats the World feels like a privilege. Kanuta and his guests are generous with their time, culinary knowledge and mātauranga, and Kanuta’s enthusiasm is contagious. He’s so genuinely stoked to be travelling and making TV, at one point saying all those hours scrubbing dishes at the RSA paid off. Heartwarming stuff.
Kia Eats the World is available to stream on Māori+ now.
