Culinary stars gear up to headline Feast Matariki to celebrate Māori food practice

Monday, 20 June 2022

Chef Jonny Schwass is headlining Christchurch’s Feast Matariki event at the city’s Botanic Gardens on June 25.

For Jonny Schwass, Matariki is “not just an excuse for fireworks or a Briscoes sale”.

Ōtautahi’s Botanic Gardens and Schwass will play host on Saturday to a “fiery feast” including canapes and waiata in the garden’s hot house, followed by four courses from some of the region’s most celebrated Māori cooks in celebration of the public holiday.

Schwass will be joined by chefs and presenters Josh Hunter and Mitch Teirney of Whakapapa of Your Kai, Junior Tana from Pūmau Productions, and supported by Mat Johns and Rod Thomson of Base Food By Fire.

The lineup is as talented as it is enthusiastic about promoting and sharing Māori food practices.

Christchurch’s iconic Botanic Gardens will host the Feast Matariki event on June 25.

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The event is part of the nationwide ‘Feast Matariki’ – a joint venture from Eat New Zealand and Ngāi Tahu – aimed at celebrating and encouraging the wider-use of Māori food practice through some of the culture’s most popular culinary talents. Matariki will be a public holiday for the first time on June 24.

Jonny Schwass is one of the region’s most celebrated chefs and runs Ilex cafe in the Botanic Gardens. (File photo).

The event would encapsulate symbolic Māori moments in history through a fully immersive experience not just limited to kai, Schwass said.

Matariki experts would speak about the holiday and its significance to the culture, with waiata (songs) and live performance, combined with a “real feast” to make it “more than a sit down”, he said.

“It’s a celebration of people, time and kai. Those things create memories and are held dear by Māori.”

For Schwass, he hoped the event would help to highlight the importance of the Matariki holiday to Māori, and encourage it to be celebrated differently – through the sharing of food with loved ones.

Schwass himself anticipated the event would be an “emotional experience” for those involved.

“I’m really excited to be working with others, and for the emotional experience. It’ll be a connection between people, place and kai, and I’m hoping for that same experience,” he said. “It’s going to be an adventure for all of us.”

The event’s menu will feature indigenous ingredients throughout.

Each course will highlight a different food type – food sourced from land, ocean and sky.

Tables get their own host who will explain and show off each element of the event and food.

Eat New Zealand chief executive Angela Clifford says Feast Matariki is an opportunity to change the way we celebrate the public holiday. (File photo).

Ingredients like kumara, roast pig and mutton bird will be cooked over hot coals in front of guests, while cauldron tea, stuffed pudding and sugar biscuits will be a tip of the hat to common marae practice.

Brew Moon beer and Greystone wines will also be pairing beverages with the event’s food.

“When you use the word feast, you gotta come to the party,” Schwass said. “I’m sure there’ll be some beautiful moments to come.”

Feast Matariki events began in a number of marae in Te Waipounamu/South Island earlier this month and aim to expand the wānanga or knowledge of Māori food into communities and the public space.

Holidays like Easter and Christmas were inherently designed to celebrate food, but did not belong to New Zealand and often fell at the wrong time of year, Eat New Zealand chief executive Angela Clifford said.

“This celebration gives us a genuine, traditional connection to food and the harvests that lead up to it.

“Matariki naturally lends itself to kai.”

Feast Matariki was an opportunity to start a new tradition, Clifford said.

“We have a colonised food story. This allows us to realign to tell our own, unique food story.”

Matariki feasts often feature food cooked in a hāngī, such as lamb, pork, shellfish, seafood and vegetables like kamo kamo and puha and herbs gathered from the bush.

Matariki is a time of ceremonial offering in the hope of a prosperous harvest in the year ahead. When Matariki appears, the annual harvest and food collection for the cold months ahead becomes a priority.

Once harvesting is complete, it’s time to celebrate and share kai (food) with friends.

Tickets for the Ōtautahi event at the Botanic Gardens on June 25 are $145.