‘I think I’m probably naturally a bit silly …” ventures Food Rescue Kitchen host Naomi Toilalo.
It’s the silliness that makes it sing. The food influencer, Bake Off veteran and former Whakaata Māori presenter is so obviously enjoying herself on camera that it lifts what could have been a lecture on food waste.
“You don’t want to make this kind of kaupapa preachy, eh?” Toilalo ((Ngāti Porou) says. “People are dealing with enough. They don’t need to be told they’re doing another bad thing. So, it’s trying to bring awareness in an inspiring and fun way. We’re not trying to preach at people.”
Over six episodes, Food Rescue Kitchen challenges well-known chefs to create a three-course community banquet from rescued food (a little foraging is permitted) and if you’re the kind of person for whom the words “reduced to clear” are sweet music, you should definitely watch it. You may also be shocked by what gets treated as waste in the daily food economy.
“We went to one place and there were just hundreds of dollars’ worth of these beautiful mushrooms. The stalks were a centimetre or two too long. And so, they don’t go to market ‒ they’re another thing that gets biffed. A lot of it with the produce is about colour. If the carrots aren’t orange enough, or if they’re too orange, or slightly misshapen. You know, if you make your own garden, that nothing looks perfect. [But] you can still use them.”
Yes, as the show illustrates, carrots being rejected for being too orange is really a thing. But things are better than they were a decade ago, when food that didn’t fit the bill almost always went straight to landfill, plastic packaging and all. Now, groups such as Everybody Eats – producer Megan Jones’ original inspiration for the show – pick it up and serve it up to people who need it.
Another theme – emphasised in one episode by London-based Chantelle Nicholson, who has a Michelin green star – is using all of the food. Nicholson creates a multi-textured cauliflower dish, topped off with the fast-fried green leaves, that looks sensational.
“Oh man, it was extraordinary,” Toilalo recalls. “They’ve got some amazing tips, the chefs. Because hospitality is hard – they already have to think about what they do with food rather than throw it away, because that’s just money down the drain for them. So little tips like how to bring greens back to life.”
The tips are sprinkled gently throughout. Some come from Love Food Hate Waste, a partner with the show that also makes the reusable “Eat Me First” stickers for fridge containers that Woolworths, the lead sponsor of Food Rescue Kitchen, will be selling.
The place of supermarkets in the picture is a little awkward – they still waste a lot of food – but Woolworths wanting to be the solution and not just the problem is commendable.
The heart of the show is really still Toilalo having fun with the chefs and the community diners. She’s amazed by Nicholson – who does have quite a presence about her – and she’s introduced to fish-head soup by chef Peter Gordon, who makes her eat an eyeball (“I nearly spewed”).
But it’s the first episode, where Toilalo is in Maketu with MasterChef winners Kasey and Kārena Bird, that really sets the tone for the series. The three of them get on like sisters. “I’d met them once before, but they instantly feel like they’re whānau, those girls – they’re hilarious. And they already fit in that world – they’re pulling from the land and the sea and they’re very conscious about what they’re taking. You don’t waste that kind of kai.”
Food Rescue Kitchen, Three, 7pm, from Saturday April 27 & on ThreeNow.
