Transcript
The KaiNiue Food and Wine festival is one of the catalyst events that has helped pushed Niue into being named one of the top 10 fastest growing tourism destinations for 2017.
Niue was ranked number seven by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation after the small island of 1600 people welcomed 11,000 visitors last year.
Niue's head of Tourism, Felicity Bollen explains the purpose behind the event which features a package tour that always sells out.
"It's to raise the profile of Niue on the international stage and it's also to sort of showcase the fact that even though we've got this reputation of being a barren rock on the middle of the ocean as you know, that actually we do have some good food here and we do have some good people who know how to cook good food."
The three day event will include chef cooking demonstrations, a gala dinner and lunch menus created by both Jeremy and Rex.
The festival will also feature master cooking classes by New Zealand chefs Lou and Ant Bentley who run the Akaroa Cooking School in New Zealand.
"The chefs are actually flying up for the week so they'll be here four days before the event actually starts so that we can introduce them to local growers, they can get out there and have a look at the honey, have a look at the vanilla. Look at some of our indigenous herbs and vegetables and see what they can actually incorporate."
Jeremy Rameka co-owns an award-winning restaurant in Napier called 'Pacifica'.
His guest appearance at this year's festival will be his first visit to Niue.
He shares what he's looking forward to learning at this year's event.
"The cultural aspect of it. You know the actual island itself - it's all about the stories as well. I do want to see what's going on and have a go about it. Especially because it's fairly warm over there so there are these certain things they won't be able to grow and if they are growing it, how are they doing it?"
Mr Rameka says minimising waste as well as living and feeding off the land in a sustainable way is important when it comes to creating food.
He says he's looking forward to seeing what ingredients are available on island that Niueans have incorporated into their traditional foods over the years.
"Maori food sort of comes from everywhere. We used to travel all over the world for thousands of years, you know. When we first arrived in New Zealand it was like a whole heap of different things - all these different birds and all that sort of thing. I guess, adapting to what's available in those regions is key."
Ms Bollen says locals are looking forward to seeing a unique twist into the island's traditional foods and flavours.
"The whole premise behind KaiNiue was using internationally or well-known national chefs to come over here and use as much of the local produce as they possibly could and showcase it in a contemporary way. So I'm really interested to see what they do differently. The menus are sensational and very sort of Polynesian flavoured but with that fabulous modern degustation twist."
The festival will kick off on the 2nd of November.