Peta Mathias: TV foodie...

Interview – 2009

Food, travel and television are synonymous with Peta Mathias. For 12 years she hosted TVNZ’s Taste New Zealand and its spin-off shows Toast New Zealand, Taste Takes Off and A Taste of Home. Hr toughest TV moment came in Bolivia as part of the Intrepid Journeys series; she describes the trip as "pure hell". Mathias has written several books about food and travel, and leads food tours to her favourite gastronomic hot spots around the world.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Mathias talks about:

How she was discovered and her first TV audition
The impact Taste New Zealand and its various spin-offs had on local cuisine
How her outrageous outfits were a deliberate strategy
What she thinks of TV food shows
Why she ended up cooking on Hudson and Halls' old stove
Why her Intrepid Journey to Bolivia was hell on earth
And the practical reason behind setting up her own production company

This video was first uploaded on 29 September 2009, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

What Taste New Zealand has provided is a record. It's like a museum of an era, a very important era: 12 years of food in New Zealand from 1995 onwards, where things changed drastically in New Zealand.
– Peta Mathias on the significance of Taste New Zealand and its spin-off shows

Peta's Full Profile