When Naomi Toilalo first began creating recipes online in 2018, she had no idea that not only would it become her day job, but it would also cement her as one of New Zealand’s leading bilingual and bicultural food specialists.
“The original business idea for WhānauKai wasn’t to make money – I didn’t think it was something I even could make money from. I just needed a creative space at home because I was there with four children in a pile of nappies,” says the former Whakaata Māori presenter and 2019 Great Kiwi Bake Off contestant, 42, who is mum to Bella, now 14, Hanaia, 12, Manawa-Ora, eight, and Aamalia, seven.
But a love of cooking wasn’t the only reason Naomi took to her Auckland home kitchen. It was also a place she could learn more te reo Māori.
“I’ve been learning te reo for 24 years, but I’m the only one in my wider whānau who can speak it,” she explains. “Before I had Bella, I got a degree in Māori studies at university. However, while I could write a letter and read a book in the reo, I couldn’t speak it because nobody spoke it to me. You can’t get better at something if you’re the only one doing it.”
So on the day Bella was born, Naomi set herself a challenge. “I decided I’d only speak to her in te reo,” she tells. “And if I didn’t know how to say something, then I’d learn.
“It was a good way to do it as you don’t have deep and meaningful conversations with a baby! I’d learn phrases like, ‘Are you hungry?’, ‘You are starting to crawl’ and ‘You are tired’ – simple little instructions. From there, I got more and more confident.”
But Naomi’s four girls aren’t just growing up bilingual – they’re also learning Samoan from their dad Paul, 43.
“We gave him the same challenge, to only address them in Samoan,” she says. “It’s hard because, apart from us, everyone else speaks to them in English. But we decided from the start we had to be consistent.”
And there’s one room in the house where te reo flows, tells Naomi.
“We’ve had our kitchen renovated. Now we have two ovens, so the kids can bake and I can be cooking dinner at the same time.”
While the younger two are still at the playing stage, Bella and Hanaia are following in their mum’s culinary footsteps.
“My big girls do all the family baking now,” says Naomi. “They bake for their sisters, for school and they make their own recipes too. I chose to teach them the way my mum taught me, which is to give them the recipe and just walk away.
“If they have a question, they can come and ask me, otherwise they can figure it out. It’s a good way for them to learn. As I’m such a control freak, I’d want them to do it perfectly. This way, they can be as messy as they like because I’ve taught them that if they want to bake, they also have to clean up.”
And much to Naomi’s delight, they also cook from their mum’s bilingual cookbook WhānauKai. “They have their own copy and they have absolutely ruined it!” she laughs. “But it’s a good ruin – it’s so special.”
And after presenting an episode on the TVNZ+ show Food Rescue Kitchen, a show that challenges chefs to create a three-course feast from food that would otherwise be thrown away, something else Naomi is teaching her girls is not to waste anything.
“That show taught me so much – I had no idea how much taonga [treasure] we throw away,” she says. “Ten years ago, if a supermarket or restaurant had over-ordered, there was never any thought that food could be used anywhere else. So crates of perfect raspberries, kilos of fish… It would all end up in landfill. It was absolutely mindblowing.
“These days, there are charities working to rehome that food and individuals who are doing their best. During filming, I met a fisherman in Napier who has developed a crate so all the little ika [fish] can escape, but he’s the only one using it. So many people are working hard to care for our kai, help their community and give back.”
And with the skills and knowledge she’s learned, Naomi is determined to pass on as much knowledge to her girls as she can.
“Younger generations aren’t learning the important stuff. Simple kitchen skills like how to poach an egg or make mince. To me, that’s a fundamental part of being in a whānau,” she says.
“To me, making a meal together and sitting around the table is the most simple and powerful connection you can have.”
Food Rescue Kitchen is streaming now on ThreeNow.
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