Work is not a personality disorder - if you do a job you love you will never have to work a day in your life.
Peta Mathias (MNZM) is a respected and prolific author, television personality, stage performer, and international gastronomic tour host.
Born and raised in Auckland, she trained as a registered nurse and spent five years at Auckland Hospital. She then moved to Canada, working as a counsellor at a drug and alcohol centre in Montreal and Vancouver. Peta later moved to Paris, starting as a dishwasher and quickly working her way up to head chef before owning her restaurant for four years, experiencing the tough realities of the food trade.
She gained widespread recognition as the presenter of the prime television travel/food shows Taste New Zealand, Taste Takes Off, and A Taste of Home for twelve years. Her segment on TVNZ’s Taste NZ earned an international award at the World Food Media Awards in Adelaide in 1997. In 2003, she was voted Supreme Award winner at the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers Culinary Quill Awards for her exceptional contributions to food communications.
Peta's first book, Fête Accomplie, is about her life in Paris with recipes, marking the beginning of her successful writing career. She has authored nine award-winning gastronomic travel books covering Morocco, France, New Zealand, Ireland, India, and Vietnam. Her book Can We Help It If We're Fabulous? became an instant bestseller in 2008, followed by several other notable works including Just In Time To Be Too Late – Why Men Are Like Buses (2009), Culinary Adventures in Marrakech (2010), Beat Till Stiff – A Woman's Recipe for Living (2011), and Hot Pink Spice Saga (2014), which was shortlisted for the best food book on India at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
In 2019, Peta released Eat Your Heart Out, a book about unusual love stories. In 2021, she released Shed Couture, a book focusing on sustainable fashion, emphasizing buying less but better and recycling.
Peta spends half the year hosting gastronomic tours in Marrakesh, the South of France, Italy, the Basque Country, Portugal, and India. She teaches cooking classes in her French home during the summer and hosts a supper club in her Auckland home during the NZ summer.
In 2012, Peta was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for her work as an author and TV presenter. She is an in-demand MC and speaker, known for her uncensored, hilarious tales of her adventures. Peta's vibrant presentations and zest for life captivate audiences, making her an unforgettable speaker and entertainer. In her words, 'it ain't over till it's over.'
Talking Points
Food and Gastronomy
For me, the best way to access another person’s life, situation and culture is through cooking. Eating and drinking make you feel good and it is the best way for a host to express welcome, affection and respect for their guest. All important events in our lives are smoothed by food and drink - weddings, birthdays, funerals, conferences. The first thing you always do for a visitor is cook for them or take them out to eat. A cook transmits a very intense personal energy during the time he or she is cooking and food has the ability to transport us back to our very essence. When one prepares food with energy and passion, those very qualities are transferred to those who eat the food. Food and Gastronomy
Key Takeaway: Inspire people to see that food is love, to try new recipes and to eat healthy food.
Fashion & Clothing
I have always been deeply submissive to the seductiveness of cloth and can’t imagine a world without beautiful garments - it would be like being a singer without a song, a cook without knives. I love wearing beautiful clothes for the same reason I love cooking and good food – it’s just an easy way to make myself happy. With both I am nourishing myself, living life to its fullest and hopefully saving the planet a little at the same time. Just as you should cook with love you should dress with love. Just as you first eat with your eyes, so you dress with your eyes. The whole thing about fashion is mysterious, irresistible and alluring. Fashion & Clothing
Key Takeaway: Inspire people to wear beautiful good quality clothes and recycle. Buy less and buy better.
Travel
We travel initially to lose ourselves and next to find ourselves - to travel is to put yourself outside your comfort zone - it cracks you open and pushes you up against the wall. Traveling is in fact like being in love - you’re under the influence. The normal rules don’t apply ... you’re more open, more tolerant, more reckless. Like love, it’s about surrender rather than conquest, and is less to do with countries and more to do with stretching your boundaries and expanding on what you believe is ‘normal’. And of course if you’re flying, it provides a unique opportunity to eat revolting food, meet harmless lunatics and sit doing nothing. Travel keeps your mind healthy and your heart racing because you have to keep resolving problems.Travel
Key Takeaway: Inspire people with vivid stories of my tours all over the world, my double life in France and NZ and how liberating it is to get rid of your preconceptions.
Humour
All my talks are entertaining and involve humour because it's not really the content of your life that matters - it's the context in which you hold it. If you can see the funny side of life you'll live longer, resist the urge to strangle people and have more friends. I cover topics I consider important, naughty or personal, transformational, musical and sometimes scurrulous. It takes less muscles to laugh than to frown so if you only have wrinkles from smiling then you will be beautiful forever. I like to see life as a thrilling adventure, intellectually stimulating and subject to occasional medicinal doses of gin.Humour
Key Takeaway: Inspire people to enjoy themselves, be true to themselves and learn something at the same time.
Video
Peta Mathias | Promo Video
Peta was fantastic as she joined in our event, reading and responding to the audience very well. A couple of impromptu songs were a highlight for many of our attendees. ... keep reading Seeka
