A full life, but hard work too

Food writer and entertainer Peta Mathias. Photos supplied.
Food writer and entertainer Peta Mathias. Photos supplied.
Peta Mathias, MNZM, loves her summers in Uzes, France, where she teaches cooking in her new home.
Peta Mathias, MNZM, loves her summers in Uzes, France, where she teaches cooking in her new home.

The colourful picture people have when they think about Peta Mathias came about by accident. The traveller, cook, teacher, counsellor, author and one-time television presenter tells Rebecca Fox about her unplanned life.

For many people their picture of Peta Mathias is dominated by the image of her cooking while in designer clothes and dripping with jewellery.

The New Zealander appeared in television shows such as Town and Country, New Zealand Living and Taste New Zealand in the 1990s in get-ups far removed from those many thought respectable for a cook.

But Mathias reveals in her latest book, Never put all your eggs in one bastard, the outfits were not her idea.

‘‘Believe it or not, in my daily life I do not wear three kilos of jewellery, centimetres of makeup and over-the-top clothes.’’

Irene Gardiner, then executive producer for lifestyle at TVNZ, apparently loved the incongruous side of a food presenter wearing ‘‘fabulously inappropriate clothes and Swarovski chandelier earrings while interviewing a farmer in a potato field’’.

‘‘It was she who insisted on the rings, designer clothes and hair-dos. This was fine with me because I thought it was funny.’’

She also reveals the reason she stopped wearing Trelise Cooper clothes forever — her staff’s behaviour when they ended the relationship that had involved lending clothes free of charge for her television appearances.

It is just one of the stories she tells of her television career and its ins and outs over the years.

‘‘When I read memoirs of musicians I’m always fascinated by the details of how they composed their music so I’ve written about television.’’

While it started out as a book about her journey renovating a house in Uzes. France, it branched out to cover much of her early life, something she found quite cathartic to write about.

‘‘Things fitted into place a little more.’’

Writing about her childhood was a favourite part of the journey as she had to do a lot of research rather than relying on memory.

‘‘New Zealand was really the land of milk and honey.’’

Her father died while she was writing the book, which was ‘‘hideous’’, she said.

‘‘I had no idea losing a parent could be so painful.’’

It also highlighted how unplanned life could be. Mathias originally trained as a nurse but had had many roles since — her television career began aged 45.

‘‘Life intervenes all the time. You’ve got to go with it if you have any brains at all. Life is hard.’’

Mathias spends half the year in France and half in Auckland but sold her city home to fund the ‘‘renovation’’ — it turned out to be more of a rebuild — of her home in Uzes.

‘‘It took a lot longer, cost a lot more. I will never build a new home again. But it’s beautiful, gorgeous.’’

She had thought, despite watching English television programmes about building projects, that it would be easy.

‘‘I thought I could do up the old one but it had to to be pulled down.’’

When not holding cooking classes in her new French home, she is taking culinary tours to India and now Vietnam.

‘‘The kitchen works which is a revelation as I’ve never designed a kitchen before.’’

It all sounds like the perfect life but she said she had to work had to get to this point.

‘‘To set it up took a lot of work — there were many setbacks and lessons. I think you have to be blinkered, to really believe in what you want to do and stick to it.

‘‘It does look like a fabulous life but it’s quite hard work.’’

While she was now a pensioner and ‘‘proud of it’’, she was not slowing down and trips to places such as India certainly put life in perspective, she said.

‘‘We have a lot to be thankful for.’’

To see

Peta Mathias Live, King’s and Queen’s Performing Arts Centre, Friday.

Give away

We have a double ticket to see Peta Mathias Live at the King’s and Queen’s Performing Arts Centre on Friday night. Email your name and contact number to playtime@odt.co.nz to be in to win.

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