EP77: Island Flavors: A Tahitian Brunch Experience with Tia

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Welcome to a special episode of the Voice4Chefs podcast.

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Today, we're taking you to the heart of Tahiti, where we had the incredible opportunity to do a live interview with Tia, the owner of Hotu Mahana, a Tahitian traditional restaurant.

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In this conversation, we were fully immersed in the vibrant culture, flavors, and traditions of Tahiti.

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Sit back, relax, and enjoy this unique culinary journey with Tia.

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Tia, welcome to the show.

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How do you pronounce your full name?

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My Tahitian name is Turia.

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Five letters.

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T Tia And your last name?

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My last name is Eva.

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Oh my gosh.

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Spelled Faaeva.

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Okay.

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And it's Ian word.

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In two parts.

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Faa means Valley.

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Oh.

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And then Eva is value of E Valley.

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Of E.

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Beautiful.

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Yeah.

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Thank God.

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In love Valley of Eve.

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My wife's over here smiling, glowing.

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That's really beautiful.

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Yeah.

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So as we get started, I want to thank you Tia for being part of this and I'm going to welcome you to Voice for Chefs.

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Thank you for being here today.

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You're welcome.

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And I want to start out with the conversation.

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What brought us here for our listeners out there is, I waited and I came.

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for a buffet a couple days ago and we're here in the beginning of october actually october 12th i'm not sure because i'm on vacation the 12th was yesterday yes okay so today is october 13th and we came a couple days ago for the buffet and it was really delicious and then we came back for a light dinner and we met you sat down with us you told us some amazing stories and one the stories that really Reached out to me and my wife was that you mentioned that growing up your family cooked together I wanted to ask you what that was like in Tradition stitchery.

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Yes Comfortable life just not over comfortable just what right so that we can live normally I'm not struggling too much.

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That's enough.

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That's amazing.

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So, can you tell us a little bit about where we are right now?

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Because we came on vacation to Tahiti, and we went to Morea, but for people that are listening around the world, where are we?

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Okay, so we're actually in Tahiti, and we're located in a district called Patia.

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Patia from, from the main capital of places, Papeete.

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And we're like 18 kilometers away from town.

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And the right here we are in between really the beginning of fire and the end of Polavia, which is the district right behind us.

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But to say a little bit more about this place is owned by the government.

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Okay.

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And.

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Talking about the land, uh, property.

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Okay, there are a few places around like this, where they would apply for people to give out projects.

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And like in 2018, there were candidates, like me, you know, who would give ideas about, okay, what can you do, what kind of project you can put on this place.

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And I usually was working in tourism a few years ago, years ago.

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Yeah.

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And I've always loved to share the culture, share our stories.

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So the idea was to bring the locals back to this site, because this site had been closed for a while.

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It used to work very well 20 years ago.

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And then, for some reason, it didn't.

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In 2018 about 11 of us and probably two or three were people from outside.

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I was one of the locals who was candidate finally the idea that I brought up happened to be a project that the government wanted to put it on, it's so cute.

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You get the, so you get the project.

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So I am now renting the place.

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I have nine years to tell them, to show them that they went wrong.

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That we can, of course, show tourists, show our locals our culture, and what we can do about this place.

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And of course the beach is really one of the attractions that that, When we decided to come here, wow, I hope you enjoyed some classic Tahitian dishes at brunch with you.

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Poisson Cru is a Tahitian iconic dish.

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It's ceviche, raw fish marinated in lime juice, coconut milk, and diced vegetables.

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Fafaru is also a traditional dish that involves marinating fish in seawater.

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And taro, breadfruit, and sweet potatoes.

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Plus the fresh fruit, the mango, and an apple star.

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Absolutely delicious and fresh.

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And that came along with some fresh fruit juices.

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But what was really special was sitting down to brunch with you amongst all these.

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classic dishes, and sharing a conversation with Carrie and I to learn more about your culture and feeling the true hospitality of Tahiti being in the moment by the sea.

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It's a truly unforgettable experience.

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We had a beautiful view for brunch sitting out right by the beach.

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Can you describe what that's like?

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Cause I know the reef is there and there's a view of Moran, this beautiful island.

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I guess, if you had a chance already to drive it?

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Not so many places.

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Like this.

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True.

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That you can sit down and relax.

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We have probably three other restaurants located on the water or by the beach.

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And we had that opportunity to be here and right across of Moorea.

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Moorea is the end of this island.

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It's beautiful.

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And from a perspective of an American.

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You have the most beautiful water we've ever seen in our entire life.

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Colors, the greens and the blues and the separation of color.

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And it's so tranquil.

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And the other thing is that there are no real rough waves because there's a big reef that protects this area.

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So it's so calm and so peaceful.

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And when we're sitting there at brunch, at breakfast, at dinner, we can look out and see all of this.

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And you provide that gift to everyone that comes.

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We feel this incredible warmth and hospitality, and it's rare.

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We drive around the island, we don't feel that everywhere, but we really felt it here.

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And besides that I was so proud of being the candidate that was retained to this place, because what I can say is, we can talk a lot about strangers investing here, or French, we can talk French.

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They know how to talk.

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They know how to convince the banks, which not always the case for local.

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So I'm an example to people that are surrounding me to say, okay, we don't have any money.

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But out of what we can give them, give to people, we can prove the banks that we are able to do the same thing.

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They might come with money we don't.

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My story is a little bit special because I was once married, divorced today, and we had a friend who was the general manager of the most important local bank.

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And at that time, if I remember well, it was 2010.

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Okay.

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I started separating from my husband, just before divorcing, and from having twin boys, I couldn't stand up anymore.

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Unfortunately, I wasn't activating anymore.

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I know I was really depending on my husband, and my ex husband, and nothing is going right at that time.

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And I want to see this friend telling him, Okay, this is my story of today.

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Then I need some help.

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Nothing.

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If you can help me, I will make sure I will be successful.

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And because I know there was a little extra.

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And because We are friends and he knew that I can make it.

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So I didn't have any guarantee at all.

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And then he said, okay, I believe in you.

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Okay, let's do something.

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So I had that first little role that started up the business.

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Okay.

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But then before that it was a hundred dollar bill.

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Wow.

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Oh my gosh.

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That's my story.

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And now you have how many restaurants?

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Two restaurants and catering.

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And catering.

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Okay.

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Wow.

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And the catering is a big business.

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Yes, of course, because during the pandemic, we didn't slow down at all.

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Catering for all the flights that were coming in.

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Oh.

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Yeah, we were.

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Wow.

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We were selected to all.

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For Air Tahiti and.

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For Air Tahiti and all the other flights.

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And Qantas and.

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And that was a contract with the government.

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Oh my God.

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We were working hard.

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I was going to say, how did you cope with the pandemic?

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You were very busy.

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Yeah, we were very busy.

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We were working at night, working during the day, catering for those that are supposed to stay, locked down for 14 days here.

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Wow.

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Wow.

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Wow.

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What would you say is your greatest joy about this journey that, that you've taken on being an entrepreneur, running restaurants, running a catering company, being the voice for, Tahiti basically bringing people in and showing them hospitality and showing them the culture and the food, first of all is we have to love what you do.

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Cooking is something that I always love to do.

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Wow.

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Like we can all cook, we can do everything.

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Wow.

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So what I can say about this career is, I didn't imagine one day being a restaurant owner.

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I was really into something else.

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Jewelry, jewelry.

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Yeah.

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And being in tourism business for longer years.

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But then the situation at a certain time brought me to the restaurant and catering business, which I don't regret at all.

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I guess God has plans for everybody.

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Yeah.

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And this is mine.

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That is really special.

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I'm really choked up about this because it's really special.

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Add something up because this is really important to me.

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Okay.

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When I started with the catering business.

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I didn't own any restaurant.

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So I have this friend of mine who was very kind and helpful.

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And knew what I was going through at that time.

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She allowed me to build the first laboratory.

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And then at that time, I had a license for 50, 50, 50 dish a day.

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Okay.

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And then things becoming more and more dishes were asked for me to deliver.

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Had to think about moving to something else.

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But, see, what happened is, I would call all the administration departments, sending them mails, okay?

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With the lack of order from me, it was very hard.

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It took a little while.

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And then one day, my boyfriend, my husband today, had this dream.

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He dreamt about tuna fish.

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Oh my god! One morning, he said, and I said, Okay, can you tell me a little bit about that?

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Yeah.

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He said, okay, I was living with him in his house.

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In 2013.

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Okay.

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And he said, okay, we're struggling, but I think there should be a meaning to this dream.

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Okay.

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I see this guy walking over to the house, and he said, Is this why I shouldn't be buying tuna fish?

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And he said you're at the right decision.

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This is a dream.

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Because you're at the right place.

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And he said, Okay, I'm here to buy tuna fish because I have to feed up all these people behind me.

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He kicked that over his shoulder and he said, I've seen these homeless people.

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He'd even seen a lot of homeless people.

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Oh.

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And then, oh, okay, I will.

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I have a friend.

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I still have this friend.

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I still have this friend.

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I was working for the Welfare Service, the next day, as we're having breakfast, this friend called out and said, Tia, are you still running your little laboratory as it is?

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And he said, OK, I need to talk to you.

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OK.

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So he, he, the first contact was, are you able to provide?

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With this budget for homeless people.

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Wow.

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Then leave this charity week.

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I said okay, yeah.

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Let's talk about it.

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Okay.

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So as I calculated, I said, this is not really business.

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This is not really the, how you say, the interest that I'm supposed to get.

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But then I said, yeah.

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And with the dream that my boyfriend told me, I said, this is something.

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This is a mission.

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Yep.

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So I said, okay.

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I might as well take contract.

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It will, let's say, okay we'll be happy enough with this.

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It's all right.

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Okay.

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So we're still feeding, we're still caring the homeless people till now 2024.

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That's amazing.

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Everyone will be taking breakfast and dinner at night.

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Oh my god.

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And instead of one center, we now have three today.

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So there's We started with 30 to 50, and today there's a hundred and fifty even.

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That's amazing because some companies in this, in the United States, where we're from, Seattle, Washington a lot of companies want you to volunteer.

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But they want you to volunteer because they want the company to look good, or they get something back.

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It's obvious to me That you're not doing it for that reason, you're doing that because it's part of your soul and you want to help people and that's amazing.

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That is really amazing because I love it when chefs and restaurant owners and people in hospitality give because they want to give.

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Like they don't, they're not getting some money back.

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They're doing it because It's the right thing to do.

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And that's really incredible.

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And I want to make sure to share that.

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So did you face any obstacles that really, was there any struggle that you've had in developing this catering business, developing these restaurants that you could share?

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When I started growing up, when the business started growing up, in the administration department, you have to have a nice sales.

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And there's always.

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One or two people that will try to cut the grass off of your feet.

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And this kind of struggle really, business where I was owning the first, I'm still owning that first restaurant, also belongs to the government.

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I was facing problems like, okay, let's upraise your rent.

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You're getting too much people.

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Wow.

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Yeah.

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There, there's too much people from here.

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And yet you invested to extend.

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And all these heads have to be voted in the assembly.

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She would go right through and not giving us any choice.

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But then, and the circuit found, let's check the lawyer and see if they have this right to do, and I would then struggle to go up and see the prime minister.

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Okay.

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And talk about my case.

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Then she got fired.

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Oh, she got fired because it was jealousy.

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I said, how would you after raise the rent, when I'm renting this part of the restaurant, because they can close it down, and then my employees will lose their jobs, so I would go and defend the cause of, and they all know my stories.

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And they know what we do.

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Okay, maybe we'll be the lowest price in catering., I'll never be rich.

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As long as I can pay my employees and I can pay my, I taxes with them and we'll try to do something.

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So I have a lot of help.

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On the other side from the government, we're realizing this, okay, yeah, this is right.

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They again will suggest for me to take another place with the surfing on the other end of the island.

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I couldn't, this is I'm getting older and Usually it's you're fighting to get the place.

00:17:00.519 --> 00:17:01.169
Wow.

00:17:01.179 --> 00:17:03.710
At least we know a third place will be too much.

00:17:03.980 --> 00:17:04.549
I see.

00:17:04.750 --> 00:17:28.345
When we first met and we had this conversation about doing this interview, one of the things that really resonated with me, and my wife and I talked about it, my wife Carrie, who's sitting right next to us, And you tell us about your philosophy with your team, that thing that I loved as you talked about opening their eyes to more than just being here in Tahiti.

00:17:28.375 --> 00:17:30.045
Can you tell us a little bit about that?

00:17:30.174 --> 00:17:30.204
Okay.

00:17:31.339 --> 00:17:33.559
I was talking about mission before.

00:17:33.630 --> 00:17:35.099
God may have a plan for me.

00:17:35.140 --> 00:17:36.710
God has a plan for everyone.

00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:40.259
And I used to work for a French jewel owner.

00:17:40.789 --> 00:17:43.859
He cared for luxury jewelries like Rolex and Cartier.

00:17:43.859 --> 00:17:46.319
So I know this kind of world.

00:17:46.519 --> 00:17:46.930
Sure.

00:17:47.109 --> 00:17:49.099
And I know how they treat their employees.

00:17:49.160 --> 00:17:49.630
Yeah.

00:17:49.819 --> 00:17:50.029
And.

00:17:50.029 --> 00:17:56.859
When I became a restaurant owner, I said, I'm not gonna work this way.

00:17:57.670 --> 00:18:02.009
I realized that most of our people, I'm talking about local people.

00:18:02.609 --> 00:18:06.549
None of our young people are having a lot of problems with drugs.

00:18:06.769 --> 00:18:07.410
Yes.

00:18:07.650 --> 00:18:12.450
Throughout my whole catering business, I met people that coming my way.

00:18:13.470 --> 00:18:19.609
Without me asking them to be there, asking for help, asking for work and have no experience.

00:18:19.609 --> 00:18:37.049
And they are motivating to help them and show them what to do . So let's say about 80 percent of my workers are people that needed jobs at the beginning, had not even experience, and I would train them and they become good chefs today.

00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:39.299
My philosophy is to tell them.

00:18:40.404 --> 00:18:49.015
Even if you didn't go to school, even if you don't know how to read, because you come from a poor family, it doesn't mean you can't do anything.

00:18:49.434 --> 00:18:56.914
So I'm proud to have employees today that are certified to become cooks or chefs.

00:18:57.795 --> 00:19:05.884
Because I think I have more to give them than people that are already trained, from France, with Paper.

00:19:06.164 --> 00:19:08.454
I really feel like it's worth it.

00:19:09.134 --> 00:19:13.234
And I'm happy to live every day and to give and it's wonderful.

00:19:13.444 --> 00:19:15.545
But you also do something very special.

00:19:16.025 --> 00:19:17.424
Talk a little bit about travel.

00:19:17.464 --> 00:19:17.815
I know.

00:19:17.855 --> 00:19:18.875
I love this.

00:19:18.875 --> 00:19:21.555
This is, I've never heard of this in the restaurant business.

00:19:22.095 --> 00:19:24.644
Yeah, that carrie's nodding her head right there.

00:19:25.595 --> 00:19:27.515
Yeah, because I'm very lucky.

00:19:27.724 --> 00:19:28.505
I'm very lucky.

00:19:28.505 --> 00:19:30.265
I said today, such a beautiful family.

00:19:30.365 --> 00:19:39.974
I'm very happy that I have parents who educated us in love, and so I'm willing to share with all my employer and to show them.

00:19:40.154 --> 00:19:42.394
See, today they have a job.

00:19:43.184 --> 00:19:45.125
Tomorrow they'll have a home of their own.

00:19:45.204 --> 00:19:52.724
As long as we get a comfortable life, just not over comfortable . So that we can do this normally that's enough.

00:19:52.875 --> 00:19:53.855
That's amazing.

00:19:54.214 --> 00:19:56.894
Can you tell us a little bit about where we are right now?

00:19:56.894 --> 00:19:59.644
Because we came on vacation in Tahiti.

00:20:00.634 --> 00:20:01.704
We went to Moorea.

00:20:01.714 --> 00:20:05.765
But for people that are listening around the world, where are we?

00:20:06.859 --> 00:20:12.799
We are actually in Tahiti and we're located in a district called Pāʻea.

00:20:12.940 --> 00:20:20.420
Pāʻea from the main capital place is Papeete and we're like 18 kilometers away from town.

00:20:20.670 --> 00:20:30.109
Right here, we are in between really the beginning of Pāʻea and the end of the Punaʻauia, which is the district right behind us.

00:20:31.140 --> 00:20:32.190
This is where we are.

00:20:32.589 --> 00:20:36.279
But to say a little bit more about this place is owned by the government.

00:20:36.279 --> 00:20:48.859
And talking about the land property, okay, there are a few places around like this where they would apply for people to give out projects.

00:20:49.369 --> 00:20:55.250
And so like in 2018, there was a candidate, who would give ideas about.

00:20:55.664 --> 00:20:59.025
Okay, what can you do, what kind of project you can put on this place?

00:20:59.085 --> 00:20:59.414
Okay.

00:20:59.694 --> 00:21:03.765
And I usually was working in tourism a few years ago.

00:21:04.255 --> 00:21:04.775
That's right.

00:21:04.775 --> 00:21:05.904
A few years ago.

00:21:05.954 --> 00:21:06.474
Yeah.

00:21:07.095 --> 00:21:11.615
And I've always loved to share the culture and share our story.

00:21:11.674 --> 00:21:18.019
So the idea was to Bring the locals back to this site, because this site had been closed for a while.

00:21:18.660 --> 00:21:25.339
It used to work very well about 20 years ago, and then, for some reason, it had stopped.

00:21:25.829 --> 00:21:28.390
So it became just a beach, site.

00:21:29.009 --> 00:21:34.430
In 2018, I respond to the apply, about 11 of us.

00:21:35.134 --> 00:21:42.365
Finally, the idea that I brought up happened to be a project that the government wanted to.

00:21:42.785 --> 00:21:44.474
Put on plates you get the project.

00:21:44.954 --> 00:21:46.865
So I am now renting the place.

00:21:48.095 --> 00:21:48.404
Yeah.

00:21:48.414 --> 00:21:59.025
So the, let me say, I have nine years to tell them, to show them that they went wrong, that we can, of course, show tourists, show our locals.

00:22:00.005 --> 00:22:00.515
Our culture.

00:22:00.565 --> 00:22:02.275
And what we can do about this place.

00:22:02.785 --> 00:22:07.595
The beach is really one of the attraction made me decide to come here.

00:22:07.690 --> 00:22:08.079
Wow.

00:22:08.109 --> 00:22:15.440
Can you describe, we had a beautiful view for brunch sitting out right by the beach.

00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:16.339
Can you describe.

00:22:16.829 --> 00:22:21.799
Cause I know the reef is there and there's a few of the moray and this beautiful island.

00:22:22.059 --> 00:22:33.759
Yes, I guess if you have, if you had a chance already to drive around the island, not so many places like this that you can sit down and relate.

00:22:34.619 --> 00:22:44.279
Yeah we have probably like three other restaurants located on the water or by the beach that we, yeah, and we had that opportunity.

00:22:44.829 --> 00:22:49.529
To be here and ride across of Moorea, what is the end of this island.

00:22:49.539 --> 00:22:50.410
It's beautiful.

00:22:50.420 --> 00:22:55.970
It's our sister island and view of Moorea right behind like in the front of the restaurant.

00:22:55.970 --> 00:22:57.450
It's amazing.

00:22:57.950 --> 00:23:04.779
From a perspective of an American, you have the most beautiful water we've ever seen in our entire life.

00:23:05.144 --> 00:23:12.144
Tia, just want to thank you for sharing your culture, your food, and your journey.

00:23:12.944 --> 00:23:17.335
This was an incredible experience with you in Tahiti.

00:23:17.365 --> 00:23:17.664
Your Welcome.