We're a fairly rowdy cooking class, to be honest. Sunburnt after a day of spectacular dives between Picasso bright fish, languid stingrays and grim reef sharks, we plunge headfirst into the white wine.
Fortunately, our instructor, a large, beaming local cook in an unabashedly bright shirt, is blessed with typical islander temperament: "Party on," he chuckles, passing us big bowls of fresh coconut shards served with what tastes like Thousand Island dressing. In Fiji, which comprises 330 islands in total, of which less than one-third are inhabited, the islanders are so friendly it’s difficult to believe that this was once a land of fierce cannibals.
However, the cuisine has changed considerably over centuries, and today we're learning to make a simple, but still surprisingly sophisticated local dish: Kokoda. Class is at the Musket Cove Island Resort's beach front, under a particularly vivid island sunset. Fresh Mahi Mahi fish is deftly cubed before being marinated in lemon, salt and vinegar overnight. We finely chop cucumber, onions, tomato and capsicum. They're tossed together with the marinated fish, and then the whole concoction is blended with luxurious coconut cream. The results are spectacular – an explosion of flavours and textures. Especially when you eat it on the beach, balancing a chilled chardonnay as your bare toes dig into the warm sand.
