Robert Oliver is the eldest son of Tagaloa Faa‘tautele Dennis Oliver, a trail-blazing development practitioner in the South Pacific. Robert was raised in Fiji and has developed restaurants in the United States, ‘farm to table’ resorts in the Caribbean and food programmes in New York City.

His books Me‘a Kai (2009) and Mea‘ai Samoa (2014) were written with a mission: to connect Pacific agriculture to the region’s tourism sector. Both were honoured in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, with Me‘a Kai taking the top gong — Best Cookbook in the World 2010. Both books were made into the television series Real Pasifik.

In 2014–15 Robert was a judge on the New Zealand version of My Kitchen Rules and in 2015–16 he co-hosted the cooking show Marae Kai Masters on Māori Television. Robert is the founder and host of Pacific Island Food Revolution, a television-led social movement designed to revive the traditional cuisines and food systems of the South Pacific. In 2022 Robert was recognised with the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to food and Pacific communities. Robert lives in Auckland.