The Polynesian meal is not divided into starter-main-dessert. Instead, *kai moana* (food from the sea), *kai whenua* (food from the land: tubers, vegetables) and preparations cooked in the *umu* or *hāngi* (earth oven) are laid out together on ti or banana leaves. Everyone serves themselves freely. During voyages, *kai* is reduced to dried and fermented provisions, supplemented by daily fishing. Major departures and arrivals give rise to ceremonial feasts where food is also an offering to the *atua* (spirits).

The coconut is the key ingredient of Polynesian voyaging cuisine: it provides fresh water, milk, cream, oil and flesh. The *umu* — an oven dug into the ground, lined with fire-heated stones and covered with leaves — is the fundamental cooking technique, imparting a smoky flavor and incomparable tenderness to food. These two elements define the taste of ancestral Polynesia.