Chef and author Robert Oliver has taken Samoan cuisine to the top of the world by winning a prestigious international cookbook award.Oliver yesterday won the Gourmand Award for Best TV Chef Cookbook In The World 2013 for Mea’ai Samoa: Recipes from the Heart of Polynesia and his cooking show, Real Pasifik, made by acclaimed TV production company Zoomslide, based in New Zealand.Accepting the award in Beijing, China, Oliver said that he felt both honoured and humbled. “I guess at this point you could say that Samoa cuisine has truly arrived on the world stage.“Samoa is a small nation with a big story, because at the heart of its cuisine is the amazing fact that this small country in the South Pacific has close to 1000 organic family farms thanks to a brilliant local women's group called Women in Business Development and I want to thank them first for letting me be a part of their family.“I am thrilled to have the Ambassador of Samoa to China, Tapusalaia Terry Toomata, here tonight, and also wish to thank the Prime Minister of Samoa Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi and the Samoan Tourism Authority for entrusting me with this project and the New Zealand government for supporting it.”Oliver also thanked co-author Tracy Berno and photographer Shiri Ram, and Random House New Zealand and Le Cordon Bleu New Zealand. “I'd like to thank my amazing TV production company in Auckland, Zoomslide Productions, but most of all I am just so happy to be bringing this award home to the outrageous and brilliant people of Samoa.”Prime Minister Tuilaepa said Oliver had taken Samoan food from our villages and transformed them to another level so they can be served at hotels and restaurants.“What he has done has recorded and elevated our food culture, our organic farmers and our country. We are both proud and grateful to him.”Oliver said the award recognised how special Samoan cuisine is and that \by presenting the real people and culture behind the food