‘Fluff’ furore: Nadia Lim speaks out
Celebrity chef wants kōrero with rich-lister after 'sexist' remarks
Celebrity chef, entrepreneur and farmer Nadia Lim has spoken out about the media storm that erupted yesterday over misogynistic comments reportedly made about her by Kiwi rich-lister Simon Henry.
In an interview with NBR, Henry, the founder and chief executive of chemicals company DGL Group, reportedly called Lim “a little bit of Eurasian fluff”. He also claims a photograph of Lim barbecuing a chicken while wearing jeans and a summer top in a prospectus for My Food Bag, the meal kit delivery business Lim co-founded in 2013, showed “a TV celebrity showing off her sensuality”.
“When you've got Nadia Lim, when you've got a little bit of Eurasian fluff in the middle of your prospectus with a blouse unbuttoned showing some cleavage, and that's what it takes to sell your scrip, then you know you're in trouble ... ,'' Henry is quoted as saying.
Lim, a degree-qualified dietitian who won television cooking competition MasterChef
New Zealand, says at first she wanted to stay out of the debate but on Wednesday night found herself sitting opposite a young flight attendant on a trip from Christchurch to Queenstown.
“I smiled at her and she smiled back at me and I actually felt a little bit emotional. She was a young woman of Asian descent, like myself . . . and I thought: How do you feel when you hear things like that? Or read things like that?” Lim told the Herald.
Lim initially deferred comment to My Food Bag chief executive Kevin Bowler.
Yesterday, she told the Herald her flight home to Central Otago helped convince her she had to speak out.
“I just kept thinking about it the whole way. What if it was your daughter? I realised it's not about me. I'm lucky, I've had years of support and opportunities to build up a thick skin and resilience, but there are obviously so many people who aren't in that position, who are vulnerable, and who would have seen a reflection of themselves in those comments. Those are the people I feel sad and disappointed for. I'm not speaking out for me — it's for them.”
Lim says derogatory comments have always existed, “often in a very casual and flippant way” and while she usually ignores them, she learned early how damaging they could be.
“The biggest thing I've encountered, and I haven't really spoken out much about it, is with my dad. My mum is New Zealand European and my dad was Chinese Malaysian. He used to get a lot of flak, all the time. It wasn't directed at me, but I was a child and I observed it of course. And he, the same as me, would just brush it off and pretend it didn't get to him. But I could see the hurt in his eyes. It did. It always did.” Support for Lim has poured in. My Food Bag co-founder Cecilia Robinson says “racist” and “sexist” commentary highlights things “aren't all right” for women in business.
Lim says: “If you give someone an inch, they'll take a mile and if it’s not stamped on, then it does just continue, and the little things add up, don't they?
“It's especially important in this situation, because he [Henry] is a CEO.
He is meant to be a leader ... he could use his potential and
influence to celebrate diversity and inclusion. It’s a missed opportunity. If he did, he would get so much out of it.
“I feel sad for him that he hasn’t learned that lesson yet.”
Lim says she wasn’t looking for a personal apology.
“What would make me happy is if he really does internalise it, and think deeply about it, from other people’s perspectives.”
And, she says, if Henry wanted her to explain the potentially damaging effect of his attributed comments on vulnerable people, “I would be more than happy to make him a cup of tea and sit him down and have a kōrero with him — and I think he’d very quickly discover I’m not ‘a little bit of Euroasian fluff’.”
Lim says there’s “nothing wrong with the term Eurasian”, but context matters.
“He used that word to further undermine what I do and who I am.”
For the record, Lim wore her own regular “summer beach clothes” for the photo shoot and is at a loss to explain Henry’s reported reaction.
“I didn’t have a blouse that was unbuttoned and I wasn’t showing any cleavage — unfortunately I don’t have those assets!
“Why say that?” Auckland-born Lim was last week confirmed as a judge on the new season of MasterChef New Zealand, now filming in Queenstown. Lim and husband Carlos Bagrie moved to Central Otago two years ago and now own a 485ha farm near Arrowtown.
She says the shift has allowed her to focus on sustainable and ethical food production and supply — important issues for New Zealand’s future.
“I could have rested on my laurels and had a pretty cruisy life. And then we decided to go into farming and take on a massive bank loan and debt and work even harder than we did before.
“Why are we doing this? Because I do have a responsibility. If you’ve got a voice, then use it. If you’ve been lucky to have been afforded the privileges you have and the opportunities you have, to have a voice, then use it to do something worthwhile.”
Lim says it’s important to never forget “how many amazing people who do have such genuinely good hearts are doing great mahi, uplifting, upholding and really celebrating diversity and inclusion.
“Hats off to those people, because the effort doesn’t go unnoticed”.
Condemnation of Henry’s reported remarks has been widespread over the past 24 hours. He has faced a barrage of criticism on talkback radio, including NZME’s NewstalkZB. And KiwiSaver provider Kiwi Wealth plans to add Henry’s DGL Group to its investment exclusions list.
Kiwi Wealth chief executive Rhiannon McKinnon said Henry’s comments had prompted serious red flags about the ESG (environmental, social and governance), particularly the governance, of DGL.
Meanwhile, Henry and the board of DGL went to ground yesterday.
A spokesperson for DGL’s New Zealand branch office, when asked for assistance to contact Henry and the board, said he was “travelling abroad and his schedule is fully booked at this time”.
Herald efforts in Australia to contact Henry, and DGL chair Peter Lowe, got no response.
DGL independent director Denise Brotherton, the only woman on the company’s board, did not respond to several Herald approaches for comment.