Monique, finally.
Morning.
Good to see you.
[laughs]
How are you?
Good to see you, love.
You good?
I'm great.
What an amazing place.
Welcome to New Zealand.
[music playing]
GORDON RAMSAY
(VOICEOVER): Monique Fiso
is one of New Zealand's top
chefs, trained in Michelin
star restaurants but passionate
about her Maori heritage.
She's on a one-woman mission to
blend the food of her ancestors
with the world of fine dining.
Now, never ever ventured
into that Maori cuisine.
So what do I need to understand?
There's four main ecosystems.
There's the oceans
and the river.
That's Tangaroa, god of the sea.
And then there's the
mountains and the forest--
Papatuanuku, earth mother.
Papa what?
Papatuanuku.
OK, Papatuanuku.
Papatuanuku.
Papatuanuku.
That's the one.
It's a complex cuisine.
There's a lot of
customs involved.
It's not just about growing
food and just making it.
There's a lot of
different traditions
that are interwoven
in all of the food.
[music playing]
GORDON RAMSAY (VOICEOVER):
The Maori first arrived
in New Zealand on
pioneering voyages
from Polynesia in
the 13th century.
Although they brought some crops
with them, much of their diet
relied on hunting and gathering
from the forest and ocean,
a tradition which Maori
chefs like Monique
are keeping alive
through their cooking.
Now, foraging, is it
big on the menu here?
It is big on the menu here.
A lot of the time, it's the
only way to get your hands
on these ingredients.
Wow.
And as you can see, I've
got two machetes, one of which
is for you.
That's my machete?
MONIQUE FISO:
That's your machete.
[laughs]
Ask all the chefs
at my restaurant.
We all own a machete each.
I know, but you don't walk
home at night with this thing,
do you?
No, we tuck it
in our backpacks.
You tuck it in your backpack.
These machetes are lethal.
[music playing]
GORDON RAMSAY
(VOICEOVER): Monique
is a woman I'm
definitely not going
to argue with,
especially when she's
on the hunt for wild food.
So this is not like walking
down a supermarket aisle.
No, this is one
of the hard work
we do to get the
food we need to eat.
They're everywhere.
Monique, really?
Yeah, just keep going chef.
[bleep]
GORDON RAMSAY (VOICEOVER):
But these vines are
more than just a jungle gym.
At their tip is a
secret Maori delicacy.
So these are the young
shoots that come off the vines,
and they're super tender.
Wow, you can eat that?
MONIQUE FISO: You can eat that.
They're hard to find.
It's like bush asparagus.
Give it a try.
They're really good.
They are good.
They are like asparagus.
Mm.
So soft and delicate.
Yeah.
Delicious.
GORDON RAMSAY
(VOICEOVER): All I can
see in this tangled forest
are potential personal injury
claims.
Oh, here's a good one.
GORDON RAMSAY (VOICEOVER):
But for machete Monique,
it's like an all
you can eat buffet.
What's that?
Horopito.
Horopito.
Yes, it's a native
bush pepper tree.
Wow.
MONIQUE FISO: It's super
spicy, super peppery.
Have a munch on that.
Wow.
Boy, that one's spicy, whew.
GORDON RAMSAY: That is spicy.
That's incredible from that.
Quite numb now, my tongue.
- Yeah.
From hot--
And it's going to stay
that way for a while.
Is it?
[laughter]
[music playing]
GORDON RAMSAY (VOICEOVER):
There's now a full-scale forest
fire in my mouth.
But Monique's not done yet.
It's amazing.
From the beach, it
doesn't look that steep.
GORDON RAMSAY (VOICEOVER): She's
got another surprise for me
high up in the forest canopy.
That is deep in
there, Monique.
I know.
It's a good workout.
Isn't it?
Next challenge, this
is a fuchsia tree.
And the best thing
about this tree--
- Go on.
- --the berries.
And they're usually way up high.
So the best ones,
they're bright purple,
and they're super sweet.
Yeah.
But they're just a
bit of a pain to get.
So--
So we just shake the
tree, and they'll drop down?
No, you're going
to have to go up.
Seriously?
MONIQUE FISO: Yeah.
You sure they'll take
my weight, the branches?
MONIQUE FISO: We'll
soon find out.
[music playing]
I'll wait here.
That's very kind of you.
Honestly, you said
come foraging, right?
MONIQUE FISO: Yeah, I didn't say
it would all be on the ground.
Just a little bit further now.
[cracking]
Oh, [bleep].
Did you hear that?
I heard that.
Keep going.
You're like Tarzan up there.
Can you see them?
I can see them
right in front of you.
Right.
[music playing]
Bloody hell, it's windy.
So the bright
purple ones, right?
MONIQUE FISO: Bright purple,
those are the ones we're after.
Can you toss them down?
They look like tiny dates.
Wow.
How good are those?
GORDON RAMSAY: It's almost
like a treetop dessert.
And I just submit they're
one of the best ingredients
that we have in this country.
GORDON RAMSAY: They're bloody
tasty, fuchsia berries.
Fuchsia berries.
GORDON RAMSAY: Pretty hairy
scaling that tree, especially
the wind, but
another hidden gem,
and what a delicious
little berry.
There's no seeds inside.
So that's the nice thing.
So it's just
bursting with flavor.
The pain in the ass
was they're at the top
of the tree, not the bottom.
[music playing]
