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.
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.
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]