Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (2019) s01e02 Episode Script

19
Coming up the creek.
Right.
And they will travel up that waterfall here,
and they'll travel in thousands.
- Up the waterfall? - Up the waterfall.
- They have teeth? - They have teeth.
- Do they bite? - They bite!
Just here, just here.
Don't let them get away.
Both hands. Yes, boy!
Get him!
I'm in New Zealand on a mission to unlock
one of the world's best kept food secrets,
Maori cuisine.
I feel like I'm at the end of the Earth,
because the next stop is Antarctica.
What I know about the food of this isolated country
could be written on a grain of rice.
So, I'm starting on the remote and wild Stewart Island,
known by the Maori as Rakiura.
I'm here to meet Monique Fiso.
Now she's a super talented up and coming Kiwi chef,
and she's really blazing a trail,
putting Maori cuisine firmly on the map.
She's somewhere down there in the middle of nowhere.
- Monique! Finally! - Gordon!
- Good to see you! - How are you?
Good to see you, love. Are you good?
I'm great.
What an amazing place!
Welcome to New Zealand.
Monique Fiso is one of New Zealand's top chefs,
trained in Michelin starred 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, I've 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,
Papa‐tu‐a‐nuku, Earth Mother.
- Papa what? - Papa‐tu‐a‐nuku.
Okay. Papatuawaku.
Papa‐tu‐a‐nuku.
Papa‐tu‐a‐nuku.
That's the one. It's a complex cuisine.
There's a lot of customs involved.
It's not just about, you know, growing food and just making it.
There's a lot of like different
traditions that are interwoven in all of the food.
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.
And, as you can see, I've got two machetes,
one of which is for you.
- That's my machete? - That's your machete.
What?
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 in our backpacks.
You tuck it in your backpack?
These machetes are lethal!
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 all the hard work we do
to get the food we need to eat.
They're everywhere. Monique, really?
- Yeah. Keep going, Chef! - Seriously?
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,
they're super tender.
Wow! You can eat that?
You can eat that. They're hard to find.
It's like a bush asparagus.
Give it a try!
They're really good.
They are good. They are like asparagus.
So soft and delicate.
- Yeah. - Delicious!
All I can see in this tangled forest
are potential personal injury claims.
Here's a good one!
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.
It's super spicy, super peppery.
Have a munch on that.
Boy, that one's spicy! Woo!
That is spicy. That's incredible, from that.
Quite numb now, my tongue.
From hot
- And it's going to stay that way for a while! - Is it?
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.
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 are bright purple and they're super sweet.
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? - Yeah.
Are you sure they'll take my weight, the branches?
We'll soon find out.
I'll wait here.
That's very kind of you.
Honestly, you said, "Come foraging," Right?
Yeah.
I didn't say it would all be on the ground.
Just a little bit further now.
Did you hear that?
I heard that! Go!
Like Tarzan up there.
Can you see them?
I can see them right in front of you.
Right.
Bloody hell, it's windy!
So, the bright purple ones, right?
Bright purple, those are the ones we're after.
If you toss them down.
They look like tiny dates.
How good are those?
It's almost like a treetop dessert.
I just think they're one of the
best ingredients that we have in this country.
They're bloody tasty. Fuchsia berries!
Fuchsia berries.
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 arse was,
they're at the top of the tree, not the bottom.
That was amazing in there.
Fascinating flavors, contrasts.
No‐one's cultivating it and growing it in kilos, it's found wild.
That's the beginning of the journey for me.
Maoris have lived this way for centuries,
just living off the ocean and the land.
Yeah.
And I'm preparing a huge feast at the end of this week,
- for the local tribe. - Really?
Right.
There's going to be a lot of elders.
They are basically the keepers of the land.
They understand this land better than any of us.
Why don't you come along?
So, cook at the end of the week together for the tribe?
Yes.
Yeah, I'd love to.
This is an enormous challenge for Gordon.
A lot of these ingredients, he's never tasted before.
So, it's a totally different ball game.
A little bit nervous, because
I've never come across those berries and ferns and
leaves, but I'm not too sure what to do with them yet.
So that's the difficult part up here.
With the feast just five days away,
I need a crash course in Maori cuisine.
So, Monique's sending me on a mission
to discover New Zealand's finest foods
from the land and ocean,
which is where I'm exploring today.
Zane, good morning!
With 13th generation fisherman, Zane.
Who, like many Stewart Islanders, is of mixed descent,
from both Maori and European settlers.
What a gorgeous spot!
- Yes, nice spot, eh? - It is beautiful.
Now, Monique suggested I get to meet you,
but more importantly,
she said you're going fishing this morning,
so I'd love to be part of that.
Yeah, absolutely, you're most welcome.
- Yeah? - Yeah. Let's go!
Waiting aboard is Zane's first mate.
Morning, sir!
A salty old seadog known as Fluff.
So what's your real name?
- Gordon. - No, stop it!
Gordon's a name, right?
That's right, yeah.
Yeah? Fluff, you ready?
- Yeah. - Let's go, boys.
We're bay, good morning.
Good morning.
With over 200 years of fishing history in his blood,
Zane knows these waters better than most of the fish around here.
This morning, he's going to fully immerse me
in the life of a Stewart Island fisherman.
You need this, and these are your footwear.
Holy mackerel. They're huge fins.
So, free diving?
Yeah, free diving.
Paua are a unique species of abalone,
only found here in New Zealand.
Monique tells me they're one of the ocean's greatest delicacies,
regarded by the Maori as a gift from the gods.
Here's the tool for chipping the paua off the rocks.
It's like a flat iron, huh?
Fluff, can you free dive?
- No, mate. - Not with that beard!
- No! - Huh? Jeez! Man!
The mask always leaks.
The mask always leaks, yeah.
Okay. Let's go!
Seriously?
Fluff, can you just tie a knot in that for me, please?
Man!
So, are you all set?
Yep, ready to go!
Cool.
One last thing.
I'm off the coast of New Zealand's Stewart Island,
diving for paua, a much sought‐after shellfish.
With no sharks in sight, my guide, Zane, shows me how it's done.
Looks easy enough.
Now it's my turn.
Here we go!
Paua cling to the rocks on the sea bed.
But there's so much kelp down here,
I can't find them,
and after just a few seconds,
I'm gasping for air.
That's a lot harder than it looks, controlling the breathing.
Oh man!
There's a little surge there as well,
so you get pushed around a lot as well.
Exactly.
Paua are a protected species
and can only be harvested by free divers.
Amateurs like me have a daily limit of ten.
That's hard.
If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.
But at this rate, I'll be lucky to get one.
- Really? - Yeah.
To the right?
Okay. Nice one.
At last I can see my bounty,
but prizing them off the rocks is a lot tougher
than Zane made it look.
No?
You can't touch them first.
In Maori legend, paua were compared to mighty warriors,
able to overcome their opponents with stubborn strength.
But surely I'm not going to be out-muscled
by a six-inch shellfish.
Bloody hell!
I'm holding it in my hands while I try to pull it off.
Damn!
Monique sent me here
to gather a key ingredient for our final feast.
Somehow, I think failure isn't an option.
That's a beauty!
Well, that's two runts.
They're so beautiful.
Just a few more and I'll have enough for our feast.
The question is,
are they as tasty as Monique and Zane say they are?
We're having a fish fry on the beach,
and that means I get to use the F word.
Fluff!
When did you catch those buggers?
- Serious? - Yeah.
Blue cod. Amazing!
So, how are you going to cook these things?
In kelp?
Yeah.
Is this the same kelp that we were diving in?
Diving amongst it, yeah.
And so you literally make this little pocket.
What a great idea. So that'll burn, that will steam.
- Yeah. - Amazing!
That'll go all the way now.
I've heard of boil in a bag,
but boil in a kelp is a new one on me.
How cool is that?
No seasoning,
because honestly the kelp will give it the saltiness, right?
- Yeah. - Look at that!
It's like a little satchel. Huh?
It's like a little bum bag.
Who needs an oven when you've got this out here.
I can't wait to taste that.
It won't take very long at all.
There's just enough time to prepare the paua.
So, how do you get these out?
You put your thumb in, try and get hard against the shell.
Right.
And when you feel that hard muscle in front of you,
just keep pushing and try and get underneath it.
It'll pop.
Man, that's how you get them out?
Yeah. See, it pops.
It's incredible how firm they are.
Some chefs would gently tenderize this delicacy,
but that's not how they do it here.
So we wrap them up in a cloth
and give them a smack with a rock.
- Really? - Yeah.
- And this is how we tenderize them? - Yeah.
So we're literally just going to fry these now.
What would you normally do?
I like them for breakfast fried whole.
With a couple of eggs
and a bit of steak sauce.
Seriously? What a delicacy!
Just throw it in?
Yeah, I reckon.
And that is incredible.
It's like stunning rib‐eyes from the sea, huh?
- Yeah. - Wow, beautiful!
Traditionally, paua were served to high ranking Maori guests.
I'm pretty sure none of them were called Fluff,
but there's a first time for everything.
Fluff, now you're getting the little one.
- Oh yeah! - Because you didn't dive.
Oh yeah!
I'm dying to taste these, huh?
Cheers, guys!
My God! They are delicious.
It's amazing how tender they are now.
Now for Fluff's kelp‐cooked blue cod.
Fluff!
I love you. That is steamed to perfection.
Was that a fluke, or are you the real deal?
I'm the real deal.
- You're the real deal? - Yeah!
What an extraordinary day.
I've understood how precious the water is,
what they get from the sea and how they live.
Now I've got to put all this together
and somehow cook a meal of a lifetime,
because there's no excuse,
because so far the ingredients
have been second to none.
Gathering those paua by hand
has given me a fascinating insight
into how little ocean foraging has changed
since the days of Zane's ancestors,
and I'm hoping I'm now one step closer
to earning a place at Monique's side for our final feast.
Gents, what a treat. Thank you.
I promise next time I'll stay down there longer, yeah?
Don't give up your day job!
I'd be skint, right?
You'd be very, very poor.
Day three in New Zealand, and it's blowing a gale.
I'm about to fly to the mountains
but my pilot looks more like
he's just out of diapers than flight school.
Good morning!
How you going? Joel, nice to meet you.
- Is Dad here? - Dad? No.
- You're the captain. - I'm the captain, mate.
- Seriously? - Jump on in!
- Where's the co‐pilot? - You're the co‐pilot.
Oh Jeez, really? Are you kidding me?
Baby‐faced Joel is flying me north to the South Island,
where I'll continue my quest for ingredients for the final feast.
Now, this is where I want to really learn about
the food of New Zealand,
mountains and rivers,
and my first destination is
somewhere right down there.
Alongside that,
flying with a pilot that's barely 12 years old.
Date of birth is what?
Born in '96?
I'd opened my 14th restaurant by then.
The wind's throwing this plane around like a rag doll.
Something young Joel
probably still keeps next to his pillow.
Not bad at all.
Thank God he didn't that one up!
Sorry, is that on the airwave?
Uh, I don't care.
This is the spectacular Matukituki river.
Fed by towering glaciers,
it's the perfect place
to find my next Maori delicacy.
Now, Monique's arranged for me
to meet this incredible eel fisherman.
She said you'll recognize him when you spot him.
Jeremy! How are you, sir?
Good to see you, brother!
Good to see you!
Good to see you, brother.
I'm going to give you a traditional Maori greeting.
This is called the hongi.
- Horny? - Hongi.
Hongi. Excuse me.
Nothing horny about me, son!
The touching of the noses allows us to share our sacred breath.
Amazing.
Come on the boat, mate, we're going for a ride.
Thank you, man.
Invented by a thrill‐seeking Kiwi
The speed is insane.
jet boats can hit 50 miles an hour
and are purpose built
for New Zealand's fast‐flowing shallow rivers.
It's the only way to travel
when you're doing a traditional Maori fishing.
My god!
They can also do this.
25 miles upriver,
we've reached Jeremy's secret eel fishing location.
And this is where we get off.
- We're getting off here? - Yeah.
Eels are one of the most highly valued foods
in Maori cuisine.
Are you ready, brother?
Let's go, captain.
And, having spent a lifetime studying Maori culture
That is beautiful. What a waterfall.
today, Jeremy's going to teach me
a traditional method of catching them.
Would you find the eels in here?
They can be everywhere.
They're coming up the creek
Right.
And they will travel up that waterfall there.
- Really? - They've got a mouth that they can suction onto it,
and they'll travel in thousands.
Up the waterfall?
Up the waterfall.
So, this is your favorite pool.
This is the pool.
Yeah.
- Once you start chasing them, - Yeah.
they're going to want to come and
- try their best to look like a log - Right.
or just get well away from you by
tucking in under the bank here,
so you're going to fish around for it.
So there's no line, there's no rod, there's no bait.
So the idea is what?
You're going to use your hands.
They're slippery suckers.
Stop it! Do they have teeth? Do they bite?
They have teeth. They bite.
Big fellow like you, you'll be alright though.
That's cold.
- Was that something there? - No.
No, I just saw a bit of water,
suggests that something made that above us.
Just here. Just here.
Stop it.
Can you see this? Quietly, quietly, quietly.
That's a tree.
No! That's an eel.
Don't let him get away.
Both hands under his belly
and you're going to flick him up to me.
You can do it, both hands, both hands at once.
He's gone back under now.
Where's he gone?
Can you see it?
He's under the bank somewhere.
Yes, I can see him.
- Here. - Gotcha!
I'm knee deep in the remote backwaters
of New Zealand's Matukituki valley
Damn! He's gone back under now.
attempting to catch freshwater eels.
Gordon, we've got another one just beside you.
He's a little bit bigger than the one we've just seen.
That's not an eel, that's a tree trunk.
No, this is an eel beside the tree trunk!
Damn. Now I can see him.
What if I use that stick, so that I don't get bitten,
and you catch him with your bare hands.
Alright. No mucking around on this one, Gordon.
You're going to lift it and throw it.
Right.
You have to keep going, keep going!
Just bring him out. Bring him out!
Yes, boy!
Get him!
Oh damn! They're so slippery.
Right, where has he gone now?
Don't move. I can see a spine in there.
You've got to make sure that you can get him in such a way
that you're supporting his weight.
Yes.
Because he's a big boy.
Get your hands under there, sort of tickle him, have him relax.
You've got him now, right.
You're totally committed to this.
I was born ready.
Let's go! Third time lucky, come on! You ready?
Yeah, I'm ready.
Yes! Good boy! Got it!
Well, that is not small.
Go on, you've done bloody well!
Look at the size of that thing.
My God! He's beautiful.
I reckon he's a good 6 KG.
That's insane.
You know, he can survive out of water for days
Serious?
if he had to. They make great pets.
Yeah, I know. You can feed them and they're.
No!
I'm just amazed.
I'm amazed at the size of them.
I'm amazed you kissed it.
The Maori have been catching eels for hundreds of years.
Shall I put it back?
Yeah, put him back.
But, according to tradition, you only take what you need,
and since Jeremy has already an eel to eat,
we're letting this beauty go.
You didn't tell me the size of a fricking anaconda.
It was awesome, hey, bro?
It turns out he's not just an expert fisherman,
he's also pretty handy with a homemade smoker.
That looks beautiful.
It's lightly smoked, right?
It's lightly smoked.
Look how moist it is.
That's delicious. It's so sweet.
Thank you, brother.
There's something so important from a chef's point of view
to get that close with the source.
How important is the food with a Maori connect for you now?
It's all about the puku, we say.
The puku.
The puku, the stomach, eh?
That's the source of emotions and feelings
comes from the guts.
Yeah.
And families used to fight to protect the eels.
- Really? - It was that important that we preserved
not only the food but the environment.
Because with this eel comes the environment as well,
and we're really proud of that.
Those delicacies that I've discovered
from foraging the forest, to diving
and now with that eel on top of that,
it's almost like it's one of the best kept secrets
in the culinary world: Maori cuisine.
They have so much real close‐knit connect with ingredients.
It's spiritual.
And now I've got a pedigree of Maori insights,
and I'm desperate now to have a go.
Thank you. Kia ora.
Kia ora.
Kia ora!
- Kia ora. - Kia ora.
There's just one more ingredient I need for the final feast.
Monique has instructed me to head for the hills
in search of a mountain goat
and, of course, she expects me to hunt it myself,
under the watchful eye of guide, Dan Russell.
Introduced to New Zealand in the 18th century,
goats are an invasive species
and, with no natural predators,
they've caused untold damage
to native vegetation.
How desolated had the land become because of the goats?
Are they destroying that much?
They're a real pest.
15 years ago they were right out of control,
and we need to control them because New Zealand
- wasn't built to have all these animals here. - Yeah.
The Maori have always sought to live in harmony
with their environment.
Hunting invasive species
may be one way for modern‐day Kiwis
to help redress the balance.
And the best side of it,
you get to take food home that you've sourced yourself.
Sure.
Cook it up and be proud of it.
Yeah. That's the important part.
Beautiful big free‐range goat.
Yeah. The size of him.
He knows we're here.
So, I want to get so there's a bit of a middle mound.
We can go through the brush,
there's going to be nowhere for you to lay down and get a shot.
- No. - We'll sneak up and just
- Yeah. - put eyes on him.
Sure.
I hoping that, when we get round this ridge
another 200 yards we'll be in shootable range.
Sure enough, just beyond the ridge
I see it just here.
we spot two more goats.
I'll try and get closer.
He's looking over.
Don't let it see you.
I need to act fast, but we're on uneven ground,
making my shot extremely difficult.
Dig that knee in, dig your elbow into that leg.
They're onto us. So close the bolt.
Oh, this is the safe jar.
Closed.
- Safety's off. - Thank you.
Just take your time. How steady can you hold it?
Yeah, I'm on him now.
And you reckon you can shoot it like that?
Yeah, I'm on him now.
The green light to shoot if we can.
Just take your time,
and you want to hit right on the edge of the shoulder.
I'm hunting wild mountain goats,
high up in New Zealand's southern alps.
There you go, there's your shot, there.
Pull it tight into your shoulder.
Are we good to shoot like that?
Yeah, I'm on him now.
Alright, take your time. We're not panicking.
Good work.
Good shooting!
Yeah, it's a lot harder when you're balancing in the air
as opposed to laying right down.
And I don't normally like doing that shot,
but we had no other option here,
and they're onto us.
No. And there's no flat ground here, is there?
I had confidence you were going to hit him.
The heart's beating like Big Ben.
I mean your adrenalin is pumping.
It's windy, we're on the edge of the cliff
and the hard thing was taking the shot on your knee
as opposed to lying flat and being,
you know, 100% accurate.
But you had that split second
and you're down that barrel and it's in your sight,
you've got to take the shot.
This is not wrapped up in clingfilm
and stacked on the shelf in a supermarket,
this is proper outdoor wild hunting.
Monique stipulated, you know,
get into the mountains, understand what we live off,
and I'm happy that goat is big enough now for both of us to share
and it's definitely going to be the centerpiece for our cook.
It's my final day in New Zealand,
and I'm back on Stewart Island.
Big day today.
It's time to put everything I've learnt into practice,
so a little bit nervous because i'm coming out of my comfort zone.
Tonight, I'll serve a Maori inspired feast
to a group of elders with my kick‐ass mentor.
Monique!
Gordon!
I survived.
Oh, you survived?
Oh my Lord! You good?
Oh, I'm excellent.
Let's just hope this cook goes to plan.
If not, Monique's going to have my balls in a vice.
What have you got?
So, I've got my herbs, I've got the goat, I've got the paua.
Shall I light the fire?
- Not yet. - Go on.
First, we need to dig the pit.
- The pit? - The pit.
-Right. - Then we've got to light the fire,
heat these rocks until they're glowing red.
Then we're going to put our food in the ground,
and then we're going to wait a few hours.
Then we're going to dig it back out
as if it wasn't painful enough to dig the hole in the first place,
and then we'll serve the food.
Why a pit?
Because this is how we do it. We're doing a hangi.
- How far down? - 2 feet.
- Stop it! - I'm not kidding.
Dating back to their ancestors in Polynesia,
1,000 years ago
This is crazy!
the hangi is a traditional maori method of cooking food
in the ground.
- So, you've gone eeling. - Yeah.
- You've gone goat hunting. - Yeah.
- You've gone diving. - Yeah.
You've gone into the forest.
You've discovered all these amazing things about New Zealand.
Are you ready for tonight?
To be honest, yeah, I'm a little bit nervous
now that I'm digging a pit to cook my goat in.
You didn't tell me at the beginning of the week
that we would be digging a hole
and cooking in a pit.
I always like to leave a few surprises.
Confident?
- Yes! - Oh, that was.
One hour of hard labor later, we're ready for stage two.
We are flaming, girl!
This is going to burn for two hours so, in the meantime,
we'll get all our stuff ready to put in the pit.
Time to get cooking.
Starting with my mountain goat
and those fiery leaves we foraged from the forest.
Right!
Monique, what are you rubbing your goat with?
The horopito?
Using horopito on yours?
Yes.
Me too. Nice and spicy.
Nice and spicy.
That's going to be the pepper flavor in there as well, right?
Yeah, that's right.
In my kitchens, I use foil to wrap meat,
but that's not the Maori way.
Alright, no tin foil, no worries.
We're using puka leaves
Do we wrap veins inside or outside?
Inside.
To stop the meat drying out during cooking.
And harakeke flax to tie them together.
That's one done.
I mean it's a little bit prehistoric, but it's done.
Right, next one.
I'm just going to check this real quick.
Oh, oh! I think it's coming undone, Chef!
Not tight enough.
I think you might want to start again.
Bloody hell's bells.
It looks easy tying these things but it's not, you know that?
Just like your shoelace, Gordon.
Right.
I'm sure your kids could do it.
Holy mackerel!
Fragrant and highly strung, and that's just me,
our goat goes into baskets lined with aromatic herbs.
The sweet potatoes in as well?
Sweet potatoes in, and we just put them in the gaps.
- Oh man! - Heavy, huh?
Yeah!
So too are the now red‐hot rocks.
How hot is that?
Must be 1000 degrees.
Alright, almost there.
Now let's get the food on. Like that.
Next, the pit is covered with soaking sacks
to create a primitive pressure cooker.
Then.
Oh, did you hear that?
That's the steam starting.
If you went get your shovel.
Finally, because I haven't been punished enough already,
- more shoveling. - Faster, Chef!
I've met some hard workers in my time,
but Monique is on another level.
If there's ever a cook that complains about the stove,
I'm sending them to you.
What an amazing technique. An underground oven.
There's no cavity wall insulation,
there's no digital clock to set the time.
There's no convection. You got a hole, baby!
So there's no fricking way I can have a sneak peek at my goat?
No.
You've buried it. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Your food is in the hands of the gods.
May it rise deliciously.
I've never felt more like a fish out of water than I have today,
because I can't touch anything.
I can't double check for that level of perfection,
because that's it, it's in there now,
and roll on three and a half hours, because if that,
if that's not cooked, I'm done.
Can I go and lie down, please?
We've got some sides to do.
- Oh my Lord. - Chef!
- You are relentless. - Chef, come on!
And, surprise, surprise, Monique's side dishes are hidden
in an unusual place.
Where are we going?
We're just going for a little walk in the forest.
Something tells me she isn't making coleslaw and fries.
We need to find some huhus.
- Some what? - Some huhu grubs.
- Some huhu grubs? - Yes.
- They live in fallen wood, rotten wood.Here we go! - Right.
And they'll be in here?
They'll be right in the middle.
There's a big market for it in this country.
- Seriously? - It's almost as expensive as caviar.
Is it considered as that much of a delicacy?
It's that much of a delicacy.
Girl, you've lost it. I'm telling you.
Too much time in the bush!
Yes.
Just keep cracking some of these open.
Oh, there we go! There we go!
Native to New Zealand,
huhu grubs are the larvae of the longhorn beetle.
Oh yeah! That's a grade A, I reckon.
You grade your grubs?
We grade the grubs.
Stop it!
Yeah, and I'll happily pay 1.80 to 1.90
for one of these.
- Really? - Yeah.
Ooh, that's a nice fat guy, too.
Monique!
Don't they look delicious, Gordon?
They do not look delicious.
So they taste of?
They taste of peanut.
I know that does not look like a jar of peanut butter.
You don't eat it raw like that?
Yeah.
That's its face, so it's a little, little spikes.
So those might bite you on the way down.
So you don't want to start there.
You want to pinch its face and eat its tail.
So pinch this end and bite there?
Yeah.
I'll tell you what. I'll go first.
- Please. - Okay.
It's final feast day in New Zealand,
and the menu has taken an unexpected turn.
Great!
This is really good, really creamy.
Mighty.
They're disgusting!
They're so good!
Peanut butter?
Your peanut butter must be different to my peanut butter
I grew up with.
No, that is not for me, no.
I'll show you.
I'll show you how they can be used.
Yeah, the only thing that's nutty will be the person eating them.
We'll soon find out.
While Monique pounds those gross grubs into a pulp
to make a creamy sauce,
I crack on with my next dish,
with another ingredient from my travels.
One of the dishes I am super excited about is the eel,
because getting those things was incredible.
So I'm just going to grill this with a little ginger Teriyaki glaze.
Manuka honey.
How exciting is that?
Next, I'm going back to the fuchsia,
to make a chutney to accompany the goat
with those beautiful berries I picked from the top of the tree.
So, caramelize the garlic,
shallots and ginger with a little bit of raw cane sugar,
with some butter.
I'm gonna use the peppery horopito leaves
and then I'll drop the berries in.
- Are you going to try the huhus? - May I?
Go for it!
See now, it tastes of peanut.
- Exactly. - See.
How could it be so delicious coming from
that disgusting rubbery bug?
At the risk of sounding like an animal undertaker.
Is that going to be ready?
Looks ready to me.
It's now been three agonizing hours
since we've buried our goat.
That smell is incredible.
It's almost like we've opened the oven door.
Okay, on three. And again.
Three.
Heat coming out of there!
Right.
There we go!
The question is, is the goat cooked?
Oh my God!
Look at that!
Seriously.
It's almost time to serve our Maori feast.
Our honored guests are arriving.
They may have mixed ancestry but, make no mistake,
they take their Maori heritage very seriously,
especially when it comes to food.
What, are you still cooking?
Yeah, sorry. I'm going to be super quick, okay?
Literally 30 seconds, please.
With kings of the ocean, Zane and Fluff at the table,
I'd be thrown to the sharks
if I didn't cook them some pan fried paua.
Oh God!
It's time we have to hurry up.
That was just tenderizing the paua, by the way.
Come on, come on, hustle!
I'll be 30 seconds, I promise.
Literally 30 seconds.
Guests are staring at us.
- Are they? - Need to move, need to move.
I know, I know, I know.
Right. Coming out of the pan in five seconds.
Five, four.
- Hold on, my lemon. - Three, two, one.
I am ready.
Alongside my pan fried paua,
my goat with fuchsia berry chutney,
and with my Teriyaki glazed eel,
I'm serving a raw salad of wild foraged herbs.
To accompany her goat,
Monique's made her signature huhu grub sauce,
Maori potato flatbreads and hangi steamed pudding.
What a day!
And when you experience cooking like that for the first time
it becomes even more special,
because it's special ingredients
for special people with a special young chef.
And then the uniqueness of it,
because you start with those raw ingredients
that are hand‐sourced,
and then you stick them in the ground
and all of a sudden this whole thing comes to life
and you start taking in this culture
that has been a tradition for centuries.
The question is, have I done it justice?
I've never been so nervous putting something into a hole
and waiting three and a half hours for it to cook.
Because I'm a control freak. So did I pass the test?
- Yeah. Yes. - It's very nice.
Everything's superb.
The goat with this sauce on it, that's incredible, that.
And the paua was to die for.
Gordon did an awesome job.
He's picked up a lot in a really short time
about maori ingredients and Maori cooking techniques.
I didn't think a Brit would pick up our way
of doing things so fast,
but he's impressed me a lot.
Spending this week with Monique has been amazing,
because in many ways she reminds me of myself at 31.
The difference between her and I
is that I was trained in a modern European style,
and she's trained in a Maori style,
and this connect together has been a wonderful lesson.
Fluff, apart from half the food in your beard.
Are you saving that for later?
What was your favorite part.
If you're ever in London,
you're more than welcome to come and join me
at my restaurant for dinner.
I definitely will.
Here in New Zealand, I've discovered unique ingredients.
That's delicious.
And learned ingenious cooking methods.
So that'll burn, that will steam.
Which deserve to rival some of the finest food on the planet.
It's almost like a sacred cuisine,
and they have every reason to be over‐confident.
But no, they take the opposite route because, I think,
deep down inside the Maoris don't want this secret out there.
But they've inspired me,
and I'll carry this inspiration with me wherever I go.