Monique Fiso is out of the kitchen and leading the fight against industrial agriculture
After closing her iconic Wellington restaurant Hiakai, the Māori-Samoan chef and occasional TV star has become an advocate for kai motuhake (food sovereignty).
After years working in high-end restaurants overseas, Monique Fiso ran the always-booked-out Māori and Pasifika restaurant Hiakai from 2018 to 2024.
This year, she's busy writing a follow-up to her hit 2020 cookbook Hiakai - but also standing by to shoot another series of the TVNZ show Hui Hoppers.
It was a rare and fun experience filming a bilingual wahine-led comedy show in a marae kitchen with people who live on the pā, Fiso tells Susie Ferguson.
“I do hope that they do a season three because we're all in to do it again.”
Monique Fiso holds a kōura (crayfish) in an episode of the TVNZ show Hui Hunters.
TVNZ
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Being "a bit shy", Fiso was nervous to meet celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay when he flew in for his travel show Uncharted in 2023 but says the famously explosive Brit was actually super easygoing.
“He has this really amazing ability to add a lot of energy and retain a lot of information, and he likes to jump in and try new things. He just really put me at ease because I think he could tell I was nervous.”
Despite all the mosquitoes flying into her face that day, Fiso says she kept her focus on kai Māori - “trying to do us proud and hold it down”.
Although many people thought Fiso was “kind of crazy” for closing the doors of Hiakai last year, she felt like she’d gotten “to the top of the maunga (nountain)” as a chef and knew her passion for kai would be better used outside of the kitchen.
After running a restaurant for six years, she was also exhausted.
“Your brain never really switches off when you're running an operation like that - you're always on.”
Hāngi of belly, swede and cress - a dish served at Monique Fiso's Wellington restaurant Hiakai.
Hiakai
Since shutting the restaurant, Fiso’s focus has been schooling herself on the commercial side of kai, including the societal and health harms of industrial agriculture.
To Kiwis keen to source food grown in more healthy environments, she recommends picking up fruit and veges from local markets and buying meat from the local butcher.
For the many families who don’t have enough land for a vege garden, growing herbs in pots to sprinkle on your meals (rather than buying a small bunch in hard plastic) is another healthy move.
Onion Weed - a pungent herb with white onion-like bulbs - can be found in public gardens and parks, the margins of forests, scrubland and on the roadside.
123RF
Foraging for edible plants while you’re out and about is another of Fiso’s food recommendations - her favourites to seek out are Onion Weed (when in season), Tarata (lemonwood), Kawakawa and Sea Lettuce.
“[Foraging] is not only good for feeding yourself and reclaiming kai motuhake (food sovereignty) in your own life but also good for your physical and mental health.”
Monique Fiso carries a hāngi.
While Fiso is feeling “re-energised” these days, when stress or impatience inevitably hit, she reminds herself how lucky she is to even be alive.
Last year, after being struck by a car going 50km an hour across a pedestrian crossing, Fiso was thrown up into the air and dropped 11 metres away.
She counts herself very fortunate for the swift response of passersby and a pretty smooth recovery from her injuries (concussion and a fractured knee) but says many drivers don’t take enough care as they approach crossings.
“I do encourage people to stop at pedestrian crossings, just slow down a little bit.”
