Monique Fiso is a modern-day food warrior, taking Maori cuisine to the world.
After years overseas in Michelin-star restaurants, Monique returned to Aotearoa to begin Hiakai, an innovative pop-up venture that’s now a revered, award-winning restaurant in Wellington.
Monique has also gone on to feature on Netflix’s ‘The Final Table’, alongside 19 other international chefs, with Hiakai being lauded by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, Forbes and TIME magazine, which named Hiakai in 2019 as one of the ‘100 Greatest Places’ in the world.
This book is just as unforgettable: ranging between history, tradition and tikanga, as well as Monique’s personal journey of self-discovery, it tells the story of kai Maori, provides foraging and usage notes, an illustrated ingredient directory, and over 30 breathtaking recipes that give this ancient knowledge new life.
Hiakai offers up food to behold, to savour, to celebrate.
Hiakai, Modern Maori Cuisine
Monique Fiso
RHNZ Godwit
Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand
Reviewed by Stephen Litten
Hiakai is both the Maori word for hungry and a noted restaurant in Wellington. Monique Fiso has credentials – she started with Martin Bosley, worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in New York. and focused on Maori cuisine after returning to New Zealand in 2016. As with any cookbook, there are photos of ingredients, finished dishes, and Fiso out foraging for wild goodies.
Hiakai is modern Maori cuisine. So, don’t expect recipes featuring tui, sealion, or Ngati Lost-the-War as you would be prosecuted for trying (as would they for promoting it), nor anything for hangi, boil-ups, or fry bread. Actually, that last one does make it in, but the bread ain’t plain rewena – it’s fancy! And that is the thrust of this book – modern. Just because the recipes are “Maori”, there is no need to tie them to pre-contact ingredients.
The book is divided into three broad sections: beginnings, ingredients, recipes. Naturally, there are further subdivisions, particularly with the recipes. For those wishing to recreate some of these recipes at home, you will need a mixture of patience, fitness, and observational skills – finding hakeke (wood-ear mushroom) in the shops is not a starter. Hiakai the restaurant is apparently highly successful and has attracted international attention. Unfortunately for me, this book arrived during lockdown so neither I nor a suitable stunt double have managed to get along to Wallace St in Mt Cook to sample the wares first-hand. But that is going to change.
I recommend this book. It breaks the stereotypes of Maori cooking and the recipes are fairly straight forward. Sourcing some of the ingredients may suit those with an interest in New Zealand flora more than others, but isn’t that half the fun of “ethnic” cuisine – shopping somewhere other than Countdown? Buy, try, surprise yourself. Thank you to RHNZ/Godwit for the review copy.
My Opinion On Various Books 