'Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted' episode 2 recap: The chef travels to New Zealand to learn about the secrets of traditional Maori cuisine
*Spoilers Ahead*
After spending a week in Peru and learning about the local ingredients, cuisine and culture, Gordan Ramsay headed to New Zealand for his next adventure on 'Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted'.
Over the years we have seen the Michelin chef judge competitions, curse and yell at the people who he finds incompetent, revamp restaurants, etc. but there is more to Ramsay than what meets the eye, and he showcases them in this series. He hunts and harvests the ingredients for his food and in the end has a small friendly cookoff with a local expert who helped him throughout his journey.
Just after one episode, the series revealed that it has been renewed for season 2. Airing every Sunday night, this weekend Ramsay traveled to New Zealand, in order to learn more about the secrets of traditional Maori cuisine.
This week in New Zealand, Ramsay met up with local expert Monique Fiso in the remote Stewart Island who right away sent him climbing up a tree looking for fuchsia berries. Admitting he knows zilch about the country's cuisine, Ramsay said, "What I know about the food of this isolated country could be written on a grain of rice."
Though the tree climbing did seem fun and hard at the same time, Ramsay had an even tougher task to look forward to at the end, which is a cook-off with Fiso where they had to make a proper meal for the tribe elders.
The next task Ramsay is prepared for is deepsea diving, where he is suited up and made to retrieve some Pāua, the common name for the large marine gastropod mollusk species. Though he failed a number of times, Ramsay was finally able to retrieve some Pāua for his beach fish fry and learned how to cook them too. Later he left to continue on his hunt for more local ingredients on the north island.
Apart from having to climb trees and diving to find some Pāua, he even had to catch an eel with his bare hands. And these ones are the real deal with teeth, luckily he didn't get bit. Ramsay managed to catch one but set it free later because they had already netted one ready to be cooked into a scrumptious meal.
This episode also showed us how Ramsay hunted down a mountain goat to cook which he had to shoot to kill. And if you are an animal lover, you might want to skip this scene. Finally, Ramsay successfully completed all his tasks and in time for his final cookoff.
For his meal he prepared, Pāua that was pan-fried, a wild goat with fuchsia berry chutney, teriyaki-glazed eel, and wild forest herbs roast salad. Though as much as we wished, we couldn't get a taste of it, it sure looked good, and the locals loved it as well.