Hiakai

18/09/2024

We made a short film with YETI for the first episode of their Underground Cooking series.

A backyard hāngī with friends. A celebration of kai Māori.

We filmed late last year with our good mate Jannine aka huntress_wines, and some of the Hiakai crew - Lily, Claire, Sean and Raina. Ya’ll went hard for the kaupapa. Watching it brought back all the feels 🥹.

A huge thank you to YETI for showcasing wāhine Māori. Māori culture is beautiful, resilient and valued around the world.

Check it out 🔥🔥🔥

Traveling to the captivating Wairarapa region of New Zealand, chef and YETI AmbassadorMonique Fiso meets up with friend and winemaker, Jannine Rickards. As t...

07/09/2024

We want to acknowledge what a monumental week it has been for Aotearoa.

We farewelled, Kiingi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII, a man of honour and unity. His calls for kotahitanga brought together iwi across the motu.

At a time when the rights of Māori are being challenged, Kiingi Tūheitia gave us strength and guidance to navigate the road ahead. He was a beacon of light.

In our sadness, we find hope. We welcome in the eighth Māori monarch, Kuini Ngā Wai Hono i Te Pō P**i. At only 27 years of age, she has been chosen to ascend to the throne. We couldn’t be prouder to call her our Kuini.

A new day is upon us.

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27/06/2024

Matariki is a time of remembrance, reflection and renewal. It marks the end of harvest and the beginning of the planting cycle for the coming year. 

The theme this year is Matariki heri kai - the feast of Matariki. A time to enjoy kai together and appreciate the environment that produces our kai. Gratitude for that which sustains us.

Our coastlines are a cherished source of kai. A rich and diverse ecosystem of ocean life. In this game of life, we can’t all be haku, it’s time to celebrate one of the little guys.

Pūpū are sea snails that live on the intertidal rocks feasting on algae. They’re more commonly known as cat’s eyes due to the green and white colouration of the snail’s operculum. An operculum works like a mini trapdoor, safely enclosing the snail in its shell. 

The simplest way to cook with pūpū is to place them into a pot of boiling water. After a couple of minutes, remove them from the water and use a toothpick or skewer to pull out the meat. From there, you can slice them up and toss them in a hot pan with butter and garlic. Delicious!

Pāua are also sea snails. If you love pāua, make sure you give pūpū a go.

Mānawatia a Matariki ✨✨✨

13/05/2024

Seaweed is badass. It is one of fastest growing plants in the world, and approximately 70% of the world’s oxygen comes from it. It is a beneficial source of kai for not only ocean life but also for us. Our last menu, Wai Tai, used four different types of seaweed.

There are thousands of different species of seaweed, Aotearoa has over 850 native species alone.

Unfortunately, in 2021 an invasive seaweed was found in some areas of the Upper North Island. Exotic caulerpa grows extremely fast and smothers everything in its path. The rise in Aotearoa’s seawater temperature has allowed this pest to thrive in places that were previously too cold.

Anyways, we digress, let’s get back to the kai.

Rimurimu / seaweed was our final course. A kombu semifreddo with toasted milk crumbs, plums, strawberries and chocolate tuiles.

The kombu is infused into caramel and cream to create an umami rich semifreddo. By steeping the kombu into the cream we not only get the flavour benefits from the kombu but we also extract the alginate. This helps create a luxurious texture and mouth feel.

To finish the dish, we have strawberries that have been macerated in strawberry umezuke sauce. Garnished with sage flowers.

🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

10/05/2024

Mātaitai - (verb) to be brackish, tasting of salt, salty (noun) salinity, saline.

You can’t have the sea without the salt. The next course was Mātaitai featuring our slow roasted zero waste poaka. The poaka is brined overnight, cooked for three and a half hours, and then finished on the wood fire grill.

Accompanying the poaka is grilled paināporo, pickled kareao, daikon dressed with wakame, brined pikopiko and a summer salad from our māra kai. Served with apple sauce, poaka jus, and triple cooked rīwai and kūmara seasoned with saltbush.

The saltbush was a koha from chef . Saltbush has been used by the Aboriginal people of Australia for centuries for both culinary and medicinal purposes. 

08/05/2024

Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, the Pacific Ocean, is the largest and deepest ocean in the world. Aoteaora is surrounded and sustained by this incredible body of water.

The next course of Wai Tai was inspired by Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa.

Kōura / crayfish thinly sliced over a salad of apples, herbs and shallots. Served with a wedge of butterhead lettuce dressed with a sauce made from its own outer leaves.

The dish is finished with our take on a traditional Marie Rose sauce using kōura bisque, heirloom tomatoes and piripiri.

05/05/2024

Ākau, meaning shore or coast, was the next course of Wai Tai.

A nod to our epic coastlines and the meeting of land and sea.

Juicy tuangi / cockles, pūhā flowers, zest, black pepper, fresh herbs, roasted garlic oil and our house made red wine vinegar. Served with nori and horopito rēwena loaf.

Bop it! Twist it! Pull it! Shout it!



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01/05/2024

Wai Tai was our last menu at 40 Wallace Street.

Translating to sea water, it was dedicated to the importance of water in our lives.

It’s only natural that the menu started true to form. The first bite was in fact a first sip.

Avocado and charred capsicum gazpacho with bee pollen and chilli oil. Garnished with cucumber and pea tendrils.



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23/04/2024

Acid is just as important in cooking as salt. Think of a salad without dressing. A piece of ika without lemon. The addition of acid cuts through richness and adds a fresh zing, creating a layer of depth that makes the kai more delicious.

Making our own vinegar gives us an array of acidic flavours to enhance our kai. It’s also a great way to use up leftover wine and fruit. You only really need a few ingredients to do this at home: wine, fruit and raw apple cider vinegar. The next important ingredient is time. We leave ours to ferment for a minimum of three months before using.

It’s also imperative that you work clean and sterilise any jars, bottles or kitchen equipment you use. Skipping this step may result in unhealthy mould forming on top of your vinegar, in which case you’ll need to compost it and start again.

There’s a wealth of books and resources available online to get you going. Start simple. Give it a go. Once you build your confidence, you’ll find that you can make your own incredible vinegars at home.

11/04/2024

Kiekie lives high above us in the ngahere / forest, producing beautiful flowers and fruit that have been an important source of kai for Māori.

Male kiekie have delicate beige-brown stamen. These stamen are enclosed by vibrant white and purple edible bracts called tāwhara. Smelling faintly of vanilla and tasting of preserved strawberry, tāwhara were a prized delicacy. The fruit of the female has a hard textured surface. Peeling is required to reveal a soft, sweet interior. The fruit tastes of pear and banana.

Foraging for kiekie can be a difficult affair. Kiekie only bloom sporadically, if at all, and it can be years between seasons. Possums and rats have contributed to a decline in numbers. When we manage to find them, we only take a small amount. We preserve them to extend their use throughout the year. Our favourite way to extract the flavour is to soak them in simple syrup or gin for several months.

It is said that Kiekie and Harakeke are long lost brothers. Harakeke left home to live with Wainui, mother of wai / water. She placed Harakeke by her side on the edges of swamps and streams. Kiekie stayed with Tāne, the god of the ngahere. Kiekie piggy-backed on Tāne’s shoulders wherever they went. This is why, when you look up toward the canopy of the ngahere, you will find kiekie clinging high up on the tree tops.

29/03/2024

Making stock is the cornerstone to life in the kitchen. We make it constantly at work and at home. In many savoury dishes, it’s quietly toiling away in the background being a humble flavour bomb. Something you always want to have on hand when cooking.

We make zero waste stock. We freeze our vegetable offcuts, herb stalks, bones and carcasses until we are ready to make the next batch. You can just fill up containers in the freezer until you are ready to make your stock. All you do is chuck that into a large pot, add in some bay leaves, black peppercorns, fennel seeds, coriander seeds and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Bring it to a boil and then lower to a simmer and leave it to tick over for at least few hours. Once it’s ready, strain it and then use immediately or freeze in containers for another day. If you want to add extra depth to the stock, roast your bones off first.

A zero waste ethos in the kitchen isn’t a new way of doing things. It’s just returning to the way people lived when convenience wasn’t king.

18/03/2024

Gorse flower is a bright yellow burst of tropical flavours and aromas. Notes of coconut, orange and pineapple.

The flowers and buds are the only edible parts of the plant and should be consumed in moderation as they contain a small amount of toxic alkaloids. It can be tricky to extract the flowers but you develop a rhythm if you do it often enough. Gorse flower can be used in many ways in the kitchen, adding a touch of sunshine to your kai or beverage.

Wild kai is all around us. Sourcing it is a way to connect with your local environment and have access to ingredients outside of the conventional food system.

Our current food system is broken. In Aotearoa, we grow enough kai to feed the country eight times over but it is estimated that 15-20% of our population are impacted by food insecurity. The math ain’t mathin’.