- 1 year ago
The Food Truck NZ - S01E02 - Fish and Chips
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00:00The New Zealand fast-food industry is worth over 1.3 billion dollars a year,
00:06but there's a huge social cost.
00:08Two out of every five deaths have some link to diet-related factors.
00:12Without putting you off your dinner,
00:14us Kiwis need to change what we eat.
00:19Michael van der Elzen is the owner and head chef
00:22of the award-winning molten restaurant and liquid molten bar
00:25in Mount Eden, Auckland.
00:27Let's get a show on the road.
00:29He set up a mobile kitchen on a mission to make fast food healthy food.
00:33Alright, I'm open for business.
00:35That's good.
00:37Faithless.
00:38Fast food can be exciting, it can be healthy,
00:41it can be food that we serve in our restaurant.
00:43The bit I'm worried about is, are Kiwis willing to go for it?
00:47Last week, Michael offered healthy pies at the Whangamata Beach Hop.
00:51And despite worries about an all-veggie pie...
00:54I hope I've made the right decision,
00:56because these guys here, they look like the meat lovers.
00:58..the food truck sold out.
01:00We've been nailed.
01:02I just sold 72 pies in 26 minutes.
01:06The food truck is a legend.
01:08Tonight, can Michael create nutritious, affordable fish and chips
01:12with the quick-tick customers demand these days?
01:15Find out in the food truck.
01:22Fish and chips.
01:24One of the most popular and enduring takeaway meals.
01:27It's been wrapped up in the local newspaper for over 150 years.
01:32Kiwis love fish and chips.
01:34They're built into our DNA.
01:36They're almost a New Zealand icon.
01:38Yes, they're healthy, they're beautiful fish.
01:40It's so rich in omega-3s, it's brain food.
01:43But it's what we do with them,
01:45by dropping them into the deep fryer and battering them,
01:47and the chips that we serve with them,
01:49and the size of the portions.
01:51That's what we need to change.
01:53Two bits of battered fish and chips
01:55and five tablespoons of pure fat.
01:57That's a lot of grease for Michael to get rid of.
02:00When you think of fish and chips, you think of the beach.
02:03So I'm heading up to Mangawai Heads.
02:05It's got a special place in my heart.
02:07My parents have a beach house up here,
02:09and I've been coming up here for as long as I can remember.
02:12Great beaches, great surf.
02:14It's a perfect place for me to experiment with my fish and chips.
02:17In a few days' time,
02:19Michael will be taking his own take on the classic Kiwi takeaway
02:22to the classic Kiwi camping ground at Mangawai Heads.
02:25I like fish and chips because it's fast and quick and easy to buy.
02:28All the kids love it.
02:30It's an easy meal that everyone enjoys having.
02:32It's really yum, and you, like, really get a lot of the taste out of it.
02:36You can't get that deep-fried taste without it being a fat.
02:40Tastes great.
02:44Here's the challenge.
02:46Will Michael be able to get hungry Kiwi campers
02:48to trade in their deep fryer for a longer life?
02:51I'm really nervous about this challenge.
02:53I know I can cook better fish and tastier fish.
02:56I know I can do different types of fries,
02:59but are people willing to try it?
03:01That's the part that I'm worried about.
03:04I'm heading down to the local fish and chip shop now.
03:06I want to get a piece of fish, I want to get some chips.
03:09I just want to get an idea of what a local fish and chip shop goes through.
03:15Hi there.
03:16Could I have one piece of fish, please?
03:18And I'll grab one chip.
03:23Busy today?
03:24Yeah, it is actually.
03:25It's a nice sunny day outside, everyone's out having fish and chips.
03:28It's mangawai.
03:30There's nothing else to do but have fish and chips.
03:32Actually, I'm doing some research on fish and chips.
03:35You've got gurnard hoki, teriki snapper, whiting.
03:38All of them are unavailable apart from the hoki.
03:40Have you just sold out, or is it like...
03:42Yeah, after Friday night, it's just everything sells out of the fresh fish.
03:45That's when we get it in.
03:47And so that hoki, would that be fresh or would that be frozen?
03:49It's frozen at sea.
03:51You've got chips, which is kumara.
03:53What percentage of people would go for the kumara instead of the chips?
03:57Maybe one, not many.
03:59What do you think?
04:00I just don't think many people have tried them.
04:02I think it's a little bit too...
04:04A little bit too gourmet?
04:05Yeah, people always stick with the potato chips just because there's no one.
04:12Number 17.
04:13Perfect.
04:14Thank you very much.
04:15Enjoy your meal.
04:20This fish and chips, pretty general what we get countrywide.
04:24It's all about the batter.
04:25You can't necessarily taste the fish, and that's wrong.
04:27You should taste the fish first.
04:28The chips are fine.
04:29You're getting the same oil coming through as you're getting in the fish and chips.
04:33And it all just starts to come together in one mass of fried food
04:37opposed to beautiful fish, crispy potatoes.
04:42But the blue marlin isn't the only fish in the sea.
04:45Michael's gone right round the northeast
04:47scoffing fish and chips like a seagull with specks.
04:50It's all deep-fried in oil, meaning high in fats.
04:54My challenge really is to see whether New Zealand public want something else
04:58than just deep-fried fish and chips.
05:03Michael will use different cooking methods and recipes to see what Kiwis like,
05:08but he can't do that without landing the most important ingredient, fresh fish.
05:12How are you, sir?
05:13Not too bad.
05:14Michael.
05:15Wayne.
05:16Nice to meet you.
05:18Wayne runs the only longline fishing boat operating from Tutakaka.
05:22He can't sell any of the fish he catches to Michael,
05:25but he's happy to help him to catch his own.
05:29As a recreational fisherman, you're only allowed to set 25 hooks.
05:32So if I went out in a boat with two people, I could have 50?
05:3550 hooks.
05:36So they're not going to let me put a hook on because they don't trust me.
05:39They seem to think it's going to get caught in my finger and I'll go out.
05:42So I've got to wait.
05:43This side.
05:44This side?
05:46Whoops.
05:48That was close.
05:49Lucky it was only my glasses, not my finger.
05:51The crew leaves old Butterfinger's bait for the fish to nibble.
05:55In the meantime, let's see what Wayne's caught on one of his 1,000-hook longlines.
06:00A lot of little ones here.
06:02That's the beauty of the longline.
06:04A lot of your little fish, you can let them go.
06:06See you later.
06:07Oh, look at that.
06:08He's a beauty.
06:11There we go.
06:12Look at that.
06:13Obviously he wasn't top of the food chain down there.
06:19So this is the John Dory.
06:21This is probably one of the best eating fish there is.
06:25Would this fish here end up in the fish and chip shops in Mangai?
06:28Not at all.
06:29Where's it going to go?
06:30Europe, most of it goes to nowadays.
06:32All the best stuff gets shipped out of the country.
06:34Yeah.
06:35We get the stuff left.
06:41Oh, look at that beauty.
06:42Yeah, we've got one that's come up dead on the line.
06:45That's more than likely what'll stay in New Zealand, that fish there.
06:48That'll be what you see in your takeaways.
06:50Look at that.
06:51That would be a fish of a lifetime, that, for me.
06:53Look at that.
06:57Michael's line hasn't let him down.
06:59There's a few decent snapper and a slippery visitor from the depths.
07:03Is he a moray or what does his teeth look like?
07:05Put your finger in there and find out.
07:07All right, thank you very much.
07:09Today was great.
07:10I finally got to go out on a commercial boat,
07:13and the great news is I caught 10 fish on my long line.
07:17I can't sell them, but I can use them in my experiments.
07:20Oh, look at those beauties.
07:23Chef Michael van der Elzen is spending a long weekend in Mangawhai Heads,
07:28but he's not here for the scenery.
07:30He's come to see if the Kiwi palette is ready
07:32for a whole new skinny fish and chip experience.
07:35So today I've got my beautiful fresh fish in the back.
07:37I'm going to head down to the boat ramp.
07:38I want to see how far people are willing to try and experiment
07:42with different types of fish in regards to fish and chips.
07:47I am nervous how far people are willing to go with fish and chips.
07:51But we need to push people.
07:52Fish is a great, healthy food.
07:54But, you know, fish and chips isn't healthy because we deep fry it.
07:58So today we're not going to use that dirty deep fryer.
08:02We're not going to use that dirty deep fryer.
08:04We're just going to put everything into the oven.
08:06We're going to shallow fry everything,
08:08and we're just going to see whether people are going to love it.
08:12Michael's testing out three standard cooking techniques.
08:16The first one is a crispy oven-baked variation on crumbed fish.
08:20Just going to add a little bit of olive oil, a little bit of pepper,
08:23just a touch of basil, maybe a teaspoon of oil in there.
08:26I'm trying to make it fresher. I'm trying to make it healthier.
08:28People love crumbed fish.
08:30Drop that into the boiling vat of oil,
08:33and the absorption is going to be far greater
08:35because it's going to soak up all that oil.
08:37All that dry crumbs are just going to go,
08:39wow, give me that oil.
08:41By doing it this way, we've added that oil.
08:44It won't give me any more.
08:45It's going to go into the oven.
08:46It's still going to be crispy.
08:47It's still going to be moreish.
08:49Now I need something to adhere the crumbs to the fish.
08:52So what I'm going to use is a bit of Dijon mustard.
08:55You could do both sides, but let's just try one.
08:59Straight onto your paper, ready to go in the oven.
09:01The second method is steamed fish,
09:03which he's doing two different ways,
09:05one with ripe tomatoes and olive oil
09:08and a fat-free zingy version with fennel and lemon.
09:11These would be great for game day.
09:13You know, I could have them sitting in the fridge.
09:15Someone comes up, order, straight in the oven, fast.
09:18And the third combines fish and chips into one pan-fried packet
09:22using this great invention, a vegetable layer.
09:25You can just get it from a Japanese supermarket.
09:27Easy peasy.
09:28$30, $40 maybe, and just wrap your fish with the potato.
09:33This is fish and chips.
09:35You've got crispy fish, you've got crispy potato.
09:38It's just not in a format that you would normally see.
09:41Some of Michael's experiments don't quite make the grade.
09:45You are losing a little bit of that fish flavour through the tomato.
09:50But others exceed Michael's expectations.
09:53I think this could work for game day. I'm excited.
09:55I need to find out whether everyone else actually likes this as much as I do.
09:59So this is my take on crumb fish.
10:03What are you doing to the fish?
10:05Oh!
10:07Beautiful.
10:09This has been baked in the oven.
10:12I haven't tasted fish like that in New York.
10:14Fantastic.
10:15This crumb fish, it hasn't been deep-fried.
10:20You can't beat that deep-fried taste.
10:22You can put it in the oven, bake it,
10:24but you still don't get that taste.
10:26I normally smother it with mayo or tomato sauce.
10:35Good with the tomato sauce.
10:37Little steps.
10:39I love that there was good moisture in the fish,
10:42and you've got that texture of the crumb as well.
10:44Look at that, that's lovely.
10:46So it's steamed in its own juices,
10:49and those juices and steams that come off are trapped inside the paper.
10:52I don't think that's as good as the crumb, but it tastes great.
10:54But do you think people would go into a fish and chips shop?
10:56And order that? No.
10:58What I've done is I've actually baked the fish with tomatoes,
11:01so you get in your fish and your tomatoes in there.
11:04And I've steamed it with the whole idea of serving fish with tomato sauce.
11:10Nice.
11:11Always got to have that tomato sauce, though.
11:13Righty.
11:14Kiliwili fish.
11:16Bring it on.
11:17That potato is really nice.
11:19It's quite different, isn't it?
11:21It's great.
11:22Crumbing just came out on top.
11:25It's using that simple technique of crumbing fish that everyone recognises,
11:28everyone knows what a crumb fish is,
11:30but turning it on its head.
11:32They didn't want battered fish.
11:34Yeah, that was great.
11:36I'm only halfway there.
11:37I've still got to do the chips.
11:39For his hot chip experiment, Michael's swapping boat ramp for beach.
11:43Every week, New Zealanders plough their way through 7 million scoops of hot chips.
11:48Will they make the swap for a healthier potato?
11:51The first attempt will be the usual slicing of an unusual spud.
11:55What we've got here is a puri puri potato.
11:58The flavour's a little bit sweet.
12:00You could say they're almost like a kumara.
12:02I'm going to pop these onto an oven tray
12:04and I'm going to spray them with cooking spray,
12:06opposed to delting them with oil.
12:08Cook them in an oven that's 200, 250.
12:11You want it to be hotter rather than cooler.
12:14Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen.
12:16I'm just wondering if you'd like to try some of my fries.
12:18Yeah.
12:19So they're a crispy puri puri potato.
12:24Different?
12:26Probably not.
12:28So that's like crispy.
12:30Oh, delicious.
12:32If I offered these to you with fish and chips, would you go for them?
12:36I'd rather have them than fish and chips.
12:38Next, Michael's baking some chunky chips coated with not-so-secret herbs.
12:44Super hot oven, 200, 220, great.
12:47The hotter the better.
12:48And served with a very special sauce.
12:51So fish and chips is an English dish.
12:53What do they always have? Mushy peas.
12:55So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to make a very simple pea puree.
12:59A touch of olive oil, a touch of salt.
13:05The goodness, the flavour of the pea goes through the sieve into the bottom.
13:11Beautiful colour, beautiful flavour.
13:15Is that something that would entice you into going to the fish and chip shop and ordering?
13:19That's awesome. It is awesome.
13:21You don't just have to say that, honestly.
13:22No, no, I'm being straight up. No, that's real nice.
13:24All Kiwis love chips, but when you have a good meal but it doesn't feel healthy afterwards,
13:29you just sort of, so the grease and stuff makes that chip feel like a good healthy...
13:32It's nice.
13:33Great.
13:34And Michael's third experiment?
13:36Deep standard boiled spuds with a tasty twist on tradition.
13:40Take a little bit of creme fraiche, half a tablespoon of Dijon mustard.
13:45By adding the capers, I won't need to add any salt.
13:49So in essence, what I am making here is a tarte sauce, minus the oil.
13:55And instead of serving it on the side, I'm actually putting the tarte sauce through the juicy pennies.
14:01I just want to see whether you would be willing to eat these as an alternative to deep fried chips.
14:07Get in there.
14:08Nice, isn't it, Liam?
14:09Get in there.
14:10Big chippy, try that.
14:11What do you think of that?
14:13Do you like that?
14:14Oh, good boy, Rowan.
14:15Would that be something that you and your kids would go for?
14:17They might not, I would, so would half of them.
14:19It's got a bold old lion red now.
14:20Yeah, it's starting, yeah.
14:22All this proves that Kiwis will brave a variation on their beloved fish and chips.
14:26I haven't eaten anything quite like that before.
14:28No, that is beautiful.
14:30Well, mostly.
14:31You can't kid the kids.
14:33It's easy convincing the adults, but sometimes it's a different thing trying to convince the kids.
14:37Yeah.
14:38But even a famished Kiwi has a firm fix on the finances.
14:42Five bucks.
14:43Five dollars for a piece of fish and a scoop of chips.
14:45Maybe eight bucks, ten bucks, something like that.
14:47If it was fresh fish, I'd pay more.
14:49Probably push up to about eight dollars, eight fifty, yeah.
14:52Today was challenging.
14:53It really was.
14:54Yeah, the concerning part is I've still got to pair my potatoes and my kumara with my fish.
15:01The chef brain's working because that chef brain wants to put on three of the best dishes I can tomorrow.
15:08I want people to look at these three dishes in a year's time and go,
15:11I'm going to bake those for dinner, because they were fantastic.
15:14I've got to get my brain into gear because it's game day tomorrow, I've got to get all my food ordered.
15:18And honestly, I've been cooking for a long time and right now, I'm scared sh**.
15:25Chef Michael van der Elzen has taken his restaurant recipes to the beach resort of Mangawhai Heads.
15:31Can fish and chips that have never been near a deep fryer appeal to Kiwi palates?
15:36Oh, delicious.
15:38Tonight, his healthy creations debut at the local campground.
15:42With a pile of prep to do, Michael's talked his two young nieces
15:45into helping create one of three main dishes for the evening, the curly whirlies.
15:51Basically just turn it and the machine does everything for you.
15:53And you just wrap it.
15:55The curly whirlies are aimed at the kids, so if I can get the kids to make the kids food,
16:00I'm teaching them something as well as helping me out.
16:05Along with the curly whirly fish fingers topped with pea puree,
16:09there's a crumbed fish fillet with baked kumara chips.
16:12Plus a pepperonata tomato sauce for the traditional fish and chips fan.
16:17And don't forget the steamed fish served with boiled potatoes
16:20and a dry tatea sauce for the more adventurous, health-conscious camper.
16:26There's so much prep to do, Michael's drafted in the family batch as sous-chefs.
16:31I've got my wife and her friend in the kitchen doing the steamed fish parcels.
16:36I've got another friend, Marie, in the back of the truck.
16:39She's doing the tomato sauce.
16:41I'm chuffed in how the family's come in and just helped me out. It's great.
16:45And then Michael's mum's on board with eagle-eyed price advice.
16:49So we've got curly whirly snappy fish fingers, $4.
16:52We've got fresh snapper with garlic crumbs, that's coming in at $8.
16:56Then we're doing the steamed snapper, that is going to be $6.
17:00What do you reckon?
17:02You can't make it too much.
17:04No, you can't. It's fish and chips.
17:06That's right, fish and chips. People like the fish and chips, so you have to stick to this.
17:12I've got mum's seal of approval.
17:14By the time all the prep is finally finished and the truck is loaded,
17:17it's already 6pm, dangerously close to dinner time.
17:21Thank you, people. You guys are great.
17:26I'm feeling pretty rogered, actually, but I'm pumped.
17:30We've got our prep done.
17:33Now let's just see if what we've done is what people want.
17:38Mangawhai Head's campground is full of holiday campers
17:41who have been eating pot noodles and grubby sausages for days on end.
17:45The arrival of Michael's novelty food truck is eye-catching,
17:48but will his healthy food catch on?
17:51Fennel, potatoes and dried sweet potatoes.
17:57There's actually quite a few people outside.
18:00Does that make me worried? Yes, it does.
18:04Michael starts by pre-cooking some items to meet demand.
18:08There's a good reason.
18:10As soon as I step back into that kitchen, I'm walking into battle.
18:13Bring it on.
18:15All right. Open for business.
18:18Can we please have two curly, whirly, snappy fish,
18:21one steamed snapper and one fresh snapper.
18:24Well done.
18:28Fish and chips isn't the healthiest meal, but as an occasional,
18:31yeah, fish and chips is great. It's special. It's a treat.
18:35OK, number four.
18:37I'm as excited as you are.
18:39Michael's first order is out in less than five minutes.
18:42That's faster than the fastest fast food he'd foraged for in the first place.
18:47Let's see if these fresh new recipes hit the spot when they've cost real money.
18:52There is nothing greasy about this food. No. At all.
18:55I don't normally like peas, but the pea sauce is just awesome.
18:59This isn't what we're expecting. I mean, it's almost restaurant quality.
19:03Yeah.
19:05It's like the ease of a takeaway package at your caravan.
19:09Hello. How are you? Good.
19:11What can I get you? Two curly whirlys, please.
19:13Two curly whirlys coming up.
19:15Back at the food truck, the curly whirlys are proving to be the runaway sales hit.
19:20Look really nice and it tastes really nice.
19:22But that pea green topping is getting mixed reviews from the critics.
19:26Here you go, buddy. Try a bit there.
19:28What do you think?
19:30You don't like that either?
19:32Oh, dear.
19:35Mum doesn't like peas.
19:40The crumbed fish makes up for it in sales and customer satisfaction.
19:45It's not greasy, it's well-cooked, and it's got good flavour.
19:49Nice and tender. Cormorant chips and absolutely lean piece of snapper.
19:55That's really amazing.
19:57The steamed fish isn't doing the big volumes, but the punters who try it love it.
20:01Oh, look at that. It's falling apart.
20:03Tastes fresh.
20:05I would buy that. I avoid buying fish and chips because I can't stand the oil and the grease.
20:09But that I would definitely buy.
20:11We need some more people now.
20:13Fish chips people.
20:15Turning up at 6 means Michael missed the early kids' dinners.
20:19He's got plenty of fish and chips left, but no one left to serve them to.
20:23I think we're just a little bit late.
20:26If you look into the kitchen, everyone's washing dishes. Dinner's over.
20:30In my world, 7 o'clock is a great time to open up a fish and chip cart.
20:35But up in Maungawai, everything seems to be like two hours earlier.
20:39But word has spread through the campground and brought extra customers in from the sand dune.
20:44So I've heard your kereli-reli chips are pretty good.
20:46Kereli-relis are great.
20:48They're normally for kids, but hey, that's a lily.
20:53So a steamed fish and a crispy fish?
20:55What do you reckon's the best?
20:57I reckon this one's the best.
21:00Yeah, I probably would buy these at my own fish and chip shop if I could.
21:03Two of yesterday's tasters arrive, happy to fork out for takeaways
21:07and don't feel like lead just before bed.
21:09Oh, absolutely beautiful.
21:11The kids have been back twice for money and have had two portions each.
21:16And they're loving it. They love it.
21:17They're eating it, and it's all gone. They've eaten it all.
21:19And they're not bouncing off the walls because they haven't had their tomato sauce.
21:22It's healthy. It's healthy.
21:24Totally. It's great. It's really, really good.
21:26In the end, Michael had almost half of the lightly steamed fish packets left over.
21:31But the kereli-relis and the crumbed fish were an enormous hit.
21:35And you are the lucky last.
21:38My day is done.
21:40Michael's proved that fish and chips can be made fast, healthy and tasty.
21:45All at a price Kiwis expect to pay.
21:48I think today went really well.
21:49On the downside, we didn't quite serve as many people as I probably would have liked to.
21:53But on the good side, the food that we did serve was excellent.
21:57People are willing to change. People are wanting to change.
22:00They are getting tired of battered fish and chips.
22:03And we gave them that change, and they came up, and they ordered it, and they loved it.
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