The host of NatGeo’s ‘Restaurants at the End of the World’ dishes on what it takes to run a restaurant off the grid.
InRestaurants at the End of the World , which premier March 21 on Nat Geo , celebrity chef Kristen Kish travel to distant locales in search of chefs who embody the farm to board ethos in the truest sense — chef who are not only hop on a culinary bandwagon , but rather , the thrill of allowing themselves no other choice . If supply chain issues were ever a plight in the mainland , they become a class of their own once you venture off the grid . These kitchen adventurer gear up up shop deeply in the wilderness , from the swarm woodland ofPanamato thenorthernmost region of Norway , creatively adapting to Mother Nature ’s ever - changing menu .
Kish , in her relatable hilarity , is plot to unite these chefs in their quests to get as nigh to the beginning as possible . TheTop Chefstar scale waterfall toforage fresh watercress , dodge polar bears while diving for fish , and dig into muddy mangroves to glean Brazilian bivalves . It ’s a lesson in operating without fear , as these chefs never quite have sex what any hold upshot might be . But the meal always turn out to be just as sheer and daring as their hard - won ingredients , accented by inventive dishes like chayote ceviche , reindeer tongue pastrami , andseaweed - topped custard .
In honor of the show ’s release , Thrillist speak with Kish about the allure of far - flung eatery , vivid intellectual nourishment - sourcing feat , and what drives her making love for all affair journey .
Kristen Kish at Sem Pressa, a floating restaurant in Paraty, Brazil|National Geographic for Disney/Autumn Sonnichsen
Thrillist : From a consumer perspective , what ’s the appeal of hop on a sauceboat or hiking up a good deal to dine at a remote restaurant?Kristen Kish : For much of my upbringing , dining was just go out to eat . You belong to a eating house that was either live or not known , and you choke because you needed to feed yourself . But now , as we ’re disclose to so many unlike kinds of restaurants , the dining experience does n’t just pop and terminate with the food . It take up with making the conclusion to go , why you ’re going , what the affair might be . I ’m interested in a full story — I love going out to dinner , but sometimes I call for a slight bit more . restaurant at the End of the Worldis apparently taking that to the extreme .
The journeying starts at the beginning of the trek to get there . That gives you brainwave into who these chef are , the challenge that they might confront , and then , ultimately , what variety of food they may be serving . It ’s a full human experience to translate what sort of masses actually do this , how they survive , and how they care a restaurant , because we ’re all used to restaurants being set up to be efficient and profitable and make the most sense . These citizenry have a phenomenal chronicle to tell .
What ’s the impulse for chef to open up such restaurants ? Is it just an attractor to dangerous undertaking , or is there something else at play?It ’s hard to say , because each restaurant is n’t traditional . One might be a category home , one might be a base camp where explorers trekking the Arctic Circle barricade off for a Nox or two , orone might be on a boat . A lot of these people created an environment in which they finger was a essential for their keep in some way .
Kish rappels down a waterfall at Hacienda Mamecillo in Boquete, Panama.|National Geographic for Disney/Missy Bania
For model , Rolando in Panama ( he ’s in our premiere sequence ) openedHacienda Mamecillobecause he got , quite frankly , bored of living in the metropolis , and he wanted to raise his family in a dissimilar sort of path — off the land , off the stupefy itinerary . A fate of times , these chef are driven by something that is n’t just , " Hey , I want to make this eating place at the ending of the world because I remember it ’ll be cool . " It ’s for many other reason , whether it be for their family , for boost the residential district around them , or just because there ’s a place in the centre of nowhere that masses stop off at . But the common train of thought that I ’ve pick up on is this sense of relinquishing control to “ What will be , will be . ” There ’s beauty and exemption in that , especially when it comes to cookery .
How can relying on your surround instill a great horse sense of creativity?By the sheer fact that not everything is available . For most chefs , we can dream up an total dish and order the product or find something similar . If it ’s not in time of year in our state , a neighboring Department of State might have it . But when you do n’t have it , when you are at a want , you ’re forced to think things through much more creatively , because you have to . Otherwise , what are you go to do , serve a potato as just a baked white potato vine ? No , you ’ve got to really think about it . What ’s that adage ? “ Necessity is the mother of invention . ”
How has this experience hyperbolise your sympathy of the phrase “ farm to table?”Depending on where you are in the world , farm to mesa can intend a million different things . The estimate is understanding where your food come from and taking out as many middle people as you may so there ’s less of a trek and it ’s effective for the environs . ForRestaurants at the closing of the World , it stand for a true necessity . Where else are you going to get the intellectual nourishment in the Arctic ? you could ship it from the mainland , certain , but by the time it travel an minute and a one-half across the Arctic , it ’s frozen . for get the freshest Pisces the Fishes potential , you have to boost an hour and a half to a lake , angle it yourself , and bring it back .
Isfjord Radio Restaurant in Svalbard, Norway|Svalbard
What was one of your pet element to learn about ? How did it tell the story of a place?It was in Svalbard with Rogier , the chef atIsfjord Radio Restaurant . He took the feeding sacking out of a ptarmigan and turned it into a cocktail . He did n’t have to do that , but I guess if you are fail to eat the raspberry , endeavor to habituate all of it . I hate when multitude call food alien , because I ’m like , food is intellectual nourishment to somebody . It ’s their normal . But that was the very first time I think I ’ve ever had a feeding pouch . It tastes earthy , funky — you’re looking at it thinking , This thing is internally in an creature . And they ’re pluck at everything . It ’s not just twigs and berries . It also contains rocks and worm that break up . Then you see an off - browned color — those two matter add up together throw your brain for a loop . It was n’t my pet feel profile , disregarding of what it was , but it was a fresh experience , which I always value .
Which location surprised you the most?I’m not impressed very often . I imagine things are exceptional and marvelous , but that wave of like , Oh my God , does n’t come often . The direction I trek through life , these are just experience . All of them are evenly telling to me and normal to somebody else . A gracious admonisher was accept one domestic location , a place that ’s not far from where I live , to see what ’s in our backyard . We can travel and pick out lieu on the map that are so far aside , but if we just look around a little bit , there are [ close-fitting ] places deserving exploring that are off the beaten path and dissimilar from our casual life . A lot of people that live in the United States , specially on the East Coast , can very well go to North Haven , [ Maine ] andTurner Farmand see their little island residential area . That ’s a really swell thing to showcase as well .
From scale a waterfall to spearfishing , what would you say was the biggest challenge you took on during this experience?Anytime I had to get over the fear of not feeling open of being able to do something . Yes , there ’s a fear of getting injure , and I do n’t need to kick the bucket — I have a married woman and grownup responsibilities . But no matter what idiot box project I go into , no matter who I cook for , every guest chef dinner , the reverence is always the unidentified . And the care is , Are they conk to like it ? Are they go to like me ? Am I going to be okay?Whether that ’s for this show or just universal life history , a quite a little of us worry about those thing .
Turner Farm in North Haven, Maine|Turner Farm
Were you ever jealous of these chefs , despite all the difficulty they confront living and work off the grid?I think there ’s always appeal , when we be in such a advanced worldly concern with every convenience usable to us , in being able to shut it all down and do what you love without food critics , without Yelp opinions . You are constantly being judged in a deal of ways . I take the air through a grocery store and I ’m like , Oh my god , are people judging me?I’m not articulate these citizenry are n’t gauge and they do n’t have challenges like that , but I ’m envious of the fact that they can say , “ Screw it , ” and just do what they want to do , how they want to do it … without the internet .
Is there a moment you share with one of the guest chefs that made a deep impression on you , even if it did n’t make the show?They were all so welcoming . Each episode took five or six mean solar day to film , and then I had one day off . On that day off , camera or no camera , they were all like , " follow on , I require to keep show you things , ” or , “ Let ’s go do this , I require to take you here . " This show is about the travelling and the cuisine of a certain place , but even more so , it ’s about who these multitude are .
There was this man — God , I hope his story is told one day . I do n’t need to say too much , because it ’s quite a personal story , but what I took from it was that we do thing for other people . We are ram by our love of other hoi polloi , and honoring those that are no longer with us . Whether or not you do that in your daily life , I think it ’s always really important to maltreat outside yourself and say , " Why am I doing this ? What ’s the self-aggrandizing purpose ? " So with one of our Edgar Guest — I was a sobbing mess get this conversation , search at the Sunday localize over this gorgeous lake — I was reminded that we ’ve mystify to tread outside of ourselves and visualize out why we do things , because otherwise , if we do it all for ourselves , it ’s for the most part driven , I cerebrate , by self .
Kish gathering fresh ingredients in Paraty, Brazil|National Geographic for Disney/Autumn Sonnichsen
How has the show impacted your own travel habit ? What do you retrieve other traveller can learn from this show?My culinary career has seen a plenty of different constituent of this industry , change of location included , but this experience highlighted why I be intimate to travel in the first blank space . It originate when I was a small fry , long before I bring in that I was go to do this on television system . As an adoptee , I wanted to move , know and seeing and putting myself in other people ’s horseshoe , because I could have end up in a family like them . I could have been anywhere in the world . I mean , we all could have been wear into any kind of family , but that , for me , is the driving military group of my desire to move around .
I call back , when I was younger , I would listen to masses say , " Oh , you have to journey the earth to see and to do and find out . " And I was always like , " Well , I ca n’t . I do n’t have the luxury to do that . " So I ’m always wary about that . What I trust , at the very baseline , is that even if you are n’t able to go to these restaurants , or you are n’t able to go on this epic adventure , people can connect through the cover — that ’s how I learned about intellectual nourishment and other hoi polloi . And then if you are capable to , I trust that people go and see these fabulous people and restaurants , because it is something special . We ’re all used to convenience , but the larger part of the storey is the masses .
