BUSINESS PROFILE // Monique Fiso
Monique Fiso Aspiration and ambition — not expectations — are behind the hard-earned success of Monique Fiso. WORDS Madeline Woolway
MONIQUE FISO WAS always going to
thinking, “I know what I want to do, I
sights on kitchens outside New Zealand.
would go this way: TV shows, cookbooks,
an attitude that’s defined Fiso’s career.
chance conversation with a supplier led to
were not in her sights when she left
“I had high aspirations and ambitions,
suggested Fiso make the most of her
Cookery and Patisserie at the Wellington
thought, ‘I’m never going to reach that’,”
be a chef, but she never expected things
opening a restaurant and critical acclaim school early to complete a Diploma in Institute of Technology.
The 31-year-old chef, who hails from
Wellington and has Māori and Samoan
should just leave and get on with it.” It’s
but there were definitely times where I
says Fiso. “I didn’t think I would own a restaurant by 31.”
Back then, the hope was you might
heritage, made the decision to drop out of
become the executive chef of a restaurant
that is very different from the one she’s
trailblazing venue and working alongside
school and pursue a career in an industry working in today.
At the time, Fiso says she was
questioned about the choice to study a
“low-paying trade full of men”. But, there
was no doubt in her mind. She remembers 12 | Hospitality
Initially, London was calling, but a
a change in direction. The acquaintance
eligibility for a J-1 Visa and head to New York. “I hadn’t really considered it,” says
Fiso. “But I thought she made a really good point — what better place to challenge yourself than New York?”
after many years of hard work. Opening a
Following the same goal as the one she
the chefs whose autobiographies she’d
simple — cook. “The whole plan was: ‘I’m
devoured was something Fiso strived for, but didn’t expect. So with a head filled
with Marco Pierre White’s White Heat and Gordon Ramsay’s Humble Pie, Fiso set her
pursued when she left school, the idea was going to go to New York and work my way into Michelin-star kitchens’,” says Fiso. ‘Work’ being the operative word. “I
think there was a bit of luck on my side,”
