I Tried Gordon Ramsay's Favorite Seafood in the World.

We traveled over 10,000 miles to one of the most remote islands in the world. A place still largely untouched by humans in search of what many believe is some of the highest quality and most prized food on earth. What happened next was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Plunging into freezing waters, infested with sharks and stingrays. There's been a lot of shark attacks recently in Australia. I don't think there was. That's not what I was hoping to hear. A generation's old fishing family whose knowledge of these waters created what Gordon Ramsay called the greatest seafood experience of his life. To spending the day surviving off the grid with a Michelin star master forager who walked away from one of the best kitchens in the world, who built a life living solely off the land and ocean. To discovering ingredients and dishes you can only truly find on this island. Every moment pushed me further outside my And it left me with a much bigger question. What if we've been looking for the world's greatest food in all the wrong places? What if it's not hiding in the world's biggest cities or most famous restaurants, but on a remote island at the edge of the earth? After spending over 28 hours on planes, we finally arrived in Tasmania, a remote island off the southern coast of Australia, a place unlike anywhere else on Earth, where untouched wilderness stretches for miles, towering sea cliffs meet ancient forests, and the air is considered some of the cleanest on the planet. That oxygen tastes great. Thousands of years of isolation have created a unique ecosystem that produces ingredients you cannot find anywhere else in the world. It was here we came searching for a Michelin-starred chef who abandoned the traditional path of fine dining at one of the best restaurants in the world in pursuit of something greater. A life built entirely off the land and the ocean where every ingredient on her table is hunted. Fish. or foraged from the environment around her. And that's not even the craziest part. Before we even met, she gave us just one instruction. Bring your own wetsuit. Because the second we arrived, we were going to work. In order to reach the chef, we drove hundreds of miles through protected wilderness into an area so untouched by civilization, it really felt like we'd reached the edge of the world. And tucked away at the end of it all was her homestead, a place where the line between home, farm, and restaurant completely disappears. And before I even had the chance to take it all in, she introduced herself in a way I'll never forget. The chef for our meal right now is... Apparently right there, diving for some abalone. That is so epic. Chef, it's a pleasure to meet you. Hi, how's it going? This is the most insane thing I've ever experienced. I think I've never seen our chef come out submerged from the water holding seafood. I just want to let you know, this is my first time ever diving and catching my own seafood, abalone and urchin. So I hope I can keep up with you. Okay, sorry, I'm not going to be going very fast. Yeah. We're going to stick close to the rock. There's not actually sharks like here, though. Not like right here. But not like anywhere near. There you know, like out there. Yeah. Let's make this go in here. I can't hear you. Also, I just turned around literally and there was a stingray that was like this big. Are you serious? Yeah, it's just on the other side of the rocks. Can those hurt you? Yeah, they seem kind of friendly, but they do have the tail, you know. I don't know, actually. I don't know what's in here. Oh, okay. I don't. Can we add, like, the shark fin? Um, yep, we can add that one. If I see a shark. This one means everyone run. What about, like, this one for stingray? Oh, we could do that. Okay, so this shark, this stingray. I don't have one for stingray, so that's good. Okay, that's stingray. I'm normally just, like, mm, mm. All right, here you go. Hopefully, I don't get hit by a shark. Just running, just watching from the sidelines. There's a sea urchin down here. What do you got there? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. There's a sea urchin down here. Sea lettuce that you can eat raw. Kinda tastes like nothing. We got our sea urchin! Spiky little fella here. Let's place you here. Don't move, please. I don't know how you're gonna run away, but just please don't. I think the UV's like 13 right now. Yeah, the UV's actually half of what it was yesterday, so even though it's 15 degrees hotter. I feel like I'm being burned alive. We got one! We got our first abalone! Let's go! I feel like Rambo right now. Rambo of the sea. Got three sea urchins in hand. We're about to go eat them fresh. After spending the morning hunting for our own ingredients, we finally made our way back to Chef's home. From the outside, it looked like a simple house tucked away in the wilderness. So my goats and my chickens are in that paddock behind the house. I've got bees. But inside, it was one of the most unique kitchens I'd ever stepped foot in. Custom-built cooking equipment, techniques I've never seen before, and every single part of the space have been designed around one thing, letting the ingredients speak for themselves. It was unlike any restaurant I'd ever been to, because this wasn't a restaurant at all. This is the chef's home. Not only is everything here hyper-local, either grown in her own gardens or picked up from a local farm nearby, but chef made her own knife. Yeah, so there was a knife maker called Toby down the road, he lives in the hills, and he has a solar-powered knife forge, which is the only one I've ever heard of. And he was like, do you want to come make a knife? And I was like, oh. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. What inspired you to go from fine dining to this? I'm from New Zealand originally, so I'm from a small island at the bottom of the world, and then I had to go away and live in London and Paris and Spain and all these places. And now I've come full circle. I've been out, I've been everywhere, I've done it, and then now I'm back to almost where I started again. I just kind of fell back in love with this way of cooking, this way of eating. Herbs and things are from my garden, eggs are from here because I've got chickens, I've got bees up the back for honey. Sometimes I raise pigs and sheep. as well there seems to be no limit to your ability to go find the freshest and best ingredients and bring it into this kitchen dream meal right here dream meal for sure we're gonna start off with the abalone pizza they homemade the dough all of the herbs and vegetables on this pizza they grew in the garden and fresh caught the abalone topped with some parmesan cheese wow Wow. The parsley and olive oil on top of this pizza with the melted cheese is insane. Abalone on pizza sounds a little scary, but if you didn't know there's abalone on this, you'd have no idea. It almost just tastes like the mushrooms. Yeah, I used to run the restaurant. That's actually so f***ing good. Wow. All right, so this is the Tasmanian serpent herb. So it's a dry-aged Tasmanian porterhouse cooked in the firebox with... A whole black-lipped abalone sliced and served on top with something that's like a Café de Paris, but I'm gonna call it Café de Hobart. We went diving for it and now we got it. This looks beautiful. I've had a lot of things in the food world. I've never seen a surf and turf with steak and abalone. This is a first. This is why we travel the world and come to Tasmania. Get a piece of this abalone and dive in. as strange as this might seem abalone thinly sliced on top of steak it really does work they're both amazing that herb butter with some curry powder in there adds a nice punch and gives us some really good flavor but the steak is amazing alone the abalone has this nice kind of octopus chew to it and it's really cooked perfectly and thinly sliced and together that's great it's a very unique take on surf and turf that would have never thought about there's something that you really need to venture outside of the norm to try they also grow these potatoes And they've been cooking in this cast iron skillet for this entire time, this past hour. The really strong golden crust topped with some fresh grown herbs and sea salt. Oh my god. After spending the day with Annalise, our journey took us to meet someone just as legendary on the island, but for a completely different reason. A multi-generation fisherman, Shane Wilson, whose family has spent decades mastering what almost nobody else on earth knows how to do. This wasn't just fishing, it was a way of life passed down from father to son. With techniques found only in this remote corner of the world, because here the ocean is This isn't forgiving. Great white sharks, brutal conditions, but if you know me, I'm always chasing the best food and experiences on the planet. And I was dying to find out if this lived up to the hype. We're about to board this seafood boat, go catch our own lobsters, sea urchin, and abalone, and cook and eat it on the boat. We will go to the ends of the earth to find the best seafood. We will not stop for the search of excellence. If it doesn't come to us, we'll go to them. How's it going? Nice to meet you, mate. Great to be here. It should be a cracking day. I'm pretty f***ing excited. It's going to be a hell of a cracking day. What is this? These ones are abalone. Black-lipped abalone. These are live, right? Yeah, yeah. So I picked them up this morning. That's what I catch professionally for my actual real job. I've been doing that for 19 years. About two and a half million that we've caught now. You've caught two and a half million abalones? Yeah, it's about 10,000 hours underwater. What? And what makes this even crazier is that abalone is considered some of the most expensive seafood in the world. And by the time it reaches your plate at a restaurant, you're looking at a staggering $160 a pound. Now, remember, Shane has caught over 2.5 million abalone throughout his career. And if we assume each one weighs around a pound at restaurant prices, that means Shane has caught nearly $320 million worth of abalone in his lifetime. That's absolutely insane. This dude is like Jeff Bezos of the sea. And I reckon Dan's pulled more over the side. He does deckhanding. You've pulled more. You guys got to hold, like, the Guinness Book of World Records for most abalone caught by an individual. No, he's caught over two. Two million abalone. He's caught five. Sabula. This abalone is alive, it's moving right now. Doesn't this kind of look like an alien species? Very much so. Talk about where the f*** are we? Just on a boat in Tasmania. How the f*** do we get here? Thank you. And if you've made it this far, please like, comment, and subscribe because it really supports and helps us. And we love you all. Coming up later in this video, we stumbled upon a hole in the wall gem serving a cuisine you'd never expect to find on a remote island off the coast of Australia. And what happened when we finally tried the food had the boys absolutely losing their minds. Trust me, you're not gonna see this one coming. Interesting facts about these guys. We got three different species here in Tasmania. This one's the black lip. To open them up and just grab something like this, something like a paint scraper or a butter knife will do. In between the meat and the shell, and you'll see where it's connected. So once it goes loose in the shell like that, we wanna roll it over to the other side, and then you can run your hand around it, and that'll leave all of the gut in the shell. That thing's an absolute monster. What is abalone supposed to be related to, like an oyster? It's called a gastropod, it's the family, the species that it is. So we usually use that for serving. What would be the market price on one of these? So the beach price at the moment is around $45 a kilo. And then the process is put there, a bit on the airlines and everything, so it'll be around $150 by the time it comes into Asia. By the time, you know, the chefs do their stuff to it, you know, depending on where you're at, upwards of a couple hundred dollars a kilo. And then what we do from there is just chop it up nice and thin. Alright, we have some abalone sashimi. This is slimy. Is it moving still? No, no, definitely not. It shouldn't be moving anymore. It's not a very strong flavor, and it's going to be chewy. Yeah, it's definitely chewy, but I don't really mind it. It's very unique, but I'm a fan of it. I'm curious and excited to see it cook as well. That smells delicious. It's so good. This is one of my favorite things. I heard Gordon Ramsay came on the boat and said it was one of the best seafood experiences he's had. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, it was a really good experience working with him. We met him once, really cool guy. Yeah, he's an exceptional guy. Gordon Ramsay has set the path for most people in this industry. He's an absolute legend. So Gordon, thanks for inspiring all of us and doing your thing. This doesn't really get fresher than this. Looks incredible. We got two types of abalone that were fresh caught and cooked up. We have an Asian soy glaze and an herb butter one. Here you go, Em, for soy sauce glazed abalone. It has a chewy consistency, kind of like a clam, but I'm a big fan of it. Some people aren't. I love the soy sauce. We got the garlic herb butter one topped with some chives. Wow. Those are both incredible. Really good. Talk about freshness. This dude is suiting up to go We go catch our seafood, it doesn't get fresher than that. Okay, what do I have, steak rice? I'll have them up here. That's pretty insane. Really f***ed about it. Watched him come up with like a bull shark. I can't walk! We can sort of talk to each other through the hose, you know, different sorts of pools and amount of pools and how the pool feels. Run out of fuel, there's, you know, there's a mechanical problem. There's one for a big shark, seven, eight really, really quick pools. So if you get that, you know that there's a shark, so it's not instantly swimming to the top, it might be hiding on the bottom. So one of the boats that we passed to make the big waves before, Jezza, he had a really bad experience a couple of years ago now. He's out, and he's sort of like out in the middle of the bay, and anyway, a big white turned up, and he was angry, he wanted to hit him, so it kept coming in, he's seen it, he's gone to the bottom. And it kept coming in and it kept nosing into him, like running out flat into him to try and flick him off the bottom. Then it could eat him, kept coming in, he broke a heap of ribs, looked like he'd been in a car accident. And it kept coming in for like an hour, and he's going, I've got to swim to the shore. Because he's out and it's flat, he didn't know which way the shore was, he ended up swimming out further. He's like, oh no, not me every time, it's sharks trying to eat him. He said every time it flicked me up, he said I had to make sure I still had legs. He said it was that scary. The diver sends down a line, and it's got a notepad in it, and he's like, big shark, point the boat towards the shore. So the deckhand's going, okay, right, just turn the boat around to the bounce station for sure. And Jez is like, okay, right, that way. So I'm all the way along the bottom, all the way, the shark's trying to eat him. So I'm all the way climbing up the rocks, and, like, the shark, even, like, a metre of water was still trying to get him as he climbed out of the water. That's f***ing serious. Yeah, yeah, full out. Like, I saw him the next day, he's had, like, black eyes, and, like, he showed me lifting the shark. It's, like, three broken ribs. Just where there's, like, two-tonne sharks, like, trying to smash him and get him off the boat. I would have been actually s*** way past that. Ha ha ha ha! Oh, let's go. Oh my gosh, what's the difference between the black and the white? Ah, no difference, I just like hair colour, you know, I've got different hair colours here. And then that's going to be it. What is that? Oh my god. Dude, look, he has red skin and then these beautiful blue eyes. Such a cool creature. He's, this is one of the coolest creatures I've seen, you know. And he's all furry and s***. Black toenails. Should we, should we eat this guy? He's like, no, please. Look at his little claw, it's so cute. Well, Mr. Hermit, It's been an honor to have you on board. We're gonna send you back to your friends. Lying. His face cracks. He's gotta be really confused. Like what the going on? I just got picked up in the ocean, brought on a boat. People are picking me up, throwing me back in. I am cutting open a sea urchin for the first time in my life. And you know, this is the definition of fresh seafood. The only way you would get fresher than this, the captain said, is you'd have to eat it underwater. So when we went to Japan, we went through Tsukiji and Toyosu Market and had some really incredible uni. Now we're in Tasmania and we're catching the uni ourselves. And I'm curious to see how they differentiate. That was pretty good. Yeah, that's a good one. So he was explaining they got A through C grading, C being this darker color, B being closer to orange, and A being more of that bright orange. I would say that's probably like a nice B right there. Yeah, that's a B. Not too grainy, nice fine grain. Yeah. There we go. Mmm, I think that went in the saltiest of the bunch, but really creamy, delicious. You know, it's interesting, the uni that we had in Japan and the Hokkaido uni is really sweet. Yeah, which I think is really good on sushi. This is a much saltier uni, which I actually appreciate, especially when you're eating it on the water. It's cool to see different types of uni across the world. Yeah, and there's like 400 different species of uni in the world. Oh, that's great. And if you've also made this far, you might be wondering, where'd you get that Yes Chef Supply Co. hat? Well, you can find yours in the link right here. If you want to join the JDR army, go copy your Yes Chef Supply Co hat. Jesus Christ, that looks like a full-on tarantula of the sea. Gosh, it's huge. This weighs how much? This one's about two and a half kilos. So the dangerous bit is in here, what they'll do is they'll put their claw down and they'll try and punch that spike through your hand, and the other bits they'll grind you up. Ooh. Oh my god! How much would this sell for in the market? Uh, he's about $300 that one. $300? Yeah. Who would win in a fight, this or a Maine Lobster? I'm going to always back the locals. I think our Maine Lobsters are taking this guy down. We got claws. That's really scary that it can put its legs behind its head. Yeah. Looks like the tarantula from Harry Potter. We got a freshly caught Southern Rock Lobster. We got the whole tail diced up. Massive, there's so much. All right, let's give it a try. That's insane. The freshest lobster I've ever had in my life and it makes sense because we've watched them dive go down and bring it back up for us and it's huge. Huge. I actually use my teeth. Your teeth? Yeah. These? Yep. I just gently crack through the shell and yeah make sure that it's free. Wow. Bend the joint back. That was perfect, all this execution. And for the next stage, just crack the joints. I think that's even better than the tail. It is, it's sweet, there we go. Way sweeter. Holy pop. Wow, that's the best way of a lobster right there. And then the last part, put some joints. Oh. That's when you know they're cooked, man. Wow, that is incredible. Now you can do your own. Oh my god. I have a feeling we're going to get a nice piece out of this huge block. Oh, look at that, baby. Wow. That's something to breath is lost. I've never had it in my entire life. Wow. That is out of this world. Tasmania, cheers. You might be wondering what the is going on behind me with these giant nets in the middle of the ocean. Well, this. is a sustainably run Tasmanian salmon farm and if you can see here they're actually jumping out of the water this is the first time i've ever got my eyes on a salmon farm and you know there's a lot of controversy with farm-raised fish but we're talking to one of the lead seafood educators at the Sydney Fish Market he was telling us that actually in Sydney and across Australia they are some of the leaders of sustainability when it comes to farm-raised fish here in Australia like We don't have wild salmon for example, we only have aquaculture salmon. Yeah, we'll see when it's done. It's done. So would you say that you can get the same quality farm-raised fish as wild? There are actually some people out there doing it that are on par with the wild. That you wouldn't know it. And the quality of the farm-raised fish, when done right, is hand-in-hand with wild-caught seafood. So there are a lot of misconceptions out there about farm-raised versus wild seafood, if done properly. I didn't even see these seals. This is not even fair. It's like these guys are spawn camping the salmon right now. It's like in Call of Duty when you just camp. in the one room that everyone runs by. That's what these seals are doing. Look, getting ready to have a field day on the salmon. Look at how relaxed that guy looks. He's just, he probably just ate 25 salmon, is laying in the sun, Tanning, relaxing, taking a nap. I had to go in for his third meal of the day. I'm very curious to see if I notice any differences between this fresh salmon on the boat in Australia versus what I get at home in the supermarket from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods or top sushi restaurants around the world in New York and Japan. This is really why we travel all over the world to find the freshest seafood at the source. We're really lucky to be here. So next course, you guys just saw the whole fresh salmon. Now we cooked it up. We got really quick feedback. Seared salmon to maximize the crispiness on the outside but keep it nice and rare in the middle. Top with a dollop of wasabi mayo. And then we have uncooked salmon sashimi right here. Wow, delicious, super crispy on the outside. Like I thought, nice and rare in the middle. Incredibly fresh, you know? Try a piece of this sashimi. Amazing. You don't get any sort of fishiness to it. The texture is amazing. The flavor of the fish itself is great. The soy sauce adds to it. That's delicious. For our next experience, we were headed to one of the most sought-after seafood restaurants on the island. But on the way, something caught our attention. A tiny Indian restaurant tucked between a handful of storefronts. Not exactly what I expected to find on a remote island off the coast of Australia. We looked inside, not a single customer. That didn't deter us because we met the family. They come here to start a new life, bringing the recipes from home with them. And there was something about their energy and passion for every dish they explained. Sometimes food is not about exactly what's being made, but who's making it and the story they carry. So I made a deal with the boys. We order one dish, and if it was good, we'd cancel our fancy reservation across the street and eat the entire meal here. I'm all about trying new foods along the way to dinner. That's like one of my favorite things is going to dinner, but eating various things before you get to dinner, and then various things after you get to dinner to try as many restaurants as you can. That's what life's about. That's what JDR is about. We walk into this Indian restaurant in Tasmania, and the guy who is at the desk taking the order goes, are you Jack's Dining Room? I was like, no f***ing way. You gotta be f***ing. Like, this is the most remote part of the earth, and you recognize the squad, which is, you know, it's pretty cool. We've reached the ends of the earth, appreciate all the love and support, and all you guys watching. Oh, thank you. My God, that looks delicious. That's molten lava. All right. We need a spoon. I'm going to draw an honor roll. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Wow! Wow. Dude! I'm freaking out. You can see the fresh garlic on it and the parsley and the heat. Wow. Oh, it smells insane. You can tell, coming fresh out of the oven, I have a pretty good feeling about this. Hopefully it doesn't burn my mouth. The butter chicken sauce is incredible, it's nice and sweet, you've got big chunks of chicken, a lot of garlic on this garlic naan. This little hole in the wall spot is amazing. And the family that runs it is so kind. There's the owner and the chef right there. Delicious. Thank you very much. How long have you been running this restaurant for? The restaurant is more than 20 years old. More than 20 years old. You guys are so cute together. Thank you. Thank you. This is amazing. We might need to cancel our reservation across the street and just stay here. I think we're going to just continue ordering more and more dishes. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. We canceled our other dinner to stay here because everything was so delicious. Let's try a Chennai with whatever you recommend. Okay, let's do prawn. Let's do a biryani, tandoori, special butter. Yeah, anything else you think? That's not the full menu. Oh, yeah, let's see the full, yeah. They have the big guns, let's go. This is the main menu. A mango chicken, have you ever had that? Mango chicken, yeah, let's try that. My God. Prawn Chennai, saffron platter, a mango chicken, a goat curry, thank you. Incredible, can't wait to try the rest. When he pulled out the bigger menu, I was like, oh f***. This is kind of how it goes in the JDR team. We had dinner across the street, cancel the reds, look at the full menu, game on. We're eating our dinner here, which I'm pumped about. We're going in. We got our Rogan Josh lamb here. Funny story, one time I got the worst haircut of my entire life. Imagine me as a little kid and I thought it'd be cool, so I got my, pretty much just like this part cut off, so it would look like my forehead was showing. I thought it'd be cool. I looked horrible and I cried myself to sleep And later that night, I went out to this Indian restaurant with my dad and the waitress at the restaurant comes over She's like, oh my god, I love your haircut. And I was like, really? And it was probably one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me I have a strong connection to Indian restaurants really since that moment actually, but also just for the food I love Indian food, but it's always cool to experience very local family-run Indian spots like this. So going for this Rogan Josh Gosh. Pretty little spice to it. I like when Indian lamb is kind of gamey. Mmm. You got those fatty bits of the lamb too that are just incredible. The seasoning and the spices here, great. Things I haven't experienced. Cheers. Wow, that was delicious. You've been killing it, it was great. So what do we have here? That's a Murgh Malai Kebab, and that's a Chicken Tikka, and that's Lamb Tikka. How long have you been cooking for? 20 years. You've been cooking here in this restaurant? In Tasmania in 20 years. 20 years, and how long have you been cooking your whole life? More than 25 years. Yeah. This is delicious. It's so good. That's amazing. Yeah. So juicy. So good. Are you kidding me? So good. Dude, you are literally a pit bull. A pit bull where, like, if you put, like, four steaks in front of it, it will just keep eating until its stomach bursts. Cheers. Cheers. I might actually projectile vomit everywhere, but in a good way, you know, because it's delicious. So this is essentially like a butter chicken. It just has mango puree in it, so they call it mango chicken. Look at that sauce. Black mustard seeds on top. We might be bringing mango chicken back to the U.S. with us. This is f***ing amazing. You know what I love? When we stumbled in here and the restaurant is kind of empty, but they're making some incredible, incredible food. If you're in Tasmania or you're coming to Tasmania and watching this, you've got to come into the Saffron because these guys are f***ing amazing. Moments like these where you stumble into a random restaurant with your friends, in my opinion, are where the most fun occurs on the trip. We just sat here for about two hours laughing our asses off, eating dense Indian food in Tasmania. What really is better than that? We go to new cities and we end up in the most random places, but I love that about this group and this crew. We never say no. Please like, comment, and subscribe. Okay, let's get to it. You thought the abalone was our ally. You thought the abalone was your ally. Bone the abalone. Bone the giants. Bone the turds. Alright. What body of water is this? What body of water is this? What body of water is this? What body of water is this? What body of water is this? What body of water is this? What body of water? What body of water is this? What body of water is this? What body of water is this? What body of water is this?