By Chris Avena
Mario Kalpou an Australian born certified adrenaline junkie, lives for nothing more than being in the moment and embracing the outdoor lifestyle. Maybe embrace does not exactly capture Mario’s passion for the outdoors. In fact, he is probably holding it in a big ol bear hug as we speak. Mario took to the outdoors at an early age where he learned to hunt and fish in the perilous Australian Outback. On the opposite side of the spectrum, his grandfather was a world class chef where Mario learned the hospitality industry and, in the process, became a culinary expert in his own right while owning and managing several critically acclaimed restaurants. Mario was able to combine his love of the outdoor lifestyle and his passion for the culinary experience to create one of the top field to fork television shows on the Outdoor Channel – Man Eats Wild.
“I get to travel around the world and show people exactly how to harvest these amazing wild protein products.”
Chris: Mario, you started out in the restaurant industry at Michelin star restaurants, which is really impressive. I like to cook and that's intimidating to me because I'm in a completely different league, the minors. How does that translate into your show at Man Eats Wild?
Mario: I have had a very illustrious and long food career and then after quite some time I realized that the food that we are eating today is not quite what it used to be even 20 years ago. So I kind of took it upon myself to really reconnect people to their food source. By that I mean actually showing people, this is where your food comes from, this is how it's obtained. And not just that, just from a health perspective and an ethical perspective, it's way better for us. So that's where my journey came into it, I suppose. I saw all this food coming in the restaurants and I thought, man, this isn't right. And yeah, that was the birthplace of “Man Eats Wild”. Now I get to travel around the world and show people exactly how to harvest these amazing wild protein products.
Chris: So, you hunt it, you dispatch the animal and you cook it right there while you are out in the bush.
Mario: Yeah, and it's not just on land. I fish, I spear, I trap, I forage. It's everything wild, basically.
Chris: Have you wrestled Crocodiles?
Mario: I've done a bit of that. They're starting to call me the Real Crocodile Dundee now, so I'm stuck with that name, but I do a lot of dangerous stuff. There really no need to do that. I just love doing it. So that's just my personal adrenaline junkie behavior coming through.
Chris: You grew up in Australia?
Mario: Correct?
Chris: You started hunting game in Australia and you just ended up all over the world.
Mario: Yeah, it started in Australia and I pretty much fished and hunted and harvested everything possible within that country. And I suppose once you've hunted in Australia and you've lived in Australia, everywhere else in the world doesn't seem so dangerous because.
Chris: Everything's dangerous in Australia.
“I didn't want to just observe the food chain from the outside. I wanted to be a part of the food chain”
Mario: Yeah, that's right. Everything in Australia is trying to kill you. You are literally a part of the food chain when you are in that kind of environment. I suppose in many ways that is what drove me to go to that next level. I didn't want to just observe the food chain from the outside. I wanted to be a part of the food chain. I suppose that is another reason why I love being immersed in that kind of crazy environment because I feel like I'm in it.
Chris: What was the most delicious animal that you ever hunted?
“I've had some encounters with some great white sharks while diving”
Mario: That question I get asked all the time. It's so hard to say. I'm a huge seafood guy to be a hundred percent honest with you. I think the Ocean's bounty is the most delicious and anything from Mollusk’s to crustations, beautiful pelagic fish species. That's really where I'm just salivating. We've been talking about it right now. I do love wild game. I think wild game has had a very bad, not a bad name, but it's just misunderstood. It is by far the most intricate and delicious meat on the planet. It just needs to be processed properly and cook properly. Once you get that part of it, you soon realize that actually beef and lamb and chicken is actually quite bland in comparison. It's just what we're used to.
Chris: So, what was the most dangerous situation that you have been in and ended up eating it afterwards?
Mario: To be fair, all the dangerous situations ended up with me running away and not eating anything. My focus is not on predatorial animals. It's game species that have meant to be eaten. And most of the situations I have been in that have been very dangerous have been when I've encountered predators. I've had some encounters with some great white sharks while diving. That scared the crap out of me. I've been charged by buffalos. I've swam in crocodile infested waters. I've been chased by highly venomous snakes. There are a few on the list.
Chris: You used to be a fighter.
Mario: Yeah. I was actually, how did you know that?
Chris: Your nose.
Mario: Oh. Yeah. Yeah. I was a boxer. I was a heavyweight boxer in Australia and did that for fitness. I suppose the one thing I'll say about boxing or compared to what I do now, it's nowhere near as scary because an angry animal, once you've faced an angry, humongous beast, then you quickly realize that humans are actually just a push over.
Chris: Have you ever fought a kangaroo?
Mario: Never. Never had. But I've seen videos of people fighting kangaroos.
Chris: I've seen that. That's crazy.
Mario: Yeah. There's one particular clip of a guy that goes pig hunting and these big reds, they're like six foot five, they are huge.
Chris: Very muscular.
Mario: Yeah. 300 pounds plus. And he catches his dog in a headlock.
Chris: I saw that.
Mario: And then the guy squares off with the kangaroo. He starts punching and they had a bit of a fight. It was quite funny. But yeah, I haven't, not yet anyway.
Chris: Where is your favorite place to hunt? You've been all over the world.
Mario: New Zealand is really cool. I had a professional hunting and dining service there for a few years. I lived there for probably five or six years. And that's probably one of the most magnificent places on the planet. It's just so rich and it really has huge amounts of life. When you go fishing there and you're catching giant fish. You can catch lobsters by hand and bucket loads. There are no hunting tags required because they are an invasive pest. And yeah, it's just the landscape itself. There's a reason why they film Lord of the Rings there, it's just magical. Yeah, I would say, one of the best.
Chris: When you have an animal in your sight, are you thinking, how are you going to cook it?
Mario: I see food straight away. There's not one part of me that even thinks any differently because the focus for me is food.
Chris: You see a caribou walk by and you are thinking “Look at the shanks on that baby.”
“I have a really strong connection with Italian food”
Mario: Exactly What I think. I actually do. People might think that is weird. I associate animals and food and once you've gone through the process from the start to the finish, that's exactly how you see it. I think we've lost that and that goes back to why I love telling the message about reconnecting people with their food because now people just see food as something wrapped in plastic in the supermarket. No, it's not that. And it's a living thing that in my opinion is on the earth to be consumed by something else. So yeah, that's a really a valid point. Yeah. I salivate sometimes when I am hunting and say that can be the best roast ever.
Chris: I love to cook. I'm always posting pictures of what I cook. It is a passion. I'm famous for my chili.
Mario: Are you?
Chris: I'm going to have to go a chili cook-off with you.
Mario: You'd probably beat me. I'm not that great on the Chili's, but I love eating them. Oh man. Almost to my demise because I always end up eating too much. I'm a big chili guy, so yeah. I'll take you up on that for sure.
Chris: Alright. Anytime. What's your best dish?
Mario: Ooh, that's a hard one. Look, I had an Italian restaurant and I learned for about four and a half years, five years from a celebrity chef named Daniel Russo. So, I have a really strong connection with Italian food, even though I'm not Italian. I love southern Italian food. I just think it's beautiful, the simplicity, the produce. It's got so many different elements to it. The proteins they cook, the pasta and every dish have a story. And depending on what region and they're so passionate about certain things being from certain regions and you can't exist in that. I just love the history of Italian food and European food. So, I would say my specialty is definitely European.
Chris: Okay. Italian food definitely has a lot of outside influences.
Mario: For sure. And so does Greek food and so does all that. I mean, these people literally conquered all these different parts of the world. So as they did that they picked up different ingredients and ways and that also ties into what I do. Like I just did my last season in Africa, I learned so much there about cooking and the way they do it. And every time I leave these places, I pick up something, whether you know it or not. You sort of work it out later and you're like, oh, okay, I want to do it this way, because that's what I saw in Namibia and they did it really well. So that's another great part about traveling the world.
Chris: What's your favorite game to hunt?
Mario: I like shooting deer because they're so challenging. I mean, the next level is obviously with the bow, the big bow guy now. I love hunting with the bow because it is so primal. But deer, their scent glands and their smell is almost 10,000 times stronger than a human. So people say, but you've got the advantage. Yeah, we do some ways, but for physiologically speaking they are well more advanced than us, so anyone that can Bow hunt can tell you it's not easy.
Chris: Yeah, absolutely. One of the biggest pieces of advice that I can give about deer hunting is don't eat chili the night before.
Mario: Or Take a rifle. A guy said that to me once, I was axis deer hunting with Shane Dorian famous surfer and he said, listen man, I've got one bit of advice for you with hunting access to advice. I said, what's that? Make sure you bring your rifle.
Chris: So where can we find your show?
Mario: My show plays on the Outdoor Channel, 7:30 PM. I think it's Eastern Standard Time. It's part of the taste of the Wild Block and yeah, it's going really, really well and all the shows in that block is going really well and it's a fantastic strip of shows to watch. So yeah, we'll be out there.
Chris: Alright, take a look. Find him on social media.
Mario: Yeah. Plug my social media actually, man eats wild TV on Instagram.
Chris: There you go. Thanks again and appreciate your time.
Mario: Thanks Chris. Looking forward to the chili off.
Chris: Anytime you say.
Mario Kalpou - Outdoor Channel
https://instagram.com/maneatswildtv