FUTURE FEASTS

Alexandra Carlton asks Australian food experts to imagine what we’ll be eating in the future.

Petri-dish fish, food that takes you through the looking glass, and goannas cooked in desert sand. ALEXANDRA CARLTON asked Australian food experts to imagine what we’ll be eating in the future, and their answers are wild.

SENSORY IMMERSION FAIRYTALE

Nelly Robinson (Nel, Sydney)

“When I think about the future I see a dish that engages and plays on all the senses – a dish that takes you on an actual journey,” says Nelly Robinson of Sydney’s progressive Nel. Already famous for his futuristic Disney-inspired dinner, Robinson sees himself taking fantasy food much further in the years to come. “Maybe you get a pill or some other medium that you eat or wear that takes you on a super-realistic AI journey,” he says. “You eat the meal but technology works to layer that with vision, sound, sensation and smell.” Suddenly, Robinson’s Disney-focused Once Upon A Time dégustation, which already exists in his restaurant in a non-technologically-enhanced form, takes on a life of its own. “Maybe you’re with Alice in Wonderland sharing some cake. Then you run with Bambi and Thumper as they explore. And it’s all enhanced with a special meal that complements the adventure.”

NITROGEN-BLASTED KAPIRRI

(SAND GOANNA) COOKED ON GLASS MADE FROM ITS OWN DESERT SAND, CHAPATI SALAD WITH CRYOGENIC QUANDONGS, FERMENTED CAMEL AND WINKARA (YAM) CHEESE AIR Jesse Gerner (Bomba, Añada and Nómada, Melbourne)

The chef and restaurateur from Bomba, Añada and Nómada in Melbourne pictures a dystopian future in 2080 where the capital of Australia is now the tropical beach city of Alice Springs, thanks to rising seas swallowing most of the country’s existing coastal areas. “Meat will be very rare and expensive and camel will become the country’s traditional cuisine,” he predicts. Gerner imagines a fictional chef from a restaurant called Hip Hover Garden creating this nativefocused dish. “It would be voted ‘dish of the year’ by the world’s oldest social media conglomerate, InstaTwitFace.”

TASMANIAN LAB-GROWN BLUE-EYE TREVALLA, SPAGHETTI SQUASH AND GREEN SAUCE

Craig Will (Stillwater, Launceston)

“With depleting wild seafood stocks, we’ll be looking to grow protein in petri dishes,” predicts Craig Will, head chef of Launceston’s Stillwater. “Some proteins can’t be farmed – blue-eye trevalla being one of them – as it’s a deepwater fish,” says Will. “I like simple dishes which is why I’ve put it here with spaghetti squash, an easily-grown vegetable. It’s tasty, looks great and the green sauce is open to interpretation.”

FREE THE SEA

James Green

(North Bondi Fish, Sydney)

“Food in recent times has been moving in a very positive direction, a return back to simpler and produce-driven dishes and a greater focus on sustainability,” says James Green, head chef at North Bondi Fish. Green sees this trend continuing, particularly with seafood cookery, with an even stronger emphasis on lesser-known species cooked simply with a few bright and simple flavours, generous acidity for balance and locally foraged sea vegetables and herbs. The name for his dish, Free the Sea, suggests an act that will help liberate and remove some of the strain from the ocean by reducing waste and overfishing.

ZERO WASTE

Melissa Palinkas

(Young George and Ethos Deli & Dining Room, Perth)

Already a champion of making the most of supposed “waste” byproducts in her cooking, Melissa Palinkas from Fremantle’s Young George and the newly opened Ethos Deli & Dining Room thinks the food of the future will follow her lead. “In 2029, I think waste and secondary-cut cooking will be at its peak,” she says. “People will be unable to afford to eat primary cuts of meat in a restaurant. Chefs will have to become even more inventive with waste to keep food affordable.” An example of this dish, she says, will be chicken-skin boudin blanc, carrot-peel relish and pig-skin tartare with fennel-stalk crackers. “I’m looking forward to being a part of the future movement, it’s going to be interesting… or scary!”

If you’d asked Australian chefs 10 years ago what restaurants would look like in 2020, very few of them would have guessed that we’d be sitting six feet from each other, restricting booking numbers or bringing our meals home as takeaway due to a global pandemic. Here, eight Australian chefs share their vision of our food future.

VITAMIN FOOD PLATE

Michael Rantissi (Kepos Street Kitchen, Sydney)

Health concerns and less time to cook will lead to us eating plates of pills in place of actual food in the future, according to Michael Rantissi, co-owner and chef at Kepos Street Kitchen. “Served on a plate of chopped wheatgrass, there’ll be a tablet for vegetables, another for protein, and another one for carbs,” he says. “The perfect meal for when we’re so time-poor!”

UNI BIRYANI WITH RAINBOW SASHIMI AND CAVIAR

Jessi Singh

(Daughter in Law, Mr Brownie and Mrs Singh, Melbourne; Don’t Tell Aunty, Sydney)

Health experts are always telling us to eat the rainbow, something chef and restaurateur Jessi Singh thinks we will take even more seriously in the future.

His future-focused food is a riot of colour and flavour, packed with all the nutrients that go with technicolour ingredients.

“I’ll cook basmati sella rice with sea-urchin juice and lightly spiced with fennel powder, green mango powder, and pomegranate powder for their sweet and sour taste,” he says. “It will be served with tamarind and mint, coriander chutney and topped with mahi-mahi, salmon and scallop sashimi.”

MYSTERY MICROWAVE MEALS

Jake Kellie

(Leigh Street Wine Room, Adelaide)

“I have this crazy idea that restaurants will all have microwaves on steroids on their tables,” says Jake Kellie, who took on the role of head chef at Adelaide’s Leigh Street Wine Room this year, after top gigs at Mimi’s in Sydney and Burnt Ends in Singapore. “You’d get this package the size of a Pop Tart, put it in the microwave jukebox and press play; then it blows up and it’s ready,” he says. “It’s convenient, easy and with restaurants shutting down left, right and centre, might become a reality.” He pauses. “I mean, that’d be a terrible way for things to go, obviously. I hope and believe that we’ll always have a place for the art of hospitality and to be nurtured by people who love what they do. But maybe there’s room for a couple of microwaves in there.” ●