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The chef’s top pick for your plate in 2019? Native ingredients that have defined what food means to Indigenous Australians for millennia.
I’m often asked to predict the hottest food trends for the coming year. In 2019, my tip is something I wouldn’t actually call a trend because that would indicate it’s a fleeting fad that’s sure to grow old, when I actually think this movement is only beginning. I’m talking about cooking with Indigenous ingredients.
Australian chefs have always taken advantage of our amazing seafood but more and more we’re seeing native plants, seeds, paperbark and proteins find their way onto the menus of Australia’s top restaurants thanks to the passion of the chefs behind them.
People such as Kylie Kwong, who is adding her signature Chinese flair to dishes including crisp saltbush cakes with chilli sauce; Ben Shewry, who has been experimenting with Indigenous foods at Attica in Melbourne; and, of course, Jock Zonfrillo. At Adelaide’s Orana (which means “welcome” in some Aboriginal languages), Jock’s championing native Australian foods and working with Indigenous communities to understand the way they’ve been eating and using these items for thousands of years.
Indigenous ingredients can sometimes be treated as a gimmick or one-trick pony, as they were in the past. But for these chefs, it’s genuinely about adding deliciousness to food in respectful and inventive ways. The more mainstream the use of these flavours in restaurants becomes, the quicker we’ll see it filter down to home cooks, who’ll then be inspired to try them.
If the kitchen is your happy place, here are some native ingredients – most of which are readily available – that you can start to experiment with.
Pepperberry, spicy and rich in antioxidants, can be used in the same way as standard pepper to give a lift to any dish.
Warrigal greens have this wonderful savoury saltiness that is more interesting than baby spinach and are excellent either stir- or pan-fried.
Saltbush, with its delicate earthy flavour, is ideal for seasoning any number of dishes and can be treated as a vegetable; I love it with Warrigal greens.
Quandong has a sour taste that’s awesome and I often use it in place of, say, sumac because it’s more flavourful and zingy.
Bush tomato, when it’s ripe, has a strong sun-dried tomato/tamarillo taste and is great for jams, chutneys and sauces.
Lemon myrtle has a clear flavour of lemon but a beautiful sweetness that makes it unique and a really versatile and refreshing herb.
Wattleseed has this amazing chocolate, coffee and hazelnut sweetness that’s perfect included in both sweet and savoury dishes.
There are many more but pair just a few of these ingredients with some amazing fresh seafood and I guarantee a uniquely Australian taste you’ll love.
One of the reasons I’m so passionate about this movement is it really highlights Australia’s unique and rich food history, which goes back more than 60,000 years. Most of these ingredients have been around for a thousand years or more and, to my mind, we’re incredibly lucky that Indigenous Australians impart their understanding of how to get the best out of them. It’s a food style that separates our country from any other place on the planet and one that should be celebrated.