You are opening your 2025 program at NEL with a Native Australia themed menu. In your opinion how would you best define Aussie Cuisine?
Since I arrived in this country, Australian cuisine has evolved. Initially, it was very mixed and not really well defined. As I gained greater exposure and I met the native people of Australia, I quickly realised the native ingredients which cannot be found anywhere else in the world are really what makes Australian food so authentic. Salt bush, lemon myrtle, pepper berry, wattleseed are all native to Australia. Local Spanner crab and kangaroo need to used more and more too.
Which Chefs do you consider had the most influence in that evolution?
My dear friend Jock Zonfrillo who is not with us anymore was a trailblazer. What Jock did for native food in Australia really put Australian food on the map. I hope I can honor him and follow in his footsteps. Be it in Australia or whenever I travel the world to do dinners, to really put our native food and ingredients at the fore.
You are arguably one of the most innovative Chefs in Australia, conceptually how did you go about selecting the flavours of Australia for the Native Australia menu at NEL?
Thank you! I pride myself on changing up and also bringing something different to the dinner table. With the Australian menu, and how we come up with the ideas, we look at the native ingredients and how we can best showcase them. We endeavour to best flavour match everything. At NEL we have an amazing Spanner crab taco (which I am so proud of) is going down an absolute treat with our diners, as well as our version of the iconic Tim Tam served in the form of a map of Australia with a marigold and yoghurt sorbet.
What scope and direction do you think Aussie Cuisine has looking forward?
I just hope people start having these amazing ingredients in their pantries at home. You can walk along tracks, streams, cliffs…there is food there. Strawberry gum in the side of the road, lemon myrtle trees, paper bark…we cook with all of this at NEL. You can go foraging for amazing Warragal greens, Neptune pearls and kelp seaweed – these ingredients have been around for centuries but not everyone uses them. I hope this will change.
Are there any specific Native ingredients that give us a unique and substantial point of difference?
This difference we have in showcasing native ingredients is that we work with First Nations people on the Central Coast and up north. We are so very fortunate to be working closely with this truly wonderful group of human beings. The have educated my team and myself in how to best use these amazing ingredients. We are constantly evolving with them and receive their blessing in how we incorporate these ingredients. We are so proud of what we have achieved together and we love seeing the diners at NEL who appreciate and so enjoy it.
Being an ex-pat Brit provides you with a very objective perspective – what in your opinion have been the driving influences on Aussie Cuisine?
I think being an ex-pat Brit, as was Jock and what he did, there are no boundaries for us to learn from and about these amazing ingredients. So we are trying to help people to feel comfortable using them, as we continue to learn ourselves. We need to keep working directly with the First Nation farmers and growers and driving this evolution of Australian cuisine and how it is defined.
Is there anything you would like to say on the subject that we haven’t covered?
Use these amazing ingredients which are on our doorstep. When I am fortunate enough to travel the world and cook with some of my dear colleagues and friends, or when they come to Sydney themselves and indeed cook at NEL, they are gobsmacked with the flavours and options we have in our very own native ingredients. They have often never heard of these ingredients. As a chef, to use a ingredients you have never heard of or seen before, is an absolute dream come true. For me it is simple. We are in Australia. Use Australian produce. Let’s use it. Let’s support the local farmers who need our help to sustain their businesses. Let’s keep pushing as a nation to showcase these incredible flavours and ingredients
