Grass Tree & Wallaby Tail

HARVEST / YEAR ROUND

Indigenous bush food has not been on Australian chefs’ radar until recently. In general it has been a very underappreciated resource for non-Indigenous Australians since European settlement. There are many reasons for this; primarily, I think, there has been a dismissive cultural cringe attached to bush foods. Many chefs, myself included, had found the strong, intense and sometimes harsh flavours of bush food not really compatible with the idea of European cuisine. For the most part, bush food is foraged in diverse and remote parts of the country, from where it is only practical to ship this food dried or frozen. This doesn’t show the ingredients in their best light.