What springs to mind when you try to conjure up an image of native Australian ingredients?

The extremes of witchetty grubs and the bush tucker trials of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here maybe? But there is much more to it than that.

Since the early 1980s, there has been an increased awareness of the ingredients native to Australia. Indeed, the most commercially well-known bush tucker plant harvested and sold in large-scale commercial quantities is the macadamia nut.

And this September saw these flavours travel all the way from the Land Down Under to lend a distinctly antipodean flavour to the Taste of West Cork food festival.

Australian chefs, Luke Bourke and Joshua Moore checking out what's on offer in the gardens of Glebe gardens. They were in Ireland as part of the Taste of West Cork food festival.

Michale Ingrey is general manager of the National Indigenous Culinary Institute. His team of four Australian indigenous chefs showcased some of their unique bush tucker in west Cork. The chefs, from some of Sydney’s top dining establishments included the Bourke twins – Luke (Rockpool bar and grill) and Sam (Rosetta) – Joshua Moore (Bistro Guillaume) and David Gray (Café Georgio). They cooked up a storm at a number of venues during their stay including Fields, Inish Beg House as well as The Church Restaurant in Skibbereen, Glebe Gardens in Baltimore and the Eccles Hotel in Glengarriff.

Joshua Moore, Luke Bourke, Samuel Bourke with Tessa Perry.

Patrons were treated to an array of mouth-watering dishes infusing local food with kangaroo, mountain pepper berries and kakadu plum.

For example, diners at Glebe Gardens enjoyed a starter of tomatoes topped with Illawarra plum, while the main course consisted of kangaroo steak with local plums.

National Indigenous Culinary Institute

Michael explains that the institute is an organisation that was established in 2012 to facilitate the “65,000 years of food history that we have in Australia, but also to showcase the sustainability of it”.

“It’s showcasing Australian cuisine and native ingredients through our skill, which is high-quality fine-dining chefs,” explains Michael, adding that as well as partnering with fine-dining restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne, the institute also works to include indigenous people in the higher-end of the industry.

Kangaroo is the highest protein meat in the world and has the lowest fat

“Previous to that, there was no presence of Aboriginal people in fine-dining restaurants in Sydney,” he continues.

Michael Ingrey, general manager of the National Indigenous Culinary Institute.

Speaking with Irish Country Living, Michael talked through some of the ingredients that he and his team brought to Ireland, such as kangaroo.

“Kangaroo is the highest protein meat in the world and has the lowest fat,” says Michael, who explains how it has grown in popularity in the domestic market.

“It’s available in supermarkets, whereas 15 years ago, it wasn’t there. People would compare the cooking style to beef, but it’s not. If you cook it medium-rare, it’s tough.”

Meanwhile, he described ingredients like lemon myrtle as incredibly versatile, going in “soups, sweets and breads” and finger limes as “to the land what caviar is to the sea”.

Irish Country Living had a taste and can confirm that a nibble of four or five of the pearls of this fruit is enough for a taste explosion in your mouth.

“That’s the kind of thing we want to show to the world, to represent Australian cuisine,” Michael explains.

Beef at Rockpool

Sam Bourke worked under chef Neil Perry through his apprenticeship for the Rockpool group, which focuses on very high end Australian beef and has a lot of premium steak on its menus. They even have an in-house butcher.

Starter of tomatoes topped with Illawarra plum.

“The beef would come in whole or in large cuts and the butcher would break it down; to get the exact pieces we need and none would go to waste,” says Sam.

“The meat was dry aged for various lengths of time, the longer it is dry aged, the beefier flavour it is going to have.”

Pushing the boundaries

As well as ingredients, however, Michael also shared an insight into some of the major food trends in Australia at present. Trying to push the boundaries with consumers is another ambition he said restaurateurs should have.

“In Australia, food is almost a form of entertainment that we have. It’s about pushing the boundary of the consumer – trying new things, putting things on a menu that people haven’t tasted before to give them that ultimate experience.”

Kangaroo steak with local plums.

“In the past, everyone competed on the same level; that’s what this guy does, so I’ll do it. It became boring. What they have done now is pushed that and that gives us the opportunity to stand out.”

Michael was of the view that the same was possible in Ireland.

“This is a great location. The west-Cork region is so good with food from nature, with native ingredients that people can put on a plate.

“Especially with the abundance of seafood. Mix that with something that’s been foraged and give people a real genuine experience of what it is to eat off the land, but in a great setting.”

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