Sydney vs Melbourne: The Australian Food Arena
by Reuben Oh
@ 17 Aug 2018
Welcome to Australia: home to daylong breakfasts, deconstructed coffee, and crocodile meat on the grill. The culinary world down under is an unusual one, with a plethora of culinary influences coming together to create imaginative food scenes with a touch of the daring. With all that’s transpiring in the continent, Sydney and Melbourne rise above the masses as the food capitals of the region, with world-class establishments and inspired culinary scenes that constantly push the envelope. But who can claim to be the true culinary tour de force of the country? In this story, in an attempt to dig into all that Australia’s culinary scene has to offer, we’re organising a friendly food brawl between its two biggest giants, with comparisons broken down into the many categories that make up a truly good food scene. Pull out your seats and get the popcorn ready – it’s time to discover the Aussie best!
Shaun Quade (photo: Mauro Palmieri)
Tucking into the Australian Bush
We thought it apt to start with the foremost topic on minds of chefs when it comes to food – where are the ingredients coming from? Many restaurants in both cities are incredibly produce-driven, this comes as no surprise as its been part of the Australian lifestyle since the first settlers arrived to farm the land. The first European pilgrims, seeking a place much like home, took the temperate south-south west coast of the continent as their haven. They brought with them the crops from home, populating the indigenous lands with alien plants that would be the mainstay of the Australian diet for many decades to come. However, the new millennium has come with a taste for the different – and ironically enough, this has lead to the rising trend of native Australian produce, or as the locals would call it, “bush food”. Shaun Quade, head chef of the forward-thinking
Restaurant Lume in Melbourne concurs: “I think that more and more chefs are embracing native Australian ingredients, which is great to see. Plant-based ingredients such as Wattleseed and Lemon Myrtle are unique to our culinary landscape and that provides a real point of difference between Australia and the rest of the world.”
pearl on the ocean floor
Aboriginal Australians have consumed bush food for an estimated 60,000 years. As a comparison, this modern research in bush food has only come about in the last couple decades. This research though, has made a huge contribution towards bringing native produce back into the limelight. “Crops like rye berries, finger limes, lemon aspens, and sea blite are taking main stage,” Chef Joeri Simmermans, head chef of Blackwattle (Sydney’s Clayton Well’s latest venture into the Singapore), expounds when asked about Australian produce. With this love for local indigenous produce taking root, foraging has become the new in-thing for chefs to get some of the healthiest and best-tasting produce in the country. “In Sydney, you could just pick whatever grows, or head in-country for bushes or trees”, Chef Joeri recollects about his time back in Australia. But really, when it comes to sourcing for local produce, it would seem that Melbourne (and by extension, Victoria) has the upper hand with green wonderlands like the Yarra Valley at their doorstep. Chef Shaun finds himself lucky to own a restaurant in Victoria: “We have a farm that we work with in the Yarra Valley, where they grow fruit and vegetables exclusively for our restaurant. The produce here is so abundantly available.”
Meyer lemon tree (photo: Miyuki Mardon)
“I use local produce wherever it makes sense.” Chef Shaun elaborates, “obviously food always tastes better when you cook with seasonal ingredients that are close to home – and for that reason, chefs in Melbourne are pretty spoilt for choice. One of my favourite dishes from Restaurant Lume – the Pearl on the Ocean Floor – is created using sea succulents foraged from the beach at 4am in the morning (before anyone catches me!).”
Melbourne takes this round, with the vast abundance of produce available to city, and it’s incredible quality. The Melbournian’s can’t be any prouder of this fact. As Chef Shaun cheekily adds, “The exact location (of the sea succulents) though, is an absolute secret.”
lemon myrtle
Adapted from the
Jul Aug 18 issue of Cuisine & Wine Asia.
