Vic Cherikoff's Blog

Organic Onions, Carrots, And Potatoes Do Not Have Higher Levels Of Healthful Antioxidants

2010-11-16T06:39:00.000+11:00

Organic Onions, Carrots, And Potatoes Do Not Have Higher Levels Of Healthful Antioxidants

It makes sense that added growth stimulants such as chemical fertilizers and applied pesticides would not necessarily negatively affect the nutrient content of fruits and vegetables in comparison to organic produce. However, the lack of these synthetic chemical inputs avoids the metaflammation response of our body's systems and reduces the need for antioxidants.

The real story is that our food supply, whether organically grown or not, is nutritionally impoverished by comparison to the wild foods with which we evolved. Check out the full story here.

Update on preservatives

2010-09-13T06:06:00.005+10:00

Herbal-Active™ has come a long way in a few short years. The formulation is based on essential oils from culinary herbs (which are all commonly used as flavorings in the food and beverage industry and usage and efficacy levels had to be determined for the myriad of uses for which we typically use synthetic chemical preservatives (benzoate, sorbate, parabens).

However, there are now many companies using Herbal-Active™ in products as diverse as liquid stevia (a natural sweetener), jerky, pesto, nutritional supplements, gluten-free bread (we have an encapsulated variant of Herbal-Active™ for this purpose) and more. Even cosmetic manufacturers have been able to replace chemical preservatives and go natural.

Please visit this site for more information.

When fruit and vege fails to shape up

2009-08-09T08:28:00.001+10:00

I maintain that all of our cultivated fruits and veges fail to shape up. Our choices of sweeter, juicier, bigger, less fibrous and arftifically ripened all compromise the nutritional density of our food. Have a look at www.kakadujuice.com/superfoods or www.kakadujuice.com/superfoods-usa for more information on this.]

Boost your diet with superfoods | antioxidants | urinary tract infection

2009-07-22T09:37:00.000+10:00

Boost your diet with superfoods | antioxidants | urinary tract infection

The evidence continues to mount that our nutritional status is compromised, even if we listen to the 'nutritionists' and eat well. Our fruits are bred for shelf life, sweetness and juiciness, not nutritional density and health. Our vegetables are similarly bred for size, simple starches and low fibre (particularly soluble fibre).

Australian Aboriginal foods represent an example of the foods with which humans evolved. They are the quintessential superfoods showing remarkable nutritional density and concentration of biologically active compounds which maintain our cellular health, tune our metabolic system and repair damage from living and ageing.

Kakadu Juice (www.kakadujuice.com/superfoods or www.kakadujuice.com/superfoods-usa ) is made from whole fruit purees and healthy natural herb extracts from the Americas, Asia, Europe and made really special with a selection of indigenous Australian superfoods. Take 30ml (preferably as 3 x 10ml doses before meals) for just one month and see the difference.

If you want to try a bottle, follow the links above and use the username (after the /) to get to the shopping cart. Alternatively, we also have Kakadu Juice at the here: Cherikoff on-line store.

The Associated Press: CDC: US food poisoning cases held steady in 2008

2009-04-11T08:53:00.000+10:00

The Associated Press: CDC: US food poisoning cases held steady in 2008

Interesting reading and more proof that a 2% Herbal-Active solution as a dip for all fresh produce and meats is a sure way not to add to the 25% of the population who are likely to suffer from food poisoning each year.

MR_Response to Carr190309.pdf (application/pdf Object)

2009-03-20T07:24:00.001+11:00

MR_Response to Carr190309.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Many Australian companies in the biotech sector struggle to either prove a concept or to develop it. Herbal-Active™ and HerBev™ are natural anti-microbials akin to hops in beer (without hops, beer wouldn't last a week before being over-grown with bacteria, yeasts and moulds). VCFS has spent countless thousands funding the proof of concept and the samples and support needed to get industry to even look at this natural replacement for benzoates, sorbates, metabisulphites, parabens and other chemical preservatives.

Through strategic partnerships, selected agencies and lots of pressing the flesh, blogs, email campaigns and more, the word is slowly creeping out.

My next attack is the supermarkets and natural food stores themselves. Here in Australia, Coles and Woolworths and US outlets such as Whole Foods Markets, Andronicos, Draegers and Lunardi’s should be telling their suppliers to seek us out and to listen to what we are saying.

In the meat industry, sausages appear to be the money pot and a long shelf life sausage is the Holy Grail for companies supplying supermarkets. However, while the ideal solution is to dip or tumble the trim with a 2% solution of Herbal-Active, drain and then mince, few manufacturers want to do more than simply replace the preservative chemicals they now measure in with their seasonings.

Innovation and progress often mean a step sideways and yet change is resisted as though it's important to maintain the status quo. It also takes time and leadership so I guess that like the Australian biotech industry, I'll just sit back and wait.

Credibility the key to continued functional food and beverage growth | Australian Food News

2009-03-13T08:49:00.002+11:00

Credibility the key to continued functional food and beverage growth | Australian Food News

Here's a great article on the trend of functional foods which highlights the future for Kakadu Juice as a unique cocktail of superfoods. Its uniqueness comes from the inclusion of Australian wild foods which have not been genetically or selectively engineered as foods which are more adapted to our supermarket distribution systems than for our best nutrition.

Wild foods, which include acai, mangosteen, pomegranate along with the indigenous Australian ingredients of Kakadu plum, Illawarra and Davidson plums, wild rosella, pepperberry and various functional herb and spice extracts are nutrient dense and loaded with phytonutrients. These might be as simple as sugars and not just sucrose, glucose or fructose but every other naturally occurring pentose and hexose (5 and 6 carbon sugars) in small clusters or oligosaccharides. As the author states, [these sugar clusters] act as markers in important recognition processes such as microbial infection, cancer metastasis [maintenance and growth] and cellular adhesion in inflammation, in addition to many intracellular communication events.

Then there are the more recognizable phytonutrients including antioxidants (a massive group of compounds), immune stimulants, inflammation moderators, restoratives, adaptogens and more.

Check out this link for more details on this remarkable superfood beverage and how you can benefit from the legacy of the world's longest living culture.

Processing Magazine - Solutions for the Processing Industry

2009-03-13T06:44:00.001+11:00

Processing Magazine - Solutions for the Processing Industry

How easy would it have been to routinely dip the peanuts in a 1-2% solution of my natural antimicrobial, Herbal-Active and reduce the chance of Salmonella reaching toxic levels? It is already used for meats, seafood, fruits, vegetables, herbs and salads but needs to go mainstream. Use it on the produce you buy for your own safety.

Sky News: Aussie food prices soaring

2009-03-08T08:31:00.000+11:00

Sky News: Aussie food prices soaring

Luckily more and more Australians are also finding that Herbal-Active extends the shelf life of produce dipped in a 1-2% solution (5g Herbal-Active per 300ml water). Herbal-Active not only reduces the food spoilage organisms on fresh produce such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, chicken, seafood and red meat but also attacks food pathogens. This makes the food safer to eat.

There is a growing number of food, beverage and cosmetic companies turning to this natural preservative which is labeled simply as 'natural flavors'. As benzoates and sorbates are systematically removed and food labels are 'cleaned up', natural preservatives such as Herbal-Active are handling the job for the benefit of anyone who eats.

Rumors of my death are exaggerated

2007-06-25T08:40:00.000+10:00

Just to let my visitors know, I am still very active in the authentic Australian food industry. I just tend to use my own website for blogging more than this Blogger site. So to keep up with happenings on Australian wild foods, check out my homepage.

Incidentally, I am looking for a General Manager/Business Development Manager for my growing food business in Sydney. It's a busy operation as we head into the USA with licensed products, another book and a TV show all in development. If you are or know of anyone who could handle stellar growth, please contact me.

Affiliate program Australia

2006-06-12T16:38:00.000+10:00

Recently I launched an Affiliate Program Australia for my online store at http://www.dining-downunder.com/idevaffiliate . This gives my many contacts in the industry the opportunity to benefit financially from our shared interest and promotion of Australian native ingredients.

My online store retails Australian native ingredients and products which form part of an Australian cuisine. The gourmet herbs, spices, sauces, syrups, seasonings, infused oils and cosmetic items available online at the online store are manufactured from authentic native Australian ingredients with a long history of use by our indigenous Aboriginal people. The online store website is at http://www.dining-downunder.com/shop/

After you join, you will be supplied with a range of leaderboards, banners ads, title ads and text links that you place within your website, food blog or email campaigns. When a user clicks on one of your affiliate program links to my store, their activity will be tracked by our affiliate program software. You will earn a commission ranging from 10% to 20% based on previous transactions. For your information, the current average affiliate order is over US$85 and rising.

If you are interested in joining, simply visit http://www.dining-downunder.com/idevaffiliate and apply.

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Blogging with Benjamin Christie and Vic Cherikoff

2006-04-25T13:14:00.000+10:00

I know I get a lot of visitors to this site so I'm going to keep adding to my blogs by referring to two other websites with which I am associated. My main website is where I have recently added blogs on the following:

ANZAC biscuits on Anzac Day

We are now seeing what a foolish effort the attack on Gallipoli really was from a military standpoint and in order to shift blame from the generals who should be despised and publicly damned. Instead, we applaud the heroics of those soldiers they condemned to certain death and of those lucky enough to have survived. To me, it's just twisted that our government promotes a cute recipe for Anzac biscuits in honor and remembrance of those that died and legislates that the recipe can't be changed.
[READ MORE..]

Unnatural Acts at The Natural Products Expo

The Natural Products Expo West saw record-setting crowds of up to 43,000 retail buyers, media and industry members who were barraged by more than 3,000 exhibits at this year’s wall-to-wall industry event, the top healthy food and lifestyle products. And I can assure you that the bull-sh_t meter went wild on numerous ocassions.
[READ MORE..]

Wattle We Eat Now? (that's the Royal 'We')

Queen Elizabeth and many of her household are no strangers to authentic Australian flavours. Like many official functions for all types of heads of state, politicians, royalty, sheiks, religious leaders and so on, this week’s event featured Cherikoff ingredients …
[READ MORE..]

Some recent NPD - not just a big cheese

Part of supplying the best authentic Australian ingredients available is my new product development (NPD) for companies wanting to gain a significant competitive edge in their market.

There’s a strategy of pre-eminence in what Cherikoff Rare Spices does in that new products introduced to market by most companies are merely more of the same.
[READ MORE..]

The other site is that of my good friend and colleague, Benjamin Christie. Benjamin has just started a subscription drive for his e-zine and I strongly recommend subscribing to it if you are at all interested in any or all of the following: building networks and contacts, restaurant marketing, good food, Australian recipes, happenings in the global food industry and more.

Benjamin and I have run our Dining Downunder , Australian cuisine promotions together for some years and I know many chefs and food writers around the world, often refer to his blog, which is also his website.

The topics Benjamin addresses are very broad and will help chefs, restaurateurs, foodies, student chefs and food marketers along with hotel GMs, F&Bs and manufacturers keep their fingers on the pulse of food issues.

Benjamin also loves to cook and write about his creations and so there are a plethora of recipes. Take these as an example:

▪ Kangaroo fillet with Yakajirri rosti, aniseed myrtle mushrooms, quandong confit and crispy enoki
▪ Lemon Aspen Sorbet
▪ Cauliflower soup with marron scented with Ferguson’s lobster oil and Oz Lemon
▪ Petuna ocean trout with riberry confit and macadamia cream sauce
▪ Australian Wildfire Clam Chowder - Bulk
▪ Sydney Rock Oysters with Glacé Wild Limes
▪ Gumleaf Scented Crème Caramel
▪ Grilled barramundi with Oz Lemon mash and quandong confit
▪ Australian Wildfire Spiced Wontons
▪ Squid, corn and asparagus cakes with rainforest herbs

Sure, they are all Australian and come with a good story to entertain, edify and entice. For example, imagine slicing easily through the marla steak (kangaroo if you will) knowing the rare-cooked meat will be tender and juicy. The morsel of game on my fork is accompanied by a portion of rosti with its rich tomato seasoning made even richer by the spices in the Yakajirri, one being the bush tomato spice the Yunkatjatjara call akudjura. This more than makes up for the low fat of the meat and the spice notes complement the Maillard products in the seared protein expanding the 250 tastes to probably half as much again.

Then come the highlights of aromatics and soft textures with the earthy mushrooms enhanced naturally by the aniseed myrtle or forest anise as its heady kaleidoscope of essential oils, from a delicate, slightly fruity aniseed to green tea and cut grass provide for the mid to late palate. There happens to be more roasty toasty notes from the splash of Wattleseed extract in the mushrooms for those attune to the chocolate, coffee, hazelnut of this incredible flavour enhancer. Benjamin left this ingredient out to simplify the dish but I always use the combination of forest anise and Wattleseed for stir-fried mushrooms. Try it and be amazed. It leaves your taste buds begging for the next mouthful and almost cleans the tongue's receptors and heightens the organo-leptic experience of this meal. And still, there's more...

To make the dish even more addictive, a hint of sweetness tempered with the peachy, apricot and caramel characters of the slightly chewy strips of quandong confit along with some extra textural crunch and character from the crispy, coated enoki.

If only all experiences in life were so rich and rewarding, there'd be no time for war, terrorism or other of society's vulgarities.

New Cherikoff Australian Ingredients Website - you're invited to drop in

2006-01-07T13:09:00.000+11:00

It has happened as a New Year venture.

The new Cherikoff Australian Ingredients website is up and running and while there's still a bit of migrating and up-dating to do, the site if fully functional as is.

Andrew Wong from Randomblowup: Unrestrained Expression P/L did a fantastic job with the new design so pop by and drop me an email with your thoughts.

A few of the blogs appearing on these pages will soon be moved over to the News site on my home page and ultimately, this Blogger site will disappear altogether. But such is life.

I hope you will follow my future, on-going blogs from my Home page and remember to grab the RSS feed there (coming soon) or subscribe to my newsletter to get reminders of blogs, information on developments in food, my TV show, our Australian cuisine promotions and a whole lot more.

From Business Strategy to Bottled Stupidity

2005-12-26T10:30:00.000+11:00

There are some interesting developments afoot in the authentic Australian food industry and some marketers hoping to ride the trend.

Some strategic alliances building business

In January, we roll out a promotional campaign announcing one new strategic alliance with an Australian family restaurant chain. The early menu testing has had fantastic results so we are expecting a huge response on the full roll out. We also plan to launch the rolled Wattleseed pavlova as a frozen dessert and begin to ensconce it as our national dessert. For a recipe to make your own and a reminder of Australia Day 05, have a look at my past blog. I won't get into the argument as to if we or the Kiwis invented the pavlova but I am happy with leaving our neighbours with the cow-pat pav (pavlova) while we exploit the sophistication of a roulade-style pavlova dessert.

A second strategic alliance is with Descendance and we are very excited to have the major Aboriginal performance troupe in Australia associated with our global Dining Downunder™, Australian cuisine promotions schedule. Our collaboration of authentic Australian food and Aboriginal dance and didjeridu (yidaki) was extremely successful in Moscow this year and we look forward to our joint promotions during 2006.

Another go at the supermarkets

Last week saw a major Victorian food manufacturer embrace several ingredients from a group of desert Aboriginal communities and wave the flag for authentic Australian foods. They are targeting the supermarkets with a stated aim of having authentic Australian foods an everyday part of Australia’s diet as well as hoping to build export markets.

This is great news as the existing range of sauces, dressings and seasonings is not doing big numbers in Coles and really needs a shot in the arm with the injection of some food technology from a company with some manufacturing expertise. One company makes an Illawarra plum chilli sauce which is clear in colour when everyone knows that Illawarra plums are a deep purple from the anti-oxidants in them (highly nutritional ingredients and all the more reason for using the plums).

I also saw that the seasonings by the same company are currently being dumped at 50c a pack and hope that this heralds their re-development to also address quality issues.

When will manufacturers learn that you can’t dupe the market? It will always sort out the quality products from the rubbish, given enough time.

More on this later …

Cherikoff authentic Australian foods help more companies grow for another record year

I firmly believe that we need more high quality products on the market. From seeing what my own range does to build the authentic Australian food sector both for my own company but more importantly, for the many clients I supply, I know the benefits to be gained from products which are different, unique, invaluable and passionately desirable.

Just have a look at the products of companies I supply, including Dick Smith Foods' Bushfood Breakfast and two of his successful soups, McCormick's spices, Charles Sturt Uni and Tilba cheeses, SPC Ardmona (Taylor's) sauces and even Woolies' Australian pepper sausages. And watch the shelves for Quandong hair care products in the New Year along with at least 5 other new food and cosmetic product range launches.

Of course we can always come unstuck. For example, the two supermarket buyers in our major Australian stores decided they didn't want to stock the exceptional King Island Lemon myrtle and maple yoghurt and so no Australian can now get this product as a result. Even though it proved itself in food service and made the grade in the specialty stores and deli's, not scoring the supermarkets meant that the volumes just weren't there for a multi-national like National Foods (owned by San Miguel of the Philippines). This fantastic yoghurt has gone the way of the dodo unless consumers begin a campaign to the supermarkets encouraging the buyers to reconsider.

In the food service sector and for the manufacturers we supply, Cherikoff authentic Australian ingredients provide the tools the end user needs to build my clients’ businesses. Think about this as it is a difficult concept to communicate. As I supply the best ingredients available, the discerning, creative and innovative chefs and manufacturers who are my clients are able to make equally invaluable dishes and products which are then talked about by the ultimate consumers of the products. We know that the best promotion money can buy is the passionate endorsement by those who know first hand – diners, consumers, end users. However, it is interesting how so many chefs and manufacturers continue to do the same thing year after year and expect a different result. Isn't that a definition for insanity?

I am convinced that if everyone believed your marketing, everyone would be your customer. Having people who try my authentic Australian ingredients and love them, talk about, refer, recommend and rave about them is the best marketing strategy I can employ.

Bottled Stupidity

And now another marketing strategy which is practicing that adage; if you can fool some of the people some of the time...

A company which I predict will struggle is marketing bottled water with ‘bush flower essences’ – read this as marketing fluff. I have to agree with Neil Shoebridge from the Financial Review who perfectly described the range as Bottled Stupidity.

Unfortunately, they demean the real marketing substance of authentic Australian ingredients.

As Neil points out, consumers are not idiots but the marketers of this water obviously think they are. He goes on to say these guys take the concept of questionable benefits to a new level. They are co-opting naturopaths who seemingly do not care about their reputations and lend their endorsements to the product claiming it has calming properties; enhances well-being; or is particularly suited to women. What are women less able to judge the authenticity of a claim of benefit where there can be none or do they mean it's just the water which is good for you?

There is absolutely no scientific evidence that flower essences have any beneficial effects whatsoever. The marketers know this and make claims which cannot be tested such as improving your intuition, insight or creativity (sic). However, should their supplier of this snake oil choose the wrong flower (if they actually even pick a single blossom), they could extract an unhealthy concentration of compounds such as histamines (which could cause dramatic allergic responses) or equally worrying, chemicals called fluoroacetates, which are similar to the compounds in the bait poison, 1080. Do these marketers really know or understand the risk and consequences of what they are doing? I hear that the supplier ‘discovered’ the ‘remarkable’ qualities of the flowers by “meditating in the bush” and then made infinitely dilute solutions of the flowers to make his snake oil. Spare me. I actually know that he simply wrote down the names of plants I presented at a short course on Aboriginal foods years ago at Sydney University. Who could really think that there's any substance behind this product despite the full colour advertisements in the glossy magazines and stands of the water in retail stores. I know I'd be wanting my money back if my purchasing manager bought the stuff in to retail.

I fully endorse Neil’s comments, “If the people (behind this water) think that anyone will buy this hogwash, they are delusional.”

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MSG and obesity - If it tastes good it probably makes you fat

2005-12-24T19:49:00.000+11:00

I saw an interesting note on www.just-food.com about the link between MSG and obesity and thought I’d read the article. Unfortunately, it was for members only but a quick copy and paste of the title into Google yielded not only the background article but it opened up a Pandora’s Box.

If the topic of MSG interests you, have a look over this site for some really disconcerting information. But as to the topic of this blog, the gist of the just-food.com headline is a quote from the Spanish scientists who did the research:

A team of scientists in the Faculty of Medicine at the Complutense University of Madrid has discovered that when given to rats, E-621 (monosodium glutamate) produces a massive 40 percent increase in appetite. The scientists think the additive affects the arcuate nucleus area of the brain and so prevents proper functioning of the body's appetite control mechanisms. According to this hypothesis, people (and children) who consume foods with large quantities of E-621 just feel more and more hungry the more they eat.

I guess this explains why we often over eat what Westerners accept as cheap Chinese food (moreoften found in rural towns and RSL clubs and nothing like traditional Chinese fare) and find that we are hungry about a half hour later.

Now, of course, the problem of obesity cannot be blamed on just one chemical as there are a huge number of differences between the hunter/gatherer diet of wild foods and our modern intake of highly refined, agriculturally selected, industrially modified edibles which are more adapted to the market supply chain than human nutrition. See my previous blog on this topic.

But it is certainly more grist for the mill.

Oz lemon - more than just lemon myrtle

2005-12-21T23:52:00.000+11:00

This is my first product blog which is on Oz lemon, my lemon myrtle sprinkle and I hope to look at one of the Cherikoff authentic Australian ingredients in a two weekly post. My intention is to create a collection of short reports as a close look at these still new, exciting and uniquely Australian foods and flavours. I hope it inspires you to track down a local source or use our on-line store and experiment in your own cooking. Anyway. Onto my feature product:

Oz lemon, my lemon myrtle sprinkle

The use of the authentic Australian food industry's best quality ingredients and their state of the art formulation in Oz lemon (lemon myrtle sprinkle):

saves you money (high economy of use)
gives a better result than just ordinary lemon myrtle (far stronger and flavour-balanced) and is a lot more versatile (because of the complexity of flavour).

Oz lemon is a unique blend of lemon myrtle, encapsulated lemon myrtle essential oils, forest anise, lemon aspen and rainforest lime pulp along with some of their encapsulated juices as well. Compared to lemon myrtle alone, it can be up to twice the flavour impact because of the unique formulation of Oz lemon.

Another feature is that our brains compare new flavours (in fact, any new experiences) with a set framework of past 'accepted truths' and lemon as a taste is generally linked with acid. Try to think of a sweet lemon and it confuses rather than being immediately logical like sweet honey. To address this initial reaction to the 'lemon' in lemon myrtle, I added two indigenous sources of acid or tartness - the two rainforest fruits; lemon aspen and rainforest lime. An advantage of these fruits is that they also add complexity to the final product.

Just try my new Oz lemon mousse mix or get it already made up as a freeze-thaw stable, exceptionally high quality, scrumptious dessert from Sticky Foods in Mortdale. Here's one made up and ready to eat:

So when you next think of grabbing for the lemon juice, try some Oz lemon instead. It is far superior in any of the following where I have also suggested a range of pseudonyms to add interest to a menu:

Wild lemon and lime tart
Oz lemon sorbet
Rainforest lemon bavarois
Lemon myrtle cheesecake
Oz lemon brandy butter over Xmas pudding
Lamb shanks with garlic, rosemary and Oz lemon gremolata
Stir-fried chilli prawns on Oz lemon fettuccine
Grilled snapper with a mango and aromatic lemon myrtle salsa

and offer a revitalising Oz lemon tisane

There's a myriad of uses for this enhanced lemon myrtle formulation in menus featuring authentic Australian food, far more than for just ordinary lemon myrtle. Check out my food service pages or subscribe to the e-zine for occasional recipes you can cook and of course, Oz lemon is available through our on-line store. In addition, check out Benjamin Christie's Oz lemon recipes here.

As always, to be notified of my blogging on authentic Australian food, subscribe here and be notified by email. Alternatively, grab this newsfeed by pasting either of the appropriate links into your RSS Reader (for more on RSS have a look at this great site or check out the simple introduction to using RSS technology here).

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Technorati tags: lemon myrtle, Oz lemon, lemon, authentic Australian ingredients

Native Australian foods? You must be crazy.

2005-12-21T23:01:00.000+11:00

A lot of people ask how I've stuck at developing Australian native foods for the two and a half decades from when I was introduced to the wild food resources of Australia's Aborigines and recognised that we could not afford to lose this knowledge as Aboriginal culture changed and I knew there was an industry in commercialising these amazing ingredients. Well, with 20:20 hindsight, I must have been crazy.

To create the native food industry meant working with suppliers, collectors, chefs, caterers and small manufacturers and moving into export markets as well. As I created demand for any particular food other entrepreneurs, often those who I trusted and with whom I worked closely grabbed a piece of the market and carved out a niche for themselves in competition. That's business, I guess and it isn't in our Australian nature to collaborate too much and it did force me to run that little bit harder to stay out in front.

So I used my science background to develop leading edge processing ingredients for larger manufacturers who needed more than just simple herbs, spices, fruits or juices. This included:

encapsulated essential oils, fruit juices and extracts
sub-critical carbon dioxide flavour extracts
juices, purees and concentrates
special formulations and blends

and on to support documentation of:

specification sheets
certificates of compliance
material safety data sheets
application information and more

The science of turning wild Aboriginal foodstuffs into ingredients for the modern food, beverage, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries has the potential to keep an army busy for several lifetimes. I know it is what keeps me interested and forward-thinking (and way out in front of the industry).

But now, even I think that I must be crazy.

One opinion goes to a city's head

2005-10-01T13:36:00.000+10:00

It is amazing what a single travel writer's opinion from one, unqualified trip can do for a city's reputation (a bit like a food critic's opinion on his one night stand at a restaurant). Lucky we don't measure the efficacy of clinical drugs, agricultural chemicals, military armament developments or anything that really matters in the same way - check it out on a free junket trip and say it's the best there is (until the next city pays the freight for a visit). Forget the triple blind trial. This is a totally blind test.

I am not saying that Sydney is not a great place for good food but the restaurants the reporter visited were just the same old highly promoted establishments with predictable menus and a strange similarity to one another. In fact their menus could come from equivalent restaurants in many food capitals around the world. What was really different about them? Where were the really unique authentic Australian ingredients? Mentioning the restaurants using these would make Sydney special and worth visiting to dine. Had the reporter tried the carpaccio at Deep Blue Bistro in Coogee he would have really been blown away. Chef Thomas makes the absolute best use of crocodile in this dish that I have ever tried. Check out Thomas’ menu compared to the pedestrian menus our reporter found interesting …

Olive oil poached organic vine ripened tomatoes with Mintbush marinated bocconcini and micro basil
Baby rocket and Wild Rosella flower salad with Asiago and Aniseed Myrtle reduced balsamic
Ahi Tuna Tartar with avocado and a wild lime reduction
Deep Blue Crab Cake with Munthari apple slaw grapefruit reduction
Wildfire seared Sea Scallops with roasted beet carpaccio
Pan fried King Prawns and Murray River Yabbies in sugarbag honey and lemon aspen on a bed of garlic shoots
Grilled Paperbark Baby Barramundi served with sautéed prawns, wilted greens, and a sweet corn foam
Rainforest Rub Seared Salmon with grilled asparagus spears and potato fondue
Slow roast crispy skin Duck breast with sweet pea risotto and riberry jus
Chargrilled Kangaroo Loin served with pumpkin, quandong relish and pepper berry jus

For more of the offering, go to the menus at Deep Blue Bistro's website.

I must admit that their cocktails need help to yet be stunningly appealing but this is still a work in progress and add a riberry or two to a vodkatini or some wild lime to a caipirosca and the anticipation for things to come will really fire the menu.

Meanwhile, down in Redfern, above the Sky Bar on George St you’ll find Gunya Lounge and Bar with Chef Brian Campbell at the helm. This is a cut above pub food and well worth a visit. His menu is about to go through a seasonal change and I for one will be looking forward to the new menu.

Brian gave me a bunch of his sauces, preserves and syrups to taste and he was right on the nail with a bunch of them. Great taste, unique and well balanced with complementary ingredients. If this is a reflection of his place in Sydney’s dining scene then get that reporter back here and have him try some really special tastes of Sydney. Not just tourist tucker from the PR chefs.

As always, to be notified of my blogging, subscribe here and be notified by email. Alternatively, grab this newsfeed by pasting either of the appropriate links into your RSS Reader (for more on RSS have a look at this great site or check out the simple introduction to using RSS technology here).

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Technorati tags: food critics, Sydney, Australian food, authentic Australian ingredients

Dining Downunder in 39 countries

2005-09-01T22:55:00.000+10:00

Dining Downunder, the Australian TV cooking series which features our authentic Australian cuisine and ingredients, is set to replay on the ABC Asia Pacific network in October.

We are inviting companies that already export to the Asia Pacific region to become involved with our Strategic Marketing Program. We understand the difficulties of establishing and maintaining a brand overseas and more importantly the costs that go along with it. So we really add value to a highly cost effective media buy and keep your investment working for years after the television exposure.

The show, along with your commercial positions will be shown 5 times a week for 13 weeks and then we provide the opportunity to keep promoting your products for the next 2 years to retail and food service markets during our scheduled Australian cuisine promotions throughout Asia.

Information about our program can be downloaded from here on our website.

A snippet from the show can also be viewed on-line.

We apologise for the short deadline, but indication of participation is required asap. Please indicate your company's involvement by emailing or phoning (02 9554 9477 or 0415 164 536) Dan Clark now.

We look forward to taking your product to market on Dining Downunder.

Technorati tags: Dining Downunder, export, ABC Asia Pacific, brand building

Breakfast in Australia

2005-09-01T06:08:00.000+10:00

I thought that I’d put together a range of breakfast ideas to show how innovative Australian ingredients can take a pedestrian menu to deliciously decadent heights. Incidentally, in the menu below, the Yakajirri is a spice mix made from bush tomatoes (akudjura) blended with garlic, Alpine pepper and dried conventional tomato flakes. Oz lemon is a lemon myrtle mix perfectly balanced for flavour with dried wild lime, lemon aspen and aniseed myrtle. It even makes a superb infusion either on its own or sprinkled over a good strong coffee (remember LA Story’s “I’ll have an espresso with a twist of lime”). The other reason to drink Oz lemon as a tea is when you’ve been out screaming all night at a bar and the throat’s a bit raw. It’ll heal a sore throat in just a few sips.

breakfast buffet

mini bagel with oven roasted tomatoes seasoned with Yakajirri topped with wild herb ricotta and basil
Tasmanian smoked salmon, rocket & crème fraiche frittata dusted with Oz lemon
traditional Burcher muesli with poached apple, rhubarb, King Island lemon myrtle and maple yoghurt, scorched almonds, served in a glass
coconut rice with wild lime syrup and fresh mango
mini Wildfire spiced bagel with ham, tasty cheese & Wattleseed mustard mayo
Aussie toast with Alpine pepper bread soaked in egg and served with sour cream and lemon aspen syrup
Belgian waffles drizzled in Wattleseed syrup with lemon myrtle and maple yoghurt
melon, watermelon, sweet corn, sago and thick vermicelli in fresh coconut milk with slivers of fresh coconut flesh seasoned with Oz lemon

cooked breakfast

mushroom, wattleseed & aniseed myrtle omelette with mintbush marinated fetta & wilted baby spinach
soft boiled truffled eggs in bowls with bacon & Alpine pepper sourdough toast soldiers
Oz lemon pancakes with riberry confit & snow sugar
Red Desert dusted potato latkes with smoked salmon, rocket & horseradish cream
lamb cutlets in Illawarra plum sauce with your choice of eggs
eggs Benedict with Yakajirri hollandaise with aniseed myrtle brioche
grilled pineapple slices seasoned with Alpine pepper and served with rosella yoghurt and an Oz lemon tuile and blueberries

Naturally, you can make the above ideas as glitzy or mundane as you like to suit the style of your café but whatever, you can bet your clients will rave about the food and flavours. I know this as fact because we get amazing feedback from the Australian cuisine promotions I run with my chef colleague, Benjamin Christie, in destinations all over the world. And there's the build up of interest and demand from Cherikoff Australian Ingredients and our on-line store.

This article first appeared in Cafe Biz magazine (Aug 05).

Edna's gone but the lesson's there

2005-09-01T05:59:00.000+10:00

I know it’s been a few weeks but I'd like to wish Jennice and Raymond Kersch from Edna's Table all the very best in their new ventures. Their Clarence St restaurant closed its doors recently and with it, another chapter in the development of Australian cuisine.

Raymond had a passion for arty food and his dishes were always visual masterpieces. From his self-made uniforms to the Aboriginal inspired restaurant decor the eatery oozed a visual theme which could only be Australian. That Edna's Table lasted so long, is testimony to food being eaten first with the eyes before the palate tests the meal.

My frustration with many restaurants using my collection of indigenous ingredients is that meals can look great but lack that Wow! factor which makes them valuable in terms of culinary expression. I have a tested belief that there should be surprise (and science) in every dish created and great dishes can be conceptualised well before the hob is hot and the mise en place is started. I have written previously on the merits of delivering the 7 tastes - sweet, sour, salt, bitter, aromatic, pungent and Maillard as well as maximising the textures - in every dish and the benefits ensuing from tantalising all our senses of taste and mouth-feel. How much better is a dessert with all of these notes than one which is just sweet? What about a salad which lacks half of the flavours - it's probably one tenth as satisfying as another salad which has them all.

Consider the Caesar salad which is indisputably the most popular salad/light meal in any Caucasian food outlet in the world. A well made Caesar has all of the component tastes and lessens in appeal as the pungent anchovies or the Maillards of well-fried bacon are left out. A vegetarian Caesar needs a lot of thought in adding back the Maillard products.

Think of a creme brulee and ensure that there's bitter and pungency from the burnt sugar (the crunch), aromatics and Maillard products from Wattleseed (if you can bastardise a French dessert with Polynesian vanilla, why not Wattleseed) and salt in the cream (smooth firmness as well). How much better is it with some sourness from an accompanying fruit garnish? The same applies to the Australian classic – the Wattleseed pavlova (soon to be available as a ready-made, frozen dessert).

So with Edna’s gone where is the Australian food industry’s iconic restaurant now? Well, out of the ashes comes the 15 strong Black Stump chain at one end of the market, Deep Blue Bistro at Coogee Beach and Gunya at Redfern.

But you’ll have to wait for my next blog for more details ...

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Folly as Neil Perry foils a fish

2005-07-29T17:30:00.000+10:00

It absolutely amazes me just how many chefs have no idea as to the true nature of the materials with which they work. I'll use Oz lemon which is my awesome lemon myrtle mix as an example of how chefs cock up cooking with new ingredients in a future blog but there are countless other more mundane products.

Take aluminium foil for example. I recently saw Neil Perry's August newsletter with a recipe for baked snapper where Neil poured one of his ready-made sauces (so much for Neil Perry Fresh but I guess starting with a fresh fish is a good idea before you poison yourself with the cooking method). Where was I? Oh yes. You pour this ready made stuff all over the fish and then wrap it all up in foil.

Now let me ask you a question? Once baked and unwrapped - and you might have done it yourself with potatoes on the BBQ - what colour would the foil be on the inside? Is is still bright and shiny or dull and grey?

I can tell you if you can't remember (and I'll tell you why you can't remember too). The foil goes a drab grey and doesn't look anywhere near as pristine as when you rolled it out of the package. In fact, it's probably lethal in the long run and definitely bad for your health in the shorter term.

What happens, is the plastic coating - yep, the foil is actually a fine layer of aluminium metal with plastic on both sides to protect this highly reactive metal from oxidising and turning into the powdery white, aluminium oxide - as I was saying, the plastic coating dissolves in the fats and oils of the food you're about to eat.

You might recall the ruckus about plasticisers (mono vinyl chlorides) which were found to be carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic (they cause cancer, mutations and tumors, respectively) and were released from the lining of milk cartons before the problem was sorted. Let me refer you to an excellent website on plastics which will scare the pants off you. Anyway. These are the same problematic plasticisers! So where's the education about this common product? We're not just drinking cold milk that's been stored in cartons with a few free plastic monomers, we're being shown how to cook with this stuff, apply heat and make it actually dissolve through the process we use. You can see what's happening!

Help! Who was it who was said to have said "Forgive them for they know not what they do."?

And it doesn't stop there. Once the protective layer is picked up in your food, the aluminium metal is free to react with the oxygen in air and the more soluble and certainly more mobile aluminium oxide is also taken up by your food. Now Altzheimer's disease has a characteristic feature of high brain levels of aluminium and while no one can definitively say that the metal is a causative factor in the disease, wouldn't it be a good idea to avoid getting the features of a disease if it were a simple matter of doing so?

Where's ANZFA (the food authority people) or the ACCC (yes they also meddle in food affairs) now?

On a positive note, foil can be an excellent barrier to moisture and so is a great material in which to bake or steam food but please, add a layer of paper or paperbark, even cabbage or lettuce leaves (none of which you eat) in between the food item and the foil. This renders the cooking method safe. I suppose that the only good thing about Neil Perry's way of cooking is that you won't remember doing it as you suffer the cellular damage and your family suffers your ultimate memory loss.

(My apologies to any sufferers of the disease and to their families who really bear the brunt of this modern ailment).

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Dick Smith Foods - in the soup

2005-06-26T17:02:00.000+10:00

Dick Smith is a well known personality in Australian society and his valiant efforts to make us think about our food supply have been enshrined in his Dick Smith Foods operation. It is unfortunate that Dick Smith himself, had to learn about Australian consumers and that while they were willing to try his alternate foods made by local companies instead of the multi-nationals, quality still had an important part to play.

It is now obvious, that the foods of comparable or superior quality under the Dick Smith Foods brand have proven to be preferred alternatives and his peanut butter, asparagus, biscuits (including Temptins) and his breakfast cereal have stood the test of trial and time.

It so happens that I provide the Australian ingredients for the fruit pieces in the Bushfood breakfast cereal even though I, along with most consumers who have written in about the product, think that the resultant taste should be more intense and definitive. It would even be possible to improve the fruit pieces so that they have a low glycaemic index, or contribute an anti-oxidant or an immune-stimulant activity or simply have more distinctive and interesting flavours.

My ingredients are highly functional but I am still waiting for an Australian company to recognise their true worth as food additives and flavorants. It will probably fall to a foreign company to take advantage from the use of my ingredients as there are much bigger markets than ours. An innovative edge is just what most food manufacturers need outside of the closed offering now being shrunk to a choice of two by Australian supermarkets.

Have you heard this news? One supermarket has decided to reduce the number of brands on its shelves and replace them with in-house brands. However, should a company really want the shelf space, they can offer to pay a fee simply for the right to compete with other companies for the same limited space. The only winner is the supermarket which pockets even more money for their real estate while pushing up prices on all but their own brands. Read more about this disasterous development driven by our grocers here.

Wouldn't it be great if we could move back to more of a village strip retail precinct where you get to know your butcher, baker, gourmet food outlet and perhaps we might even get fruits and vegetables which are not engineered for maximum shelf-life irrespective of how they taste. What if this village strip was virtual and the stores could benefit from bulk buying and effective distribution? Maybe there's an on-line business for someone. I know my own virtual store is growing rapidly as discerning consumers demand supply of quality products wherever they live. And with the security of on-line trading these days, who doesn't shop via the Internet when they want that difficult to find, prestige or special something?

Personally, I'd love to see Walmart come to Australia. Their policy is never to charge shelf or line fees, they don't insist on an advertising and promotional contribution and they change their buyers regularly so that relationships do not extend to extra-curricular activities. Sure, everytime a Walmart opens in a town or suburb, dozens of strip shops find it hard if not impossible to compete but if we have to have supermarkets (and I'm not saying we do), then at least we can support the more ethical amongst them (even if they are foreign-owned). I know quite a few Australian manufacturers which have made the decision not to play with the big guys because the supermarkets dictate such unreasonable terms as to make businesses difficult if not impossible to run, borderline financially and therefore high risk but with no commensurate high return.

Consider the struggles of another Dick Smith Foods product in the supermarkets: There has been a very quiet launch of four new soups onto the shelves. The manufacturer, Windsor Farm Foods and I developed a delicious range including Cream of green pea with Australian mint; Tomato with basil and Wildfire spice; Butternut pumpkin also with Wildfire spice; and Minestrone with Alpine pepper.
The range comes in generous 500ml tins as heat and serve, low fat recipes and would be ideal with a dollop of lite sour cream or some home-made bread flavoured with Alpine pepper or Wattleseed. As a meal or snack in the depths of Winter, my choice is to add a sprinkle of Oz lemon to any of the soups or bake a bread using some as an immune stimulant. And as the weather warms up in Spring, I'll go for these soups chilled for a delicious starter. Give them a go yourself and let us have your feedback on these new products.

King Island yoghurt - a right Royal flavour

2005-06-21T18:24:00.000+10:00

I had my wife, Clare tell me on the phone that other day "I hope you are supplying King Island because I've just tasted the best yoghurt ever!"

Luckily she was referring to their new Lemon myrtle and Maple variety for which I do provide the maple and Oz lemon extracts as flavouring. And I have to agree that the product is hard to put down and leave some for later.

King Island tested their yoghurt in food service for many months before getting the thumbs up from chefs and their clients and only then did they expand production to retail. The product is only available in specialty and gourmet food stores but if it proves popular it might make it to the supermarkets. Try some for yourself and let me know what you think.

Another product with the chefs at the moment is my Belgian white chocolate mousse in three flavours - Oz lemon (again), Forest peppermint and Wattleseed. The mousse comes as a powder to which you add an equal weight of water. This mixture then gets added to twice its weight of whipped cream and left to set overnight. I am planning to re-pack it into retail sizes so keep an eye on this blog for notification on its availability through our on-line shop.

The formulation is such that the finished product will keep chilled for 10 days or it can be frozen (even for months) and later thawed with no loss of quality.

My favourite would have to be
Wattleseed as this nutty, coffee, chocolate, hazelnut taste is really good with dairy products. I must admit, since inventing it as a flavouring way back in the 1980s (September of 1984 to be precise) I have always known that it will one day be a world flavour. Sure. It's taking some time but from bread mixes in Switzerland, chocolates and ice cream in New York and added to risotto in menus in Russia and marinated mushrooms in Nagoya, it has come a long way.

My next aim is to market a Wattle beer which I make regularly as a home brew but I just need an innovative beverage company. Anyone listening?

I'll never clam up about this win!

2005-06-19T19:45:00.000+10:00

Who would have thought that a couple of larrikin Aussies (Benjamin Christie and I) could fly into Rhode Island and Newport's 24th Annual Schweppes Clam Chowder cook-off and walk away with a 2nd place in the creative chowder category? Sure. We brought with us some Wildfire spice to add those delectable pungent notes and of course, a goodly amount of Oz lemon for the aromatics.

These ingredients took the clams, clam juice, bacon, potato and cream to new heights of taste and generated hundreds of compliments on the day, followed by emails for weeks as to how our chowder should have taken first place.

For anyone wanting to compete in this chowder competition or any of the others held around the world, there's a strategy to recognise in order to have any hope of winning: Because it is the publc who votes for the grading, you have to get your chowder samples out to as many of the attendees as possible. This means not just handing out tastings over your stall table but serving the 7 and 8 deep mass of 'chowderheads' but getting out amongst it and attacking the multitudes from all sides with tray service. Your judges have to taste to adjudicate.

There's another clue to a prize too. Be the furthest travelled. It seems that the Newport pilgrimage was too daunting for anyone further away than Sydney so we picked up that prize as well.

Anyway. We apparently worked miracles in pulling off 2nd place in the chowder grading as New Englanders are rightly chauvinistic about their regional culinary specialty. I think it urked a few locals to lose, judging by the low scoring red (Manhattan) chowders and next to no scored meat soup which was entered as a means of avoiding the manufacture and service of the vast volumes of soup we tackled - 140 gallons of it! That's 532 litres, give or take some for evaporation. We were certainly chuffed in taking out our award and look forward to next year when we will cook .... on second thoughts, I think we'll keep our winning recipe for 2006 a secret for at least a short while.

To tell you about the rest of our Rhode Island visit I'd need to remind you that the US is the home of hospitality and our hosts wined and dined us until we were approaching blimp dimensions. One highlight was a brunch at the spectacular, Castle Inn function centre which sits on a grassy ridge over-looking the Sydney-harbour-like waters of Newport.

We'd seen this majestic venue from the sea a few days before from on-board the Andirondeck, a 50 foot yacht which we sailed for a few hours before sun-down.

I'd like to thank Rich Hopkins and his energetic, charming and endearing wife, Ania for their hard work and friendship and 'Hutch' Hutchinson for his guided tour of the homes of the rich and famous (as well as those poor souls who had to donate their estates to the State in lieu of paying the taxes on them) and then on to the pubs and restaurants which make Newport the place to visit in their summertime. I know I'll be heading there again come the cold wintery days of a Sydney June.

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Aussies Battle Yanks Over Chowder

Victory Day for the Russians and one for us

2005-05-22T19:34:00.000+10:00

Who could wish for a better time to be in Moscow than on the Victory Day weekend?

27 million Russians died in WW2 and Victory Day celebrates the end of this lunatic period in history. But Russians also love to celebrate life and so Benjamin Christie and I were in Moscow adding flavour to the Australia Week events organised by Gregory Klumov and his hard-working team at Austrade, Moscow. See Benjamin's blog for more info on the Australia Week event.

We also met and talked with one of Vladimir Putin's guests, none other than our own Governor General.

We started the week of the food promotion with a gala cocktail event which showered as many complements on us as there were fireworks which lit up the city the night before.

I'll always remember the feedback of "That food was at a very high level"; "Great flavours, really interesting food"; and "Everybody's talking about the food"; or "I loved the noodles with quandong and the seafood sausages, in fact everything was great"; then, "The desserts were incredible" and literally, a smorgasbord more.

Oz lemon monkfish cooked in paperbark

Belgian chocolate and Australian peppermint mousse

It's totally satisfying when over 450 people get what we worked hard to accomplish - a menu which can only be Australian cuisine because of the unique ingredients which made it so. And today, both Benjamin and myself were really chuffed when we learned that were acknowledged in Moscow in the speech by the Governor General, His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery when he said:

"I also hope you will sample some of the magnificent Australian cuisine ... available in this (The Radisson SAS) hotel’s Talavera Restaurant during the Australian Food and Wine Week. Two of Australia’s finest chefs (Vic Cherikoff and Benjamin Christie) have come to Moscow to prepare a selection of dishes using Australian ingredients that are renowned for their quality, taste and purity."

Isn't it ironic that the interest in our native foods predominantly comes from Europe, Asia and the Americas and not from our con-fusion chefs back home? Isn't it embarrassing to fly Qantas and be served food which would be more at home on Alitalia or Singapore Airlines?

The GG went on to refer to the wisdom of the Russian proverb which says “it is not the horse that draws the cart, but the oats.”

And I think that perhaps it will not be the food media personalities, the PR or celebrity chefs who create Australian cuisine but the quality, taste and purity of our once wild ingredients which are quintessentially Australian. It will come from those creative, newly trained chefs just out of college or chauvinistic cooks who do the hard yards, both groups of chefs who feel Australian, are proud to be Australian and do not pretend or feel the need to be MediterrAsian.

Victory Day in Moscow, for me at least, also reflected a victory of another kind.

It has been a battle, maybe even a war but there is a new beginning as Cherikoff Rare Spices inspire creative chefs, event guests and organisers and even the Governor General.

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Dining Downunder on Clam Chowder in Newport, RI

2005-05-22T16:52:00.000+10:00

Dining Downunder(TM) from Australia to compete at the upcoming, 24th Annual International Schweppes Great Chowder Cook-off

NEWPORT, RI, May 22, 2005 – The 24th Annual International Schweppes Great Chowder Cook-Off announces that Dining Downunder(TM) from Sydney, Australia will be competing in the “Most Creative” category with its “Wildfire Chowder” at the upcoming event, to be held on Saturday, June 4, 2005 from 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. at the Newport Yachting Center in Newport, Rhode Island.

Dining Downunder(TM) is a concept by Australian wild food devotee, television host and author, Vic Cherikoff, who travels around Australia and the world with his fellow chef, Benjamin Christie, cooking native cuisine and putting a twist into dishes inspired by the special places they visit. Cherikoff, an expert in native Australian foods, has been credited with pioneering the development of a uniquely Australian cuisine through his commercialization of a selection of indigenous species. Through his Australian spice and seasonings business, Cherikoff Rare Spices, he now provides ingredients for a long list of restaurants, caterers, airlines and a growing number of manufacturers, from mainstream to boutiques, in Australia and over 16 countries.

“We love taking local recipes from different cultures and putting an Australian spin on them by incorporating indigenous flavors to add that authentic Australian taste,” said Cherikoff of Dining Downunder. “For the Great Chowder Cook we’ll be using some of our native Australian herbs and spices in combination with some Aboriginal cooking methods. We hope adding a little Australia to a traditional New England soup will be a winning combination!”

The Great Chowder Cook-Off features all-you-can-eat “chowda” made by chefs who work at leading restaurants, businesses and institutional dining facilities across the country and around the globe. Chefs serve samples to the thousands of chowder loving judges while competing for the coveted title of “Best Clam,” “Best Seafood,” and “Most Creative” chowder, as well as “Best Clam Cake”.

“We’ve had competitors from as far away as Ireland and Bermuda over the years but an entry from Australia will definitely be the longest traveled,” said Rich Hopkins, Festival Director for the Newport Yachting Center. “Having Dining Downunder participate this year is further proof that the word is truly spreading around the world about the quality of our Great Chowder Cook-Off. I have no doubt that our festival-goers will get a taste of Australia they will never forget when they sample Vic and Benjamin’s creative chowder.”

Three stages of live entertainment, an expanded children’s area, a Silent Auction and other fund raising activities for local non-profits, a Culinary Stage showcasing creative specialties and a Marketplace with a variety of crafts and specialty items add to the festive atmosphere.

After a close competition for bragging rights and over $10,000 in prizes and awards, last year's first place chowder winners were “Best Clam” - Captain Parker’s Pub, West Yarmouth, MA; “Best Seafood” - Davenport’s Bar & Grill, East Providence, RI: and “Most Creative”- Blue Mermaid Chowder House and Bar, San Francisco, CA. The “Best Clam Cake” winner was Chelo’s Restaurants at locations throughout Rhode Island.

This year, the gates will open at 11:00 a.m. and the celebration will continue until 6:00 p.m. when the winners in each major category will be announced. Ticket prices for the International Schweppes Great Chowder Cook-Off are $10.00 for adults in advance of the show and $15 the day of the event. Children under the age of 12 are admitted for free as long as an adult accompanies them. Tickets are available through the Newport Yachting Center Box Office at (401) 846-1600. Tickets can also be ordered on the web at: www.newportfestivals.com.

CONTACT:
David Hughes, Dodge Associates, Inc.
(401) 273-7310 dave@dodgeadv.com

PHOTOS: Downloadable hi-res images are available online at:
http://press.newportharbor.com

Opportunities for building your market in Japan

2005-05-03T01:40:00.000+10:00

Dining Downunder* is currently planning a week long Australian Cuisine Promotion at the Hilton Nagoya from the 8th to the 15th of July 2005.

The Australian food event has been triggered by our show’s broadcast into Japan via the ABC Asia Pacific and the World Expo which is being held in Nagoya till September.

We are currently seeking Australian food and wine companies to benefit from an association with the event. These partner companies would either already be exporting or be interested in developing exports to Japan.

Partners already confirmed for the event include Australian Airlines and MLA but other products to be showcased during the promotion are still sought. Companies will receive their logo on menus and promotional brochures; gain exposure in the local media and press releases; be presented to a food service market during the promotion and be included in the supply chain options we build.

Japan has been Australia’s largest export market for 35 years and accounts for $22 billion, or 19 per cent of Australia’s total exports. We hope to add more Australian foods, beverages and other produce to this significant trade through an association with our very popular Australian cuisine promotions and television cooking show. The Japanese market is a difficult one to penetrate and then to maintain as the competition for discretionary funds is very high. However, the food scene is changing rapidly and locals actively seek new food experiences, for example, Italian cuisine is growing in popularity and breakfasts are changing from hot, soft and savoury to cold, crunchy and sweet.

There is also the opportunity for companies to take a commercial position for the next broadcast of the 13 weekly episodes of Dining Downunder which will go out over 13 million homes and to a business and holiday market in over 192,000 hotel rooms. The audience is predominantly Asian locals with a significant disposable income and more than a passing interest in Australia. ABC Asia Pacific has a measured expat audience of 1.6%.

The 438-room Hilton Nagoya, located at the centre of the business, shopping and entertainment areas of the city and only 12 kilometres from Nagoya Airport, offers a wide range of leisure and business facilities as well as a ballroom which can host up to 1,200 guests.

For more information please contact me via email.

* Dining Downunder is a trade mark of the Cherikoff Family Trust and is used under licence

Robert Maklowicz and Australian cuisine

2005-05-01T17:03:00.000+10:00

It seems there's never enough time these days. Too much to do, too many decisions as to the highest and best use of our precious 1080 minutes each day (I deducted 6 hours for those minor irritations of eating, sleeping and other non-productive activities).

But let me look back on the last month from this vantage point:

Four weeks ago I was asked to give a celebrity chef from Poland, Robert Maklowicz, an insight into Australian cuisine and so I took him on a tour of Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens (notice that's botanic as in manic not botanical or maniacal, although I have been described as botanically manic on occasion). While at the RBG, we met up with Clarence Slockee who works at the Gardens as part of the Indigenous Education program, teaching visitors and particularly schoolies all about Aboriginal concepts of the interactions of plants and people.

It is a great shame that we do not have traditions of this relationship with our country. It would go a long way to solving many environmental challenges we have and provide a huge number of opportunities for land holders to offer locally indigenous produce and then develop a true regionally local cuisine. It may yet happen in time even if to a much lesser degree than once was possible.

Anyway.

The scheduled next stop was postponed as the skies opened up and it began to pour down. We high tailed it to the Fish Markets and Robert set up in front of Peters Seafood and cooked up some prawns in a Thai style chilli sauce as a reflection of the Asian fusion influence in our cuisine.

The sky cleared (no, I don't have direct links up there but I am often amazed at the luck I have with the weather during events such as these) and from the Fish Markets, we moved to that promontory at the Rocks which looks out to what was once the perfect campsite but is now occupied by the Opera House. At least it is a useful tourism icon as so few Australians actually go there for concerts etc. We also had views up to the Harbour Bridge and commented on the line of human ants constantly scaling the walkways to the top. From where we stood, you could almost hear the cash registers ringing at $100 a pop.

But back on solid ground, Robert and I cooked up some barramundi in paperbark, we re-created a windswept Sydney Salad and I rolled out one of my Wattleseed pavlovas. They were pretty standard dishes I know, but still completely new to Robert's TV audience of 4 million each week who watch his cooking show across Poland. It was obviously very effective though, as we now have already had inquiries to hold one of our Dining Downunder, Australian Cuisine Promotions in Warsaw.

Robert Maklowicz is a mega star in Poland and recognised as an authority on good food and good eating. He's actually a food historian who cooks, I suppose not unlike myself (a scientist who cooks) and he found the slow development of our amazing flavours somewhat bemusing. Certainly, the flavours themselves impressed him and his whole crew of foodies too. Ingredients which stood out for him were paparbark, Wattleseed and Oz Lemon - my intense and versatile lemon myrtle mix. I even made Robert and a few of his crew an Oz Lemon tea as they were suffering from traveler's throat, probably aggravated by the air conditioning in the hotel rooms. The citral in the lemon myrtle in Oz lemon cleared up any problems as it generally does and the other components kept them buzzing the rest of the day.

The visit to Australia to film episodes for the “Culinary Journeys of Robert Maklowicz” has been supported by Austrade, Tourism Australia, Business ACT, Tourism Western Australia and of course, Cherikoff Rare Spices.

I'll post a copy of the episode when it arrives so watch this space - or better still, subscribe here to be notified by email. Alternatively, remember you can subscribe to this newsfeed by pasting either of the following links into the appropriate RSS Reader (for more on RSS have a look at this great site or check out the simple introduction to using RSS technology here).

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More than a shrimp on the barbie

2005-05-01T16:26:00.000+10:00

Anyone who has Google alerts for anything published on the web in food, Australian cuisine and related topics might have seen the very strange article in Canada's national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. I am stunned by the article which begs a follow up story: More than just four chefs in Sydney.

I cannot believe that Donna Hay, whose work and books I admire greatly, could recommend a glorified fish and chip shop on the harbour as somewhere to actually go and eat! Get takeaway from any corner store if you must and sit of the wharf for free, at least you will pay a tenth for the same thing all up. The seagulls will also be more entertaining than the waiters' attitudes.

Then there's no mention of the dozens of chefs who are committed to their craft and trades, chefs at Hugos, Milton Park, Banjo Patterson Cottage Restaurant, the Red Centre, Victoria Room and others who turn out great food using authentic flavours of Australia. For a good guide on these and to unlock the culinary scene which extends way past the media chefs, may I refer readers to the unparalleled website at de Groots Best restaurants of Australia?

I get the nagging suspicion that this article was written from the recycled press releases from our venerable Tourism organisation which must derive some benefit from focussing on the over-exposed media chefs of Sydney. Who can afford to go to their venues (if they are actually there) and why is it that they wipe mention of more deserving chefs in our industry. And what real benefit do these chefs deliver when all they promote is themselves.

Guam and the Pacific Hotel And Restaurant Expo

2005-05-01T15:37:00.000+10:00

We flew into Guam courtesy of Continental Airlines and were picked up by the driver from the Hyatt Regency Guam who drove the 10 minutes around the ridge to the hotel. The promotion started badly with the rear door flung open and my laptop bag dropping the half metre to the ground. Luckily it wasn't damaged as it is my life-blood and contact with my business in Sydney.

I'm not sure if the driver expected a tip but I thought something along the lines of be good to your mother as she's the only one loving you right now. If the laptop had been damaged he'd be looking for some solid parental care about then too.

Anyway. All was well and we settled in, got the lay of the land and guided through the maze of corridors from restaurant to banquet kitchen to stores and butchery, pastry and other back of house tunnels and lifts. We got the hang of it but I still had to constantly think of where I was going and how. And the toughest part was that the pools and beach outside the hotel were inviting us from our hotel rooms yet apart from the BBQ just outside the restaurant, we didn't have the time to go anywhere.

The Hyatt promotion was in la Mirenda outlet which featured a buffet with a demonstration kitchen servicing the hot dishes, salad bars, outside barbeque for dinner and various live cooking stations. Benjamin spent a great deal of time in that production plant during lunch and dinner and churned and turned great dishes for the appreciative diners who came by.

Exec Chef, Hermann Grossbichler and Exec Sous Chef, Ian Crough really worked hard in supporting us with Hermann having kittens as we headed off to the local radio station on the morning of the first day of the promotion. They must have had some dreadful interviews in the past as they said we'd have 6-7 minutes on air. Anyway. We were sufficiently entertaining and Benjamin and I chatted with Ray and Patti, the two radio announcers for over an hour and they both came to lunch that very day. Benjamin has posted the interview on his website so go on over and check it out. In fact, Benjamin wrote up a terrific coverage of the entire event so I'll refer you to his story here.

About 7pm, Hermann grabbed me to go off to the Micronesian Chefs Association meeting and they were good enough to let me rave on a while telling them all about this new trend in food and that they should come on over to the Dining Downunder promotion and taste what Aussie food is all about. And they came. Nearly all 60 of them tried out our food over the next week and we really had some great feedback and interest. This means my ingredients should find a solid market in Guam and my new distributor, Triple J Guam is offering his services with some consolidation out of Cairns.

Two products we took over with us which were not part of the regular stable of Cherikoff Rare Spices but which I hope will grow into serious business in Guam. The first was Pastatime's Oz lemon linguini and a Rainforest herb linguini and we went through vast volumes serving them with simple cream sauces or just plain macadamia nut oil. They really complemented fish, chicken and stir-fry vege dishes Benjamin concocted for the daily changing menu.

We also had some amazing dairy free, Pistacchio heart and Oz lemon shortbread and a Wattleseed and pistacchio biscotti. These came from For Goodness Sake cookies and I will work at getting then as regular items on Guam menus. Check them out yourself.

One event which we offer as a part of our promotions is the cooking class. This had some interest so it was scheduled for Saturday lunchtime. Previous classes during promotions attracted 6-8 attendees with 12 setting the record so far.

You can believe I was gratified when 24 starters showed up to wrap, drizzle and roll their way through my teaching menu. For a more detail lowdown on the course have a look at this.

Benjamin and I have been back a week and we are now packing for Moscow and a stint at the Radisson SAS Slavyanskaya while Dining Downunder chef, Dayle Merlo heads to Kuala Lumpur to cook at the Grand Plaza Parkroyal Kuala Lumpur. Benjamin has done a fine job in writing up both these events so I'll simply refer you to his blog on Dayle's event and ours.

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Australian food in Guam - well, getting there, anyway.

2005-05-01T13:13:00.000+10:00

April had me and Benjamin Christie in Cairns on the way to a Dining Downunder Australian Cuisine Promotion in Guam in the tropical paradise of Micronesia.

We were in Cairns for a day and took the oppportunity to visit my Cairns distributor, Garozzo Food Distributors at Portsmith and now one of the Bidvest flagships. We are involved in a food show they are going to hold later in the year but I'll let you know more closer to the event.

There's a very well known restaurant in Cairns which uses Australian ingredients as a marketing tool (there are a few actually but I won't mention specifics and why, will become obvious) and we kept asking taxi drivers, tourist offices and other locals where we could go for something interesting to eat in town. They all recommended this place so we kept asking if they had eaten there, what they thought and generally probed for some deep seated truths. Well. If you are a restaurateur, you really need to try this anonymously. After all. Your reputation is everything, including your future.

This particular establishment was top of mind but regarded as expensive when pressed. Most commented it was good for tourists even though many hadn't eaten there themselves. Various meats were often described (with the not so subtle implication of 'if you want to eat those'). So we had to try the fare for ourselves.

I introduced myself to the chef who was too busy to come out to say hello to Benjamin and a local commercial pilot who taught Benjamin to fly and who had joined us at the table. I asked what the chef recommended and he flippantly said everything on the menu. So back I went to order at the table where the tappas plates (2 varieties) were recommended. I asked that the message be conveyed to the chef that we were looking forward to his making us something special and the two tappas plates were perfect.

Have you ever had a meal which was so underwhelming that you resented paying for it? One that then annoyed you for the next 3 days as though you had been violated? Perhaps our expectations were unreasonably high that we actually anticipated some interesting flavours from this Cairns institution. I am now left with the challenge of thinking how best to approach the chef and tell him his flavours suck. It was a fine example of the fiddle factor where the price is directly proportional to the degree the chef fiddles with your food.

The tappas had a teaspoonful of salsa, albeit with perfectly diced mango but still, only mango flavour (why not some Wild mint or Oz lemon); and towers of some grated vegetables with no discernable flavour; a wonton of some dried mince you'd normally find in a chew and spew at the back of some fry shop right on clean up time. It was meant to be crocodile but even Steve (Crocodile Hunter) Irwin would have been proud of this as a way to turn anyone off eating Snappy. There were three of us but two of many of the smallest tastings I'd seen in a while and which defied cutting up. There was little to complement which disturbs me greatly for such an iconic establishment. The locals were right. You wouldn't go there again nor recommend it to your friends, only to 'tourists'. But why is it that we believe they can be ripped off and still think kindly of us?

A wild lime sauce was served next to some ponzu but should have been already mixed. How would any diner, visiting or local, know that the chef forgot to finish the lime sauce and provided the means in the neighbouring dish. I suppose it's the Cairns equivalent of those chefs who leave the pepper addition to their waiters, as the ubiquitous arm-long peppermill provides the final balance of tastes in a dish, irrespective of the intended flavour combinations. Funny thing though. The waiter never told us that we had to mix our own sauce.

I guess time will tell as to the continued success of this place. Market forces are all powerful when it comes to weeding out the businesses who do not add any real substance to the value chain. The chef may be big enough to ask for assistance and I'd be happy to give it for free. We shall wait and see. I was expecting to ask him to join our Ambassadour Chefs program as a representative of Dining Downunder but there's no way yet.

And as for Guam. It'll have to wait for my next blog. Incidentally, I wrote this blog while lunching on a home-cooked steak with crisp snow peas and a mushroom cream made heavenly with a generous sprinkling of aniseed myrtle and a nudge of my Wattleseed extract in the cream. The paperbark smoked beetroot provided colour and texture contrast and another flavour highlight on the plate. Did I mention that the steak had been marinated in Ozyaki (a trade marked sauce we are about to launch into production and full of Alpine pepper pungents, sweet soy and herb aromatics)? I just followed the tried and tested formula of a multitude of textures, all the seven tastes in balance*, concentrations of unexpected and different flavours and no fiddle factor.

* sweet, sour, bitter, salty, aromatic, pungent and Maillard or umami if you like, which are those toasted, roasted grill flavours as in Wattleseed, chocolate, coffee, toast etc

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Announcing ... refills for our popular canisters of seasonings, herbs and spices

2005-03-28T09:19:00.000+10:00

Imagine popping the o-ring sealed lid on a metal jar which fits neatly in your hand and immediately being enveloped in the mixed bouquet of aromatic rainforest herbs, pungent highland spices or full-on berry fruit notes. Using these herbs and spices takes us into the world of the French or Italian kitchen where quality, taste and disctinctiveness matter. And yet it opens up the universe of modern fusion cooking with the promise of the unifying contribution of Antipodean ingredients which produce dishes which are unquestionably, authentically Australian.

Imagine also, the convenience of being able to get these ingredients on-line in our secure, virtual store. It's easy, convenient and we get hundreds of orders from all over the world from cooks, chefs and foodies who have discovered the benefits of these impressive flavours and use them regularly.

The launch of our Australian herbs and spices as low or no salt seasonings packed in their attractive, stainless steel storage canisters a short while ago has proven a great success. The canisters themselves underwent a great deal of testing to ensure that the Australian herbs and spices were kept at their maximum levels of aromatics and the results showed that they were definitely the best storage unit available for the range. We recommend that the seasonings are stored chilled once opened to further ensure freshness and flavour impact and the refrigerator door or a high shelf where not much else fits.

Now, in order to serve our customers better, we have released refills for the canisters with the range of 6 seasonings packed in stand up pouches. They are also a great way to sample the seasonings being a cheaper purchase option but for convenience and optimum storage, we recommend you do get the canisters as they better protect the herbs and spices from oxidation. Simply refill the canisters from the pouches and hopefully re-use the pouches as convenient, waterproof envelops for any number of applications.

Be sure to visit our website which has been designed specifically for the seasonings. It gives plenty of information as to the wide culinary uses and health benefits of the herbs and spices and in combination with this blog or our opt-in, subscription e-zine, it backs up the recipes on the labels of each available variety.

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Export or leave money on the table

2005-03-22T20:50:00.000+11:00

From Austrade research, we know that only relatively few Australian companies export and yet many more could.

It's like having a whole lot of customers within easy reach and never turning to help them get the benefits of having your products. This is like leaving money on the table or just being commercially naive.

Here at home in Australia, our products can often be one of many while off-shore they become rare and unusual, particularly with the marketing twist of incorporating authentic Australian flavours. Contact me at Cherikoff Rare Spices for this service as we specialise in taking pedestrian products off the (supposedly) level playing field and pushing them into innovative, unique and distinctive product categories where media interest and exposure often comes for free.

Think of us as the means to remove yourself from competing with others in your existing catogory and adding such a novel twist that your new market sees you as totally unique and highly desirable.

Business development managers in some companies which could export, probably think that the risk of losing money; the cost of learning about the market; or understanding supply chains is too high.

However, for many companies, this is just not the case.

Contracts of supply can be negotiated as prepayment in part or in full, before goods are shipped. The internet and networking (in addition to all Austrade's services) can provide market intelligence. And distribution is the easiest - just ask your ultimate customer for referrals to good distributors, wholesalers, brokers and agents. All you need is a vehicle to get you there and we have just the thing.

In fact, with a little effort, many companies could turn the research recommended on export markets into a low cost process or at worst, a model of policy, process and procedures which can be rolled out into markets which share some similarity to one another.

When it comes to food service and some retail products, Dining Downunder** Chefs, Vic Cherikoff and Benjamin Christie have helped many Australian and an increasing number of New Zealand companies to build their brands and make sales.

Imagine.

You have your own food professionals who take your products overseas; introduce them to a large food service user; find a distributor recommended by local chefs; arrange a chefs' table of your potential clients and then they prepare, present and endorse your products at a hosted function. And all this for next to no cost.

How good is that?

In 2005, we continue on our global pilgrimage promoting Australia, Australian cuisine and a host of companies which enjoy the results of the support and exposure we generate. And we'd love to have more Australian companies along.

Unfortunately, not many marketers really know or understand what strategic, associative marketing is nor how to profit from its powerful results: From Australian Cuisine Promotions last year in the Czech Republic, Thailand, USA and Germany, Dining Downunder generated tens of thousands in export sales for the Australian and New Zealand food & wine companies involved. Read Austrade’s Trademark article on the continuing export success of Dining Downunder.

Australian Cuisine Promotions for 2005 have already been arranged in Guam, Moscow, Nagoya, Phuket, Bangkok and others are currently being negotiated and scheduled for Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, The UK, China, Malaysia and Singapore. Some additional target markets include Slovakia, Poland, Indonesia, Spain and Ireland.

We look to emerging markets, often where Austrade has active representatives and are holding trade shows or other events with Australian companies. We leverage this activity and make an impact with our unique food presentations and then add serious value by working with hotel marketing departments as well as food distributors on the value of well promoted and distinctive food offerings.

Our primary focus is to complete the supply chain, from exporting company, showcase event, interested and supportive distributor to end user and then follow up in that market with a second visit within 6 months to maintain the energy. By way of example, our promotion in Prague last year found an Australian distributor who's activity was backed up by a presentation of products to 48 local chefs with the result that several products, including Australian lamb and some specialised foodstuffs have increased sales into the Czech market.

Dining Downunder chefs can add value to a restaurant or venue in numerous ways:

· Enhancing business functions, meetings or conferences providing an uniquely Australian feel with our authentic foods and the wines we endorse
· Live Cooking Shows at International Trade Shows and events promoting the best of Australian food, wine and culinary tourism
· Need strong media coverage for your activities? Dining Downunder seems to attract it like a magnet simply due to the unique approach of promoting indigenous foods

For more information view the Australian Cuisine Promotions brochure and please make contact for collaboration, joint ventures or promotional endorsements.

Current opportunities:

Guam in April
Moscow, Brussels and Amsterdam in May
Nagoya in July
Phuket in August
Bangkok in December

And more to come ...

** Dining Downunder(TM) is an Australian cooking show focussing on an authentic Australian cuisine using native Australian ingredients and which screened in 32 countries in 2004 and will continue its global spread into Europe and North America in 2005.

Cherikoff Australian ingredients star in Korea

2005-03-21T01:50:00.000+11:00

Another promotion waving the flag for Cherikoff Australian ingredients is in train for March, this time with Meat and Livestock Australia promoting Australian beef in Korea.

The Renaissance Seoul Hotel will host an Australian festival from March 30 to the end of April. The Manhattan Grill restaurant offering will be transformed with traditional Australian dishes prepared with authentic ingredients supplied by Vic Cherikoff Food Services Pty Ltd. These will include Oz Lemon (lemon myrtle seasoning), Wildfire Spice and Wattleseed.

The opening night gala dinner (88,000 won) will be held on the 30th March and bookings are available by phoning the hotel (+ 82 02 2222 8637).

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Herbs, spices and the Science of Taste

2005-02-26T11:46:00.000+11:00

My herb and spice seasoning range has been well received by cooks, chefs and manufacturers as their flavours are discovered to work in a wide range of dishes.

I have also had feedback on how using my herbs and spices have contributed to making mealtimes a lot easier. One subscriber emailed me a few weeks ago saying that her son was a very finicky eater rejecting more than he accepted. It was my Oz Lemon herb mix which he took to like a duck to water and according to the email, it seemed to even lift his mood and dinner-time became (almost) a pleasure.

Our sense of taste

Why would this be, you might ask? Well there is no doubt that herbs and spices play an important role in stimulating different areas of the 20,000 taste buds on the upper surface of our tongues, on our cheeks, palate and throat. Interestingly, children respond to smaller amounts of flavour (and react more to taste than to smell). Adults can lose up to half their sense of taste and more into old age and it is definitely a case of ‘use it or lose it’. We can condition our sense of flavour and keep it acute by paying attention to what we taste and vary the sources of different stimuli.

But flavours of herbs and spices, fruits, nuts, salts, acids, fat in fact, any flavours, also act on our brains at a basic chemical level. Firstly, this happens as a direct response to the primary stimuli of sour, sweet, salty or bitter. Recently, the extra characteristic called umami has been added and is the overall tastiness, meatiness or savoury flavour perhaps best thought of in terms of beefiness and possibly also the toasty, roasted flavours known as Maillard products (coffee, chocolate, bread and of course, Wattleseed).

An extra degree of refinement is that we have our sweet receptors concentrated on the tip of our tongue, sour and salt along the sides and then bitter and umami in the middle at the back of our tongue.

Each of our taste buds is a barrel shaped cluster of elongated cells equipped with receptive hairs (nerve endings) reaching into the barrel. A single nerve fibre carries stimuli (yes, plural because it may react to sweet as well as bitter, for example) to the primitive taste-brain in our brain stem. This then is relayed to the thalamus and on to be further processed in the anterior cerebral cortex.

Too much information?

If you think that this is not how you taste a cup of Oz Lemon tea, it may be a bit too much detail for you. However, you’d also partly be right. And this is because we have another set of taste detectors which react to the burn of chilli, temperature, astringency and texture. These impulses travel to the cerebral cortex of the higher brain via a different pathway - the fifth or trigeminal, cranial nerve. This is significant since it is also the region right next to the triggers for vomiting, salivating and retching. Presumably, this set of reactions was important to us during our free-ranging, trial and error, hunter-gatherer days.

So, now back to yet other effects of food which are extra-curricular to taste and back to our finicky eater. There are many components of foods which can have pharmacological effects. This might result in stimulation of the type a non-coffee drinker might experience from a caffeine hit. Then there are components which slow us down, mellow us out, help fortify the immune system or affect water balance, electrolyte excretion or energy metabolism. There’s a whole raft of possible effects, just from these components and many occur in high concentrations in everyday herbs and spices. Oz Lemon contains a number of herbs which have components with some pharmacologic properties, namely the stimulating essential oils; citral and trans-anethole. It also contains a mixture of organic acids which have been shown to play a protective role in the bowel against cancer. And then there are compounds we haven't even characterised but which form part of the whole action as a beneficial herbal mix.

For more on the medicinal effects of native Australian herbs and spices, please visit this link.

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Chefs, manufacturers and foodies - a reality check

2005-02-20T18:06:00.000+11:00

A lot of my clients run restaurants, cook interesting food at home or manufacture products which people eat or drink to enjoy or use to add to their well-being. I have clients here in Australia and overseas and I was only thinking about them and my business this morning. You might like to share some of my insights, deliberation and strategy and apply the same analysis to your own situation.

What do I uniquely offer my end-users - chefs, manufacturers and foodies? What do I offer that no-one else can?

I add serious value to my clients by taking commodity offerings (everyday food, ordinary menus, pedestrian products) and introducing a unique, innovative, interesting Australian twist. A chef could serve a steak with mushroom sauce or they could value add it to a Wildfire crusted beef fillet with mushrooms enhanced with Wattleseed, forest anise and munthari berries. A manufacturer could make the Wildfire crusted steak or the exotic and delicious mushroom sauce. I know which dish I'd prefer to eat and which products I'd rather buy.

We all eat. Some of us, more than others and a few of us appreciate new flavours and the concept of wild, healthy foods which really contribute to our well-being. So I know that I do have a market as I know my ingredients are absolutely delicious, versatile to use - loaded with culinary and nutritional benefits.

I also know that I can appeal to my clients who emotionally recognise the marketing importance of not selling commodities where all you can compete on is price or availability.

There is no doubt that any chef, manufacturer or home cook who uses my flavours in the way I suggest or use ingredients I specially make for them, will also add value for their client base.

Sure. The end product still needs to be presented in an appealing way and through outlets where their clients shop. Shelves (real or virtual) need to be stocked or menus well described. But the market exists and can be reached economically.

My ingredients have the differentiation we all look for in following the next trend or looking to new flavours or just something different from what we had last week. My wife Clare, once described the authentic Australian ingredients I have commercialised as being for chefs and manufacturers, what a whole new set of colours would be to an artist.

Isn't that spot on? You don't even have to be a Rembrandt or Picasso to recognise the value in having more 'colours', particularly when the collection can be bundled in a whole new categories of Australian food, beverages, cosmaceuticals or nutraceuticals.

Then there's the consideration of who is behind this new wave of ingredients. Are they ethical, honest, hard-working at the same time as visionary, creative and forward thinking? Every industry has its parasites and the native Australian food industry is no exception but I know my contribution as leader and hope to continue in this role.

If I consider my 'business DNA', I see the new, original, innovative, purpose-developed array of ingredients which I have created and which keep me out there as market leader. It's just a reality check but worth doing if you analyse your own activities in your business, as a cook or chef or in whatever it is that you do.

The next check I came to was frugality. Was there waste in the systems, operations or even communications? Well there's some waste in the interest payments on loans but I reckon that otherwise, I run a really tight ship.

And lastly, the passion. It only takes a single match or spark to start an inferno but to keep it roaring you need fuel, heat and oxygen. A growing list of clients are my fuel, my passion to see these amazing ingredients world reknown could be the heat and the oxygen might be the vision and the faith that the light at the end of the tunnel is not an on-coming train.

Please.

If you are a chef wanting to make your mark through the food you serve.

If you are a home cook who likes to explore the world through the flavours you discover and eat for good health and long life as well.

Or if you are a manufacturer who needs to move off the 'level' playing field of competitive products and saturated markets and wants to make your next new product development a success.

Visit my website to discover more. Drop in to my virtual store and get a few items and be sure to grab a copy of my new Dining Downunder cookbook or manufacturers; get in touch with me (particularly bakery suppliers, ice creameries and biotechs) and join me up front as we pioneer these ingredients into world food markets.

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Australian Ice Cream, Gelato and Sorbet flavors

2005-02-13T12:05:00.000+11:00

The following names are suggestions only and manufacturers or chefs can be as creative or as conservative as deemed appropriate for the marketplace. If you would like other suggestions, please email me and other possible descriptors, recipes or combinations can be provided.

Acacia seed or Wattleseed (best used as an extract) makes a fabulous array of ice creams we think warrant the overall name of Acacia Magic:

Try Wattlemisu – The coffee, chocolate and hazelnut of Cherikoff Wattleseed extract blends tastefully with the traditional recipe of tiramisu.

An alternative is Wattleccino™ (see note end of page about the word), which is the same wattle flavored ice cream with the option of the addition of walnuts or pecans for texture or coconut butter as a complementary flavor.

Wild Jaffa® (wattle and orange). Try to pick the difference in flavor to those familiar sweets. You will taste the orange first before the chocolate-like wattle in the ice cream reminds you of the last time you had a Jaffa®.(Registered trade name of Cadbury Confectionery Ltd).

Another combination could be called Kimberley Karamel which is a combination of wattleseed ice cream served with a light caramel syrup.

Kakadu Krunch The aromatic heady lemon/lime in this flavor comes from the rainforest herb mix called Oz lemon which, combined with macadamia nut chips or honeycomb, is fantastic.

Another option could be Oz lemon on its own with the alluring name, Rainforest lemon.

Rainforest Dew (Fruit spice) – One of the best ice cream flavors with a fruity mix of passionfruit and berry character.

Mountain Mint (Australian peppermint) – Another classic ice cream flavor, this wild peppermint comes from our alpine high country. Taste the interesting aromatic finish to this delicious ice cream. I suggest adding vanilla to this mix to complement the flavour profile and other ingredients to use for variety could be coconut, chocolate or Oz lemon.

Australian Bite (strawberry and Alpine pepper) – A cleansing strawberry frozen dessert with the aromatic zing from one of our secret spice mixes made from ingredients sourced from our most southerly State.

Forest anise (aniseed myrtle) – ice cream with an addictive flavor, subtly reminiscent of Pernod and strongly moreish and stimulant. Great to wake up and go!

Crimson Tide A tangy and tasty ice cream with great colour and character from swirls of syrup made from a tropical fruit we know as wild rosella.

Remember; often the lesser the description the better the sales.

* The trade mark Wattleccino belongs to the Cherikoff Family Trust and can only be used through a licensing arrangment which involves the supply of Cherikoff Wattleseed or wattleseed extract under contract. The word cannot be used without this prior arrangement in place.

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Our Survey on Hotel and Resort Cuisine Promotions

2005-02-08T02:17:00.000+11:00

While putting our own Australian Cuisine Promotions out into the marketplace, we quickly realised that there are a whole lot of problems challenging hotel and resort chefs who work to provide variety, entertainment and stimulation for their in-house guests by using promotions of ethnic cuisines. Guest chefs are commonly invited for authenticity and sponsorship from suppliers, airlines and the relevant country's Embassy or business Chamber is sought with various degrees of success. Yet many promotions are still seen as significant cost centres and run for PR rather than as for what they should be - serious revenue generators.

This obviously doesn't have to be the case since hotels can attract visitors from outside their premises, they can offer other businesses venue space and theme mini trade fairs or add value to conferences and external events. Co-marketing opportunities exist with travel agents, trade agencies and even unrelated businesses who may benefit from holding an event to entertain large numbers of their clients in business and relationship building and networking functions. It is largely a matter of thinking outside the square to attract attendees to the promotions and look at what opportunity they offer potential guests. Then there is also the consideration of staff training. How convenient can it be to invite a guest chef who specialises in a particular cuisine and have him instruct your kitchen brigade on the intricacies of his specialty cuisine? Why shouldn't the HR Department contribute to the promotional budget from marketing?

This brings me to my next point. If a particular activity is done for one outcome, why not optimise the task and introduce additional outcomes? For instance, every time you make a phone call, think about the initial purpose you wish to achieve. Then consider what other results could be obtained to add value to that same call. For example, you may be calling a potential sponsor for a cuisine promotion. Whatever their reply on that matter, the same call could also introduce your facilities; provide information as to the contact's business and how you could collaborate; gain a referral to another contact (preferably a qualified referral with your contact calling his lead to preempt your approach); gain a subscription to your regular ezine or pamphlet update on your activities; and probably one or two more outcomes you can think to add yourself. The same thing applies to a promotion. If you are going to run one, how can it be optimised so that the same activity delivers exponential results?

Think about the simple process of sending out a notice to your own database telling them about your promotion. Is it possible to use someone else's database (a supplier, local businesses, trade agencies etc) to spread the word even further? While you're setting up this opportunity, could you not also ask if they have a subscription newsletter, could you link subscriptions and provide their new subscribers the option of joining your list as well?

Once you start optimising, it becomes an obsession but I can promise that it will grow your business dramatically over time.

As a means to gather more data, we have put together a survey at www.dining-downunder.com/survey.asp and are already getting some very interesting results. Because this is an industry benefit, we are happy to share the responses for all chefs to consider and use as they wish. If you would care to contribute, then please head for the page and fill in the answers as completely as you can and we'll add your comments to our global survey. You'll note that our survey not only has the outcome of the survey results but it helps respondents in their businesses; introduces our own services; gets used as a viral marketing tool with anyone recognising the value in the results recommending the survey to their friends and colleagues as a means of also adding networking value and lastly; updates out database so that we can continue to deliver useful information for our clients who are interested in the unique advantages from using Australian native ingredients.

Please visit www.dining-downunder.com/survey.asp and invest the 4 minutes it should take to complete the questionary. Thanks.

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Australian Food Festivals in Dubai and Abu Dhabi

2005-01-26T22:08:00.000+11:00

To co-incide with national Day celebrations for Australia, a 10 day food festival commencing January 28th, will take place throughout the outlets of Towers Rotana Hotel, Dubai, with Australian guest chefs hosting dinners and doing cooking demonstrations in the various outlets of the hotel. Authentic Australian ingredients will be used in buffets in Gardinia and a totally Aussie twist in the Long’s menu as well as the great Aussie BBQ poolside on January 28.

A similar event will be held at the Millenium Hotel in Adu Dhabi with chef Dayle Merlo from Noosa's Bistro C heading the flavour force. Dayle cooked for us on the Noosa episode of Dining Downunder just minutes after coming of his motorcycle and getting quite banged up. All's healed now, so drop in if you're in the region and say hello.

The flavours of Australia come to Dubai in January at Towers Rotana Hotel and the Millenium Hotel Abu Dhabi in conjunction with the Australian Consulate in Dubai, Meat & Livestock Australia and Cherikoff authentic Australian ingredients supplied through Essential Fine Foods.

Some Australia Day thoughts and recipes

2005-01-26T03:12:00.000+11:00

Well. It's 4 weeks into 2005 and already the year's slipping away. Like me you've probably already planned a heap of outcomes and scheduled them for set deadlines. I've pencilled in 9 promotional events sort of spread out monthly and to be run somewhere between KL and Moscow and have 3, maybe 4 other countries to accommodate. So where's the year gone?

Then there's still that sobering disaster in the Indian Ocean. You've got to feel for those people in the affected areas who still have to endure the horrific outcome of the undersea earthquake. I know I count myself lucky indeed to have been in Phuket only a few weeks before the tsunami and moving on from the promotion I completed with Benjamin Christie as though it would all still be the same as whenever I came back. Nature can be an awesome teacher but I look at life a little differently today than just a month ago. I am adding these frightening pictures so that we remember just how awesome this disaster was and that we continue to help support the rebuilding process however we can. The wave came and went. Now we have to prove the riddle of the universe: Wherever life can exist, it will.

Looking forward is one of the lessons and recognising the truth in the cliché; 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' However, I do acknowledge the sorrow for those who lost friends and family in the disaster and hope that business gets back to some normality quickly so that locals can begin to earn incomes again to rebuild their lives. The news from Phuket is that there's been a lot of media hype (disasters really sell newspapers and make the media barons richer, don't they)? If you were thinking of going, please do so. It really helps the locals if you do and it is still a great place to holiday (or work).

But now onto happier things. I hope you share my optimism that this year is going to be the biggest ever for Australian native foods and our developing authentic Australian cuisine abroad. It is terrific to also see the wide range of customers using my ingredients, from The Watermark, Aqualuna, Tetsuya and the newest addition to the list, Wildfire, where the chefs are appreciative of the ingredients as interesting for the particular dishes in which they use them and with no imperative to go all-native. I don't know how many times I've been asked by journalists, "Where are the Australian (meaning full-on indigenous menu) restaurants in Australia?" This is not the point. If a chef is looking for a uniquely and authentic Australian flavour in a dish then he uses a native ingredient. Otherwise an Asian, Indian or Mediterranean one might do.

Australia Day is one time when we can put a greater focus on Cherikoff ingredients and other domestic produce in celebration of where our cuisine has come and how it's developed. So I've put together a few ideas. Firstly, lets look at three dishes which were featured on Channel 9's Today Show where Benjamin Christie, Mark McCluskey and I added some zing to the MLA's ideas on promoting lamb. Have a look at Lambada, Lamb-ingtons and Lamb and Dam followed by a Pav Swag (to be a little kitch with the naming). And remember that you can get my ingredients from anywhere in the world by shopping on-line.

Lamb is probably our national meat while we wait for kangaroo meat to rise into significance. I personally can't wait for the MLA to embrace this environmentally-sensible resource for the benefit of their levy-paying members and I feel sure that the time will come. The on-going health of our country depends on it. These recipes are uniquely Australian because of the use of a range of native flavoured seasonings: Alpine Pepper, Wildfire Spice, Red Desert Dust, Oz Lemon and Fruit Spice. As I mentioned, you can get my ingredients from anywhere in the world by shopping on-line or if you are a chef, through all good food providores. Just ask them as they may not promote my ingredients even though they stock them. Don't ask me why, maybe it's because I can't afford to pay the incentives the big food companies offer the sales reps. Anyway.

1. Here’s a dish with a Spanish/Mediterranean influence made authentically Australian with Wildfire Spice:

Lambada - Skewers of lamb, capsicum and Spanish onion marinated in Alpine pepper and seasoned with outback Wildfire spice

This is an easy recipe using your choice of meat for the skewers. If you choose a cheaper cut, then marinate it in some mashed paw paw fruit for a few hours beforehand and once the skewers are loaded up, season with the Alpine pepper. Cook the meat on a medium-high heat and once they are done (still a little pink in the middle) season with the Wildfire spice and serve.

2. This 'Hawaiian' influence is made authentically Australian with wattleseed, rainforest nuts and wild herbs:

‘Lamb-ington’ - Macadamia and wattleseed crusted cutlets as a duet served with wild scented pineapple rice. This is a recipe based on one I featured in my first cookbook and which came from Scott Webster who now runs Osia in the Haymarket, London.

While much of the world thinks of the Macadamia nut as the Hawaiian nut, this uniquely Australian rainforest tree nut makes an excellent crusting for meats but its high content of oil makes it easy to burn so finish the cutlets off under a hood or in a camp oven.

Dip the cutlets (bone out) in flour and then into a whisked egg. Coat the prepared cutlets in a mixture of Cherikoff ground Wattleseed and macadamia nut fines and BBQ on a hotplate or in an oiled pan. Cook both sides of the cutlets until the macadamia nut pieces begin to brown slightly and then transfer them to a hot camp oven lined with paperbark to cook on. This can sit over a medium heat on the hob. Once done, serve the cutlets on steamed rice flavoured with a little Yarras Grove Garlic and Gumleaf oil, some BBQd pineapple pieces well dusted with Alpine pepper.

3. Colonial British and Asian fusion made authentically Australian in this dish with wild herbs and spices over lamb and yabbies

Lamb and dam - rice noodle salad with red desert dusted lamb and Oz lemon yabbie tails

This mixes jumbuck and yabbies in an Asian noodle salad.

Prepare the vermicelli noodle by steeping it in boiling water until soft. Toss with some sesame seed oil, chopped chilli, strips of capsicum and some shitake mushroom strips. Meanwhile, coat some lamb strips with Red Desert Dust and cook off on the BBQ. Also toss a few yabbies on the Barbie and once they are done, remove the tail meat and finish with a seasoning of Oz lemon. Finally, simply serve the noodle salad in a bowl, top with the lamb strips and finish with the yabbie tails.

4. And now for dessert - New Zealand/Australia 'Downunder Duel' dessert - Who did create the Pavlova?

Pav Swag or as Rose-Marie Perkins, the charismatic chef at le Boomerang, just out of Lyons, France calls them; Vic Rolls - Rolled wattleseed pavlova

7 egg whites
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1? cups (310g) castor sugar
2 tablespoons Wattleseed extract
300ml whipped cream
½ cup biscuit crumbs – try Dick Smith Foods’ Bushfood breakfast cereal, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ teaspoon Fruit Spice

Whip egg whites to a firm froth and only then add the sugar and lemon juice slowly until stiff peaks form. Spread onto a piece of baking paper on an appropriate tray to cover an area the width of the baking paper and 1¼ times the width in length. Bake at 150°C for 10 to 15 minutes or until firm and nearly touch dry but not browned. It should look like soft meringue at this stage. Remove from the oven and slide it off the tray to stop it cooking on. Sprinkle the top with a mix of the biscuit crumbs, sugar and the Fruit Spice and leave to cool fully.

Add Wattleseed extract to the cream and whip this to stiff peaks. This can and is best done the day before to allow the full flavour to develop. Taste and add more extract if you want a stronger flavour. (Actually, this Wattleccino™ cream can be made up to a week beforehand as it will not split and is ideal for enhancing sauces or topping a coffee or wattleseed cappuccino.)

Flip the meringue over, seasoned side down, onto a clean tea towel and remove the baking paper carefully. If it sticks, place a wet towel which has been heated in a microwave (or soaked with really hot water) on to the baking paper for 30 seconds. Try peeling the paper away again and it should come away cleanly. Spread the Wattle cream evenly over the meringue to a thickness of around 1cm or ½ an inch. Roll up the pavlova using the long edge of the towel. Cut the ends on an angle (good cooks will taste-test the trimmings).

Finally, before removing the towel completely, lift the pavlova onto a platter and serve with berries and a sour fruit couli, for example, a berry jam mixed with enough lemon juice to taste tart and to pour like a thick sauce. I’d add a pinch of Fruit Spice to this sauce as well to enhance the fruitiness.

Last thing: It seems some of my readers are having trouble accessing the RSS feed to my blog. Try adding this link into your RSS Reader.

Australia Day chopped for some

2005-01-19T08:25:00.000+11:00

Well the MLA's lamb ad might be in-your-face ockerism and probably appeals to a proportion of us but is it un-Australian itself?

The article in The Australian and other newspapers highlight the discomfort of vegetarians towards the campaign and elicit calls of "This is not Australian cuisine" but what are our officials backing as Australian food?

We might be surprised to learn that in Singapore, Australian food is apparently best represented by a Thai and a Mediterranean chef who will be waving the flag with organisers; Tourism Australia and Austrade making the amazing claim that only in Australia do chefs use fresh ingredients.

Where have they been living?

Sure, for some of us, Australia Day is a lamb chop and a beer but equally, we don't cook Thai or authentic Mediterranean at home. We might include olives in a salad, eat pasta every other day because it's easy or use olive oil because of the marketing effort of its health aspects (as the much healthier but poorer funded macadamia nut oil languishes in the background) but the ethnic cuisines we get in restaurants are as far from everyday food as Wildfire spiced kangaroo fillet with a riberry red wine jus.

So what are we to promote to the world?

There's little point in pushing other cuisines just because we have representative restaurants here, so why not something which is so uniquely Australian it can't be copied without a benefit back to our farmers and manufacturers? Why not define an Australian cuisine as being whatever conventional produce is available but made eclectic with a smattering of indigenous ingredients?

We have the opportunity to plan a culinary attack on the world.

The Dining Downunder team and numerous authentic Australian food chefs are pushing the boundaries as international hotels in all corners of the globe clammour for something different for their patrons. And wild ingredients are pouring out as exports to 32 countries and counting. Sure, we use Aussie beef and lamb, seafood and general produce but we really turn up the flavours with native Australian herbs, spices, seasonings, sauces, syrups, cooking methods and recipes so that our dishes have that unmistakably Antipodean taste.

We can be different, yet unchallenging. Stylish yet distinctive. It may not yet be the cooking of everyday Australia (but totally right for Australia Day celebrations).

And while we cook with fresh ingredients (like all world class chefs), we sign our offerings as our own, home-grown, uncomparable, Australian cuisine.

Cheers,
Vic Cherikoff
vic@cherikoff.net
+61 2 9554 9477

And remember to ...

Practice safe cooking .... Always use (cherikoff) condiments!

Australian food ingredients from Cherikoff Rare Spices

2004-12-24T12:14:00.000+11:00

I often concentrate on the penetration of Cherikoff ingredients into restaurants to showcase how they are being used domestically and in our overseas' promotions. However, manufacturers like Moores Bakery, Dick Smith Foods and McCormicks, amongst many others who use my products in their offerings, are making it easy for everyone to try authentic Australian flavours.

I would like to give you a little insight into the science and product development behind one of my trading names; Cherikoff Rare Spices.

The first step in the ladder is the analysis of the herb, spice, fruit or extracts from them. Just to give you one obstacle I encountered some years ago. I had collected this amazing wild pepperleaf from the mountain ranges behind Canberra. It was draped in snow at the time so the name 'snow pepper' wasn't too inspired but I thought very appropriate. And the flavour was this incredible peppery heat with a taste/smell coming through quite late of over-ripe banana and a hint of tropical fruit. Mangosteen maybe. Or black sapote.

So I thought; here's a new commercial variety. It's going to be worth millions! Well it still might be but not in the food industry and I hope I don't encourage too many entrepreneurs with my next comments.

I collected a bag full of leaves and laid them out to dry in the back of my truck to be analysed when I got back to The Human Nutrition Unit at the University of Sydney where I was working at the time. As it turned out, the leaves contained a compound which could have prejudiced the whole fledgling native food industry - safrole.

Safrole is a naturally occurring substance and has been used as a flavoring agent in drugs, beverages and foods. Safrole is an important raw material for the chemical industry because of two derivatives: heliotropin, which is widely used as a fragrance and flavoring agent, and piperonyl butoxide (PBO), a vital ingredient of pyrethroid insecticides. Natural pyrethrum in particular would not be an economical insecticide without the addiction of PBO as a synergist and the future of the natural pyrethrum industry is linked to the continued availability of PBO. Safrole has many fragrance applications in household products such as floor waxes, polishes, soaps, detergents, and cleaning agents. Oil of sassafras, which contains safrole, was formerly used to flavor some soft drinks, such as root beer. However, as of 1960, this use was no longer permitted in the U.S.A It has been shown to be a cancer causing agent in animals even though it has had no testing in humans.

The cruncher is that safrole is also an ingredient used to manufacture Ecstasy, a psychoactive drug that affects the brain's use of the naturally-produced chemical serotonin, which regulates mood and aggression. Safrole can also be chemically converted to morphine and then heroin. Hence the problem.

Diary notes follow: Great product. Huge potential. Evaluate night club market (only kidding).

There is still some safrole in our diets from spices such as mace and nutmeg but our mountain pepper and pepperberries contain extremely tiny amounts. In fact, the extract from the leaves which is a highly concentrated, green-black goo contains only parts per trillion of safrole, making it totally safe to use in food. The spice we use today, comes from wild harvests and pepper plants growing in valleys and up hillsides have been screened for their safrole content and only those plants passing our tests were documented and are now routinely harvested.

The same sort of approach has been applied to lemon myrtle, aniseed myrtle, Australian mint and peppermint, wattleseed and all the other foods now entering international markets as authentic Australian ingredients. Probably more testing than most conventional foods and hence safer than them as well.

So on to step two: I then took the ingredients and considered just how their actual flavours are best delivered. Many chefs find lemon myrtle a challenge and I can totally understand. It smells more than it tastes and being very volatile, the flavour can improve the kitchen but not the dish. The first step is to realise when to add lemon myrtle (as in after the cooking) but the next step was back in the food development lab.

The smell-taste of lemon myrtle is unbalanced. It lacks flavour on the palate (the tongue and the lips). We expect some acid taste from lemon, lime and lemongrass notes but they aren't there in lemon mytle. And so I developed Oz lemon which is a complete lemon myrtle mix and not only more intense in flavour because of the encapsulated lemon myrtle essential oils I add (that's another story but have a look here for more information if you're interested) but because of the aniseed myrtle, lemon aspen and lemon peel I combine with the best quality lemon myrtle available. Taste it for yourself and compare the colour of Oz lemon to any lemon myrtle on the market today. I am proud of only stocking the best.

I could go on to my discovery and development of wattleseed and many other stories but I'll leave that for another day and to what I have already written in the past. There's a lot covered in the Dining Downunder cookbook too adding to it's value as a reference book on the development of Australian cuisine and a must have for anyone reading this blog. Get your copy here.

Australian cuisine in Thailand

2004-12-13T15:50:00.000+11:00

It's been a week since I and Benjamin Christie got back from an Australian cuisine promotion we ran at the Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket followed up with meetings in Bangkok with numerous chefs from various international hotels. Have a look at Benjamin's blog for a great write up on the promotion we ran. There was the Loi Krathong Festival and local beauty pageant which coincided with the full moon on our arrival and then we took the reins for the start of our Australian food promotion. We had a la carte dishes in the Tea House restaurant, some contributions to The Marketplace buffet and Benjamin and I had centre stage for our demonstration cooking presentations each night from 7pm.

Working with the expat and local chefs was a real treat. Aussie Exec Chef Glen Roberts, showed us around and introduced us to his team then helped co-ordinate our offerings considering the Asian kitchens we had to work in. We experienced the magic cast by Prageet in the pastry kitchen and the support of Executive Sous Chef, Suwin and the supreme efforts of Chef de Partie, Prawit and the rest of the team. Thanks guys.

I should also mention that we wouldn't even have left home if it were not for GM Andrew Jessop who proved to be a real fan of our show, Dining Downunder. Andrew urged Glen to contact us to help out with some food ideas to augment an Aboriginal art exhibit being held in the resort. As time was short, it ended up easier for all concerned and feasible to get us to Phuket to run the promotion hands on. With more support from F&B Torsten Richter and my contacts in Vitafresh we got ourselves and all the products over on what was really only a few weeks notice.

So here's a bit of a photo summary just to put you into the picture.

Incidentally, you might have read about the Free Trade Agreement now being effected between Australia and Thailand. Well I learned a bit about how the Thai system has worked for a long time and probably will continue to work in the future, FTA or not. You see, getting goods to Thailand customs is one thing and political agreements on tariffs another. But if an exporter doesn't pay customs their expected tea money then goods have a habit of sitting on the docks for some time. It might be that you have to come back again later, or tomorrow or the next day. In fact, unless the gratuity is paid, it could be weeks before the 'backlog' is cleared enough for the right people to attend to the customs clearance needed to get your goods to your customer. Funny how it works and I look forward to collaborating with Keith Bell from Vitafresh for my continuing trade into Thailand.

Still, the response to and interest in our offering was terrific. We now have 2 more bookings for Thailand and referrals to 4 other hotels around the world. And you can bet we'll pursue these in our drive to promote Australian cuisine to the international food community.

So what makes our food so interesting?

And how does it differ from the fusion food offered by the PR chefs we hear so much about?

Well each world cuisine has recognisable dishes such as coc au vin (what else but French, even if written as chicken in red wine) and sushimi, paella, fettuccine, beef and Yorkshire pudding, borscht are all identifiable with their respective countries of origin. Most can be glitzed up for 4 or 5 Star service (well, maybe the traditional British offering would need work).

But I object to the often repeated claim that Australian cuisine is the simple use of fresh ingredients because so many other nationalities do simple food better than us Aussies. And what chef chooses to use ingredients which are not fresh anyway? In fact, in Zimbabwe, with little or no refrigeration, meats are often far fresher than in Australia. They just have to be.

This is an often repeated but clearly foolish description of Australian cuisine and one which belies the truth that most Asutralian chefs can't explain any differences in their cooking to that of colleagues in Tokyo, San Francisco and even London.

There is a difference and it's a wild one

What makes Australian cuisine truly different are the native ingredients which can only be found in this country. They are unique in distribution, distinctive in taste and their application yields dishes which are identifiably Australian even if the influence of the combination used is from another country.

grassfed beef with pepperberry and riberry jus

Australian lamb with a bunya nut farce and wild mint and macadamia nut pesto

paperbark smoked chicken on sweet potato slices and bok choy with Ozyaki*

Wildfire spice crusted prawn on rice noodles finished with wattleseed extract

Oz lemon creme brulee with glace quandongs

wattleseed pavlova with a wild rosella coulis and wild limes

Wattleccino** or wild herb teas

* Ozyaki is a trade marked, Asian inspired sauce infused with aniseed myrtle, mountain pepper leaf extract and pepperberries

** Wattleccino is a trade mark for a wattleseed cappuccino made from wattleseed extract and frothed milk.

Clearly these dishes might rely on some familiarity of the native Australian ingredients but it is the same with some of the culturally specific terms listed above. So it is a matter of time, education and promotion which is what Dining Downunder and Cherikoff Australian Cuisine promotions are all about.

We welcome enquiries from Executive Chefs about having us at your hotel and still have a few spots available after June 2005. But you'll have to hurry as they are filling up fast.

For my other readers, if you haven't visited already, please check out my websites at Cherikoff Food Services and Australian herbs and spices.

Anti-oxidants and Authentic Aussie foods

2004-11-22T12:11:00.000+11:00

Just a comment on the health aspects of Australian native foods.

We evolved hunting and gathering an enormous range of foods and severely compromised our nutrition by narrowing our diet to only those food we could domesticate. What this means is that most races reduced the range of foods they ate down to 10% of their ancestral traditions. Little wonder that we have so many nutritional diseases often called diseases of civilisation.

More recently, scientists are discovering enormous differences between the nutritional value in wild foods compared to cultivated ones. Sure, once correcting for water content, the macro-nutritents are roughly equivalent but the devil is in the details: Anti-oxidants are at record levels, for example, it is well recognised now that my analytical proof and scientific publication of the world record for a fruit concentration of vitamin C lies with the Kakadu plum (now used in nutritional supplements, cosmetics and foods to a lesser extent); additionally, anthocyanins in many wild fruits like rosella, Davidsons plum, Illawarra plum, quandong and riberries are also highly significant. In fact, a recent report by a doctor has suggested that Parkinson's disease can be cured with oral sprays of blends of anti-oxidants.

The interesting thing with whole foods is that the anti-oxidants also seem to come with other components such as folic acid, iron, co-enzymes and what are called adaptogens and which collectively, improve the efficacy and absorption of the anti-free radical compounds. There's a lot going for eating these super-foods rather than popping pills of synthetic cocktails (and just making the pharmaceutical companies richer).

Then there is a whole gammet of nutritionally beneficial phytochemicals in Australian wild herbs and spices and I refer you to this website for some information and here for a more detailed collection of papers on the topic.

Downunder taste of Jack Daniels

2004-11-21T12:03:00.000+11:00

A recent BBQ competition in Lynchburg, Tennessee was a huge event with an international contingent including an Australian team supported by Dining Downunder, Cherikoff Rare Spices, BeefEater BBQs, A & S Meats, www.travel.com.au and NSW Tourism.

One local BBQ competitor drove their fully sponsored, $1m pan-tech fitted out as a huge mobile BBQ grilling machine. So the Downunder effort faced stiff competition. Arthur Birch represented the Aussies and found some local help willing to lend a hand while looking good doing it.

The native Australian ingredients and even some of the dishes challenged the judges who couldn't get their heads around a wattleseed pavlova. Besides, it got snuck in without being cooked on the BBQ and even a splash of JD in the wattleseed cream didn't mellow their outloook.

However, Arthur fared better with his beef brisket which, after being inspected as a piece of un-marinated meat, got covered in Red Desert Dust and slow cooked for 14 hours on really low heat. It ended up scoring 12th out of a field of 60.

On his return home to Australia, Arthur was invited to the ABC radio studio in Nowra, near where he works as a parking infringement officer (and promotes his book "Not Guilty! Your Worship" on how to get off paying your parking fines - email me if you want a copy. They're $20 each and you could save this many times over by following Arthur's advice).

Anyway, Arthur cooked up a steak sandwich with Rainforest Rub on the onions, Wildfire Spice on the roo steak and served on a Wattleseed sandwich made from Moores Restaurant style breads (from Woolworths supermarkets).

It all got rave reviews.

So watch out Lynchburg. We will marshall a team for 2005 which will grill, braise, broil, bake and generally BBQ themselves into the record books. But first we'll have to find a few chefs who drink JD....

Packing for Phuket

2004-11-19T11:59:00.000+11:00

Only a little over a week before the next Australian cuisine promotion starts and this one's in Phuket, Thailand. I'll be at the Sheraton Grande Laguna with my colleague, Benjamin Christie cooking up a storm with my Australian ingredients in an exciting menu of Australian fusion made super special with the flavours of Australia.

If you're in the area, drop in and experience the flavour bliss of riberries, wattleseed, Oz lemon, wild limes and over a dozen other ingredients we'll be working into delicious dishes. We will also be representing Bega cheese, Springs Smoked Salmon, n'joi olive and Yarras infused oils on this trip.

How good is it to have the GM of this amazing resort see our cooking show, Dining Downunder and instigate our visit? Sure, the show's on in 30 countries around the Asia Pacific at the moment and we are getting a bunch of inquiries for promotions. So these will keep me living my life as a global citizen - these are definitely the Good Old Days!

Anyway, Xmas is almost upon us and if you're short on ideas for that cook in your life, please drop on over to our on-line store and pick up a few goodies along with our cookbook. It'll provide months of great dishes for you and your family and carry the Xmas spirit well into 2005.

Meanwhile, here's a recipe using Oz lemon which is a lemon myrtle based seasoning (but better by far than the herb on its own). If you haven't heard about Oz lemon, head over to my herb and spice site and you'll find plenty of info on this incredible rainforest tree leaf.

Over the next few blogs, I'll make up the ingredients for what I call a rainforest parfait ("Everyone likes parfait." as Donkey says in Shrek). The first component is an Oz lemon cream cheese. Now if you are in Australia, you can cheat a bit and just use the branded product, French vanilla* Fruche. Just sprinkle in enough Oz lemon as if you were seasoning it with salt and wanted to make it pretty salty. Stir and leave for at least an hour before taste testing and over night is good for full flavour development.

For my non-Australian readers, get the following:

100g (3oz) quark, cottage or farm cheese
100g (3oz) low fat sour cream
enough milk to make the above blend into a smooth, thick cream
1/2 teaspoonful Oz lemon
2 teaspoonful palm sugar

Just blend the cheese and sour cream in a processor or blender adding milk to make it into the consistency of a firm yoghurt (you can use a Greek yoghurt for this and just flavour it up with the Oz Lemon).

Add the Oz lemon and sugar (honey is fine here too, just not a strongly flavoured one or it'll fight with the lemon notes).

I usually make a kilo or more of this and have it for breakfast as it comes or on cereal or over fresh fruit for dessert at night.

You can also use the fabulous Easi-yo, Greek style yoghurt powders from that innovative New Zealand company. Just add one to one and a half teaspoons of Oz lemon and 2 tablespoons of palm sugar to their packet mix and make the yoghurt according to their instructions.

* Just a thought but when you invade another civilisation, dessimate their population and steal their resources, do they become part of the property of the Motherland? French vanilla? OK. The French ousted the English in Polynesia and took over rule from the native Islanders but since when is vanilla, French? If botanical names go back to original sources then it would have to be Polynesian vanilla. I suppose it is just another marketing ploy, just like the New Zealanders renaming the Chinese gooseberry the Kiwifruit.

Get more bums on seats in your restaurant

2004-11-02T17:47:00.000+11:00

Need an Easy Way to Get
Bums on Seats?

Imagine the profit from your hard day’s work if you had 10 times the business turnover that you do now?

Can you see your restaurant full all the time and food service pumping smoothly?

What will you hear your patrons saying about your food, the service and ambience and how will they be bringing you more business just by talking to their friends?

Yogi Bera might soon be referring to your restaurant when he said
“No one goes there anymore – It’s too crowded”.

Authentic Australian ingredients work for you:

· As interesting flavours for you and your chefs
· As interest-generating items for your waiting staff and
· As a major reason your patrons keep coming back AND why they will talk about your place to all of their friends

So if you’re an Australian food outlet and want to gain a real edge over your competitors, there is nothing like our authentic, self-promoting, delicious, wild foods.

We have aromatic herbs from the rainforests, which are as easy to use as basil and coriander.

Our pungent spices from alpine regions can be used like chilli, wasabi or pepper.

We have a roasted seed from the Central Australian deserts, which is fast becoming as popular as coffee or chocolate as a food ingredient.

Our moreish fruits cover the whole gamut of fruit flavours from citrus to plum but are quite new and different for sauces, garnishes, desserts or cocktails.

❖ But how do you learn about these ingredients quickly?
❖ How easy are they to get?
❖ How can you fast-track integrating them into your menus?
❖ How do you know you’re getting the best results from using them?

Just ring, fax or email Vic Cherikoff Food Services on the contact info below.

We were the very first in this industry, in fact, we started it. And no one knows more than we do about these unique ingredients and their best use in food service.

To find out how you can explode your business and make it worth your while to go in to work each day, call us to arrange an obligation-free consultation.

A SUCCESS STORY ...

An Australian chef chose to use our Australian ingredients at a restaurant where he worked as Executive Chef. We helped him incorporate our ingredients and passed on a few concepts to take advantage of the innovation and creativity in the food.

The restaurant was in a Sydney suburban business park with a multitude of take away eateries, several other (cheaper) restaurants and even an International Hotel with its own restaurant. There was next to no passing trade and you would think, an easily saturated resident market. So what happened?

Our Chef doubled the number of covers at peak times and increased business on what used to be lazy lunch and dire dinner days by 10-fold!

And it went on for years just getting stronger. More regulars helped spread the word about the great flavours and patrons made the trek to eat there, week in, week out. It eventually allowed the owner to sell his business at a handsome profit whereas only a few years before, trade was poor, the business was losing money and nearly worthless.

Was this a one off? No. This particular chef went on to another establishment up in the Blue Mountains and repeated the result, even landing wedding events with authentic Australian themes for $40,000 for the day. He is now at a newly refurbished seafood restaurant south of Sydney and the same pattern is emerging yet again.

We can also point to similar successes around the country and now we also have countless examples from restaurants, function venues, cruise ships, airlines and event caterers from the 18 countries to which we currently export our range of products.

Authentic Australian ingredients used appropriately can
significantly increase the profit from your restaurant.

Now you just have to act and make it happen. The choice is yours.

Kindest regards,
Vic Cherikoff

PS Use the busy Xmas period to establish your restaurant’s reputation as one that offers patrons something special all year. Use the added patronage over the silly season to capture interest and then build on it throughout 2005. Have a quick look at www.cherikoff.net/cherikoff/chef.htm for some clues on what to do simply.

PPS Call us now to join the ranks of the highly successful. Ring 02 9554 9477 or email me on vic@cherikoff.net but be quick as from 24th November I will be overseas for weeks at a time on numerous Australian food promotions as demand continues to grow exponentially.