Dick Smith Foods - in the soup

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.


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Australia Day chopped for some

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!