AUSTRALIAN CUISINE : A CRY FOR ACTION

 

The James Beard Foundation promotes good food for good™. For more than 30 years, the James Beard Foundation has highlighted the centrality of food culture in our daily lives.

So, what is Australian cuisine? Australian traditional food is the result of Australian history. It has a foundation of British cooking from the settlers, with Asian and European ingredients from migrants. There’s our iconic foods of lamingtons, pavlovas, and meat pies – dishes that will continue to be reinterpreted over and over and native Australian ingredients are on the rise. Add some great weather and easy lifestyle, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a distinctly Australian cuisine.

When it comes to food, Australians have always been open to experimentation, adaptation, and innovation.  We’ve taken ingredients from all over the world and fused them with techniques and flavours from other countries. 

Today, whether it's food gathered from the deli, a well-chosen horsd'oeuvre platter, or a shared platter, current food is defined by the use of seasonal, local produce. This was not always the case, as lamented by Adelaide author, Michael Symons, in 'One Continuous Picnic - a Gastromonic History of Australia', revised in 2007 after being published in 1982.  

Unlike other societies with a dominant agrarian history, Symons says that Australia's citizens have not developed a true contact with the land; have not had a peasant society.  Therefore we haven't inherited a cuisine; in the traditional sense; instead Australia's food history has been dynamic, urban and industrial.

A cry for action, 'One Continuous Picnic', successfully launched a new Australian taste for fresh produce, farm markets, and international flavours - one that still exists today.  

"On launching the updated book, Symons says, "In the 25 years since writing the book, it has become easier to eat much better, and much worse, in Australia."

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