Modern Australian Food, classic cuisine
and skills +Plus training
Food trends and food presentation are changing every 5 to 10 years. This has been happening in Australia, Europe and America for quite some time. Within and after these trends there was always a strong tendency to hold on to classic and traditional dishes. This tendency is fading by the next generation of chefs and customers. Soon we will reach a point of no return. Modern Australian is one of the answers.
Modern Australian has been known as mod-oz, fusion or contemporary food and reflects a culinary culture that is the result of a collision of cuisines from around the world. However there is no doctrine, set of rules or system in place to structure dishes under one roof.
The standards required in today’s certificate III are not perfectly addressing this development. However, the classic and traditional methods are still reliable and valid foundation for commercial cookery. And today’s young chefs are well advised to learn these techniques from the earliest point; and then develop and form their own style build on this foundation.Modern Australian cuisine has been developed in Australia as the nation searches for a unique food culture to call our own. Native Australian bush tucker has been used by Aboriginals for thousands of years. However, when the first settlers arrived over 200 years ago, they looked to the motherland for their culinary inspiration. Therefore here at skills +Plus knowledge about native herbs and spices are part of our repertoire well mixed and folded into many interesting dishes.
The Gold Rush of the mid-19th century brought an influx of Chinese immigrants to Australia. After the rush vanished, many Chinese immigrants remained in Australia and changed the fruits and vegetables available on our markets. New restaurants with very different cooking methods are established ever since.The second great culinary input came post WWII, with massive European immigration in the 1950s and ‘60s. As the Mediterranean immigrants came into Australia; so did traditional food like spaghetti, pita and baba Ghanoush. Korean, Indian, Vitamise and Malay- Indonesian influences are also widely present. And more people with their culture diversities and cultural
need coming every year.
Australia’s liberation from a traditional food culture of its own has allowed innovation to flourish in our kitchens, however it is important to note that “Modern Australian” cuisine is not far removed from other International food cultures such as those in America and Europe.The fusion food found in fine dining restaurants today often combines Asian and European traditions, cooking styles and ingredients. It is found in some of the best restaurants all over the world. In those fine dining restaurants the trend has also mixed different cultural influences from around the world; however these styles tend to be more closely linked with fusion food, combining these different flavours and techniques on one plate.
However skills +Plus is recognising this development and is going to take the next step:
We acknowledge that the fine dining area is the birthplace of mod-oz & fusion cuisine.
Higher educated and skilled chefs working in restaurant and contemporary kitchen; this group of chef is on the forefront of developing and creating new ideas and trends. Then there are followers how are copying and picking up recipes and techniques. Some trends are more solid and consistent as others, however it takes too much time until some lasting and well established food concepts are teached & taught and absorbed from the educational training facilities. The theoretical recourses need to be modified faster and more effective and then placed into the existing training system.
chef_skills_+PLUS is the playground for this culinary child to grow up in. The mother of this child is the traditional European, family orientated cooking style and the strong father is the French classic cuisine.
In other words the cooking methods are classic and taste and flavour is modern world citizen style. The ambience and service style more relaxed than in fine dining: the result is chef skills +Plus training in style food with modern dishes rich in flavour and served fair-dinkum modern Australian
Under this parentally guidance we are not going to download fancy words and dishes from the Internet and cooking up a hurricane of Confucius dishes; but we are cooking up a storm of taste and flavours in classic French inspired fusion cuisine. Here we are going to combine ingredients from different food cultures; as Australia itself mixes people from around the world. You are invited to be part of this journey.Enjoy traditional cooking methods, seasoned with the truth flavour of today’s world.
Horst Berger
European Master Chef
Chef trainer TAA
