Plating true taste of Australia

Celebrated chef Mark Olive will lead Taste Great Southern attendees on a “journey of discovery and a journey for your tastebuds”, challenging people to try foods found in their backyard.

Also known as “The Black Olive”, the charismatic NSW Bundjalung man has been a chef for more than 25 years, combining indigenous food, art and storytelling.

Olive has hosted cooking, lifestyle and travel shows, with his The Outback Cafe series televised across the world.

In 2010, he was chosen to appear on Oprah’s Victorian itinerary when she travelled to Australia with her “Ultimate Audience”. He will showcase these skills at a three-course meal at the Lake House in Denmark and with a cooking demonstration and tasting plates at Zarephath in Porongurup.

Olive will arrive in the Great Southern a few days early to meet with Noongar people and gain an understanding of local indigenous food. “I’ll be designing a menu around Aboriginal food in a contemporary way so people don’t get frightened,” he said.

“Things like Warrigal greens grown down there, a native spinach, the Quandong, a native peach but very different in flavour. Other flavours will be introduced too, like lemon myrtle and aniseed myrtle, it’s part of the discovery of the event.”

Olive said he had a contemporary indigenous style of cooking, “bringing the flavours of Australia to the palate of Australian people”.

“I’ll probably do a pork dish incorporating all of these herbs, or even a kangaroo dish, understanding how to cook with these herbs and how to extract the most flavour,” he said. “It’s going to be a great event. It’s something that’s going to look very contemporary.”

Olive urged people to try local foods to discover their greatness.

“It’s about getting people to embrace what’s in their backyard; we’ve embraced every other culture food-wise, except what’s in our own backyard,” he said.

“We’ve all got curry in the cupboard, but what we need is a bag of lemon myrtle.”