Aboriginal Bush Food - The Vic Cherikoff Interview

Interviewed by Claudette Vaughan

What started off as his passion is now an internationally recognised business for cuisine's from all over the world. Unique, plentiful, useful and non-harming Aboriginal Bush Food and Herbs are simply wonderful.

How did you get started in native herbs and spices Vic?

My real learning curve came about when I applied for a job as a research scientist at Sydney University looking at the nutritional value of these native foods. That was back in 1982. By 1989 I had begun to select out a commercial range finding growers, farmers, wild harvesters to supply me with reasonable volumes of the herbs and spices. From then to now we now have an array of professional growers and some of them are supplying natives to the US market.. We supply Lemon Myrtle to distillers and to food companies all over the US .

Wattle Seed goes into bakery products in Denmark , Switzerland and Canada . We supply one company who uses an array of mixed flavours that I put together in a formulation which then goes into a nutritional supplement which is then used in a lot of clinics in China . We are slowly getting bigger and bigger in the Chinese market simply from this nutritional supplement based on wild ingredients.

Who is buying and cooking native Australian herbs and spices today?

All kinds of people, right across the board now. A lot of the products, as seasonings, are going into a variety of products from breads and baked goods through to ice-creams made from lemon wattle seeds. The restaurant industry is right behind us.

Is that where your target market is then?

The idea is the Australian market is unique and interesting with a new collection of herbs, spices, nuts and fruits. This can sit together with any cuisine e.g., Indian, Japanese, Russian obviously the Mediterranean which is so popular in Australia . But everytime we cook overseas or at national hotels we get rave reviews. We try and blend and merge our flavours in the cuisine to the country we are visiting.

What's the most popular herb or spice you get asked for the most?

It depends on the market. Wattle seed is certainly very popular. It goes into Anzac biscuits, shortbread and cookies. It used a lot in sauces, particularly mushroom sauce. It's popular in ice-creams, sorbets and gelato. We market it to bread companies particularly overseas to Denmark and Canada . Wattle Seed has a whole world of applications for example beverages which are hardly explored e.g., blended with coffee, on its own or as a component in a Chai tea. Wattle is certainly one of the mainstay popular flavours. It's also very nutritious being anti-diabetic and slow release and very good for you. Good for weight control.

Then there's Oz Lemon which is a composite lemon myrtle mix with a range of two native Australian herbs and two fruit powders that we make from dried fruit pulp. Also encapsulated lemon myrtle oil. That is just very, very popular as a flavour and its now finding a place in beverages, orange juices, in flavoured waters, wine, spirit drinks and beers - to be served with coffee. Obviously any food right across the board would be suited to Oz Lemon. It's a very versatile blend. Wherever lemon will go, Oz Lemon sits comfortably.

What about Kakadu Plum? Is it still used in your mixtures? I ask because it's used in a lot in cosmetics now and I wonder what its properties are. How do you use it?

The Kakadu Plum first migrated into Kakadu Plum jelly. It doesn't make a great jam because essentially it's quite fibrous but it does make a really nice jelly. That can be used as a glaze on cakes and pastries and so forth. It even has application as a glaze over vegetables. Of itself however, Kakadu Plum does not have a great deal of flavour. It has a high concentration of vitamin C. In the cosmetic area there are companies now that have done a whole range of vitamin C extract enhanced products that are reputedly good for the skin.

From your early humble beginnings, is it fair to say you have moved away from the single herb or spice into blends and synergies because a). these herbs and spices are better mixed and have a synergy effect and b). to accustom people to cook with natives, one has to blend them to show people how to cook with them.

It's definitely both. Doing an olive oil infused with Lemon Myrtle and Chilli is easier to sell as a Aussie Thai Twist rather than a straight olive oil and myrtle infused olive oil. People will say, "What's it for?" Obviously the creative amongst us will say "I'll taste it and that will be good over such and such food". You really need to cater for the lowest common denominator I guess.

Also, they are better mixed. That's why my Oz Lemon is far superior than straight lemon/myrtle. Largely because I can intensify the flavour with encapsulated oil well and Lemon Myrtle as a herb is a lot like Basil where you get a smell rather than a flavour. With Basil, for example, it's a lot better with Lemon or with a little bit of oil or turn it into a pesto with oil and pine nuts. Now that's a great product. Although it's a herbaceous aromatic flavour it misses, in terms of a whole lot of other palate flavours and so the Lemon Myrtle surprises us as it tastes lemony and citrus-like but has no acid with it. The Oz lemon is therefore a more balanced flavour. The net result is actually quite suburb.

What's in your Red Desert Dust combo?

Red Desert Dust started out as an industrial flavour. Its application was it meant to go black - almost like a cajun style spice so I mimicked it by putting in paprika and a touch of chilli and a whole range of complex peppers from mountain pepper and pepper berries. I wanted some slight lemon citrus notes - a little bit of a tang so there's lemon powder in it. By adding a little bit of sugar and some sesame seeds you end up with a product that is visually interesting and goes black with a little bit of heat.

What about Alpine Pepper. How medicinal is that?

Alpine pepper is a medicinal pepper. In fact most of the fruits and certainly the herbs were used equally as medicine and food. Many of the native flavours are still at the Crab Apple stage rather than a juicy apple that you can eat straight away. These native herbs are still highly condensed, nutritionally packed flavoured products. The end product from this ends up quite a belt of flavour. So when you're looking at the health aspects a). Your not getting tons of simple sugars as the dietary fibre is still there. Take the Illawarra Plum for instance. If you cut it, it is actually very mucilaginous and those muco-polysaccarides (sticky sugars) are obviously very important as part of soluble dietary fibre.

What was the Illawarra Plum used for by the Aborigines?

The Illawarra Plum was just eaten as a fruit, picked fresh off the tree. The Illawarra Plum is interesting because when you pick it the whole tree can be laden with fruit, you pick it then it will ripen over the next 2-3 days. So it's something that can be picked in very large quantities and then carried and eaten from away from where it was harvested. It's also a very refreshing fruit because of its water content. High sugar fruits tend to thicken the blood whereas low sugar fruits tend to quench your thirst. Kakadu Plum - when I first collected it - up at the top end of Australia - was described to me as dog-food. That meant that adults tend not to eat it but kids do. It was not highly regarded by Aborigines. Kakadu Plum was only eaten if you really needed to eat it but in typical Aboriginal culture you rarely did need to eat it because their diet was so balanced and well-rounded. It was only when we found it to be a nutritional oddity - the highest source of vitamin C and then finding folic acid and high levels of iron that it turned out to be an all-round super food. Aborigines then adopted it again as a food.

When your book "The Bush Food Handbook" first came out you were the first person to take seriously native herbs and spices.

I suppose in a way I was fortunate to be exposed in a way to a number of them. I started it off as a hobby because I like bush walking and eating what I found. I tried all sorts of things and then being fortunate enough to work in science and testing the nutritional compositions of these natives. I think I have tested over 400 foods so far. We concentrate, prepare, freeze dry and powder the fruits and the spices and all manner of native foods. It's quite apparent the flavours are very intense and very interesting.

We started looking at the medicinal properties. Things like Lemon Myrtle has an essential oil that is an irritant to soft tissues and mucosa. So if you have a sore throat and take Oz Lemon as a tea it actually stops the sore throat before the cup of tea is finished. The Aniseed Myrtle is also an immune stimulant. It picks you up and works as an immune stimulant and phytoestogenic - similar to the isoflavanodes of soy products. Things like the Alpine Pepper is a mix of both the leaf extract and also Pepper Berry rounded out with a blend of other flavours like Wild Rosella. This blend provides a dollop of at least 5 anti-oxidants. The pepper itself contains a compound called Polygodial.

Are there any problems regarding the growing and harvesting of native herbs for the mass market?

No. The general public are often unaware they are eating native ingredients because not all companies that use them widely market them as such. They go for the flavour not the name. There's a new ice-cream out called Maple and Lemon Myrtle and it's just a brilliant flavour once you taste it. If you want to try it people have to pre-order it in Specialty Food shops as it's so popular. We have a whole pot pourri of herbs such as Wattle Seed, Alpine Pepper and WildFire Spice all going into bakery products now. If you travel on Virgin Atlantic you may have Wildfire Spice bread on one flight, Oz Lemon bread on another and Wattle on a third.

Where can people buy your products Vic?

Online is probably the best way. Our website is: www.cherikoff.net

The shop is fairly prominent there. We are expanding in the next week or so because I am now marketing a range of New Zealand indigenous foods.