Australia’s ‘smug’ food scene slammed by UK chef
British chef Alastair Little has slammed Australia’s culinary scene describing it as having as a “completely unjustified sense of smugness”.
In an opinion piece for food magazine Nobel Rot, the chef said Sydney was 20 years behind the London restaurant scene.
“Australians seem to live on beef, oysters, prawns, Thai takeaway and brussels sprouts, all accompanied by enormous piles of splendid looking but sadly bland salads,” Little wrote.
“ … Yet, there is an overweening and completely unjustified sense of smugness about the quality of their produce and what they do with it.”
Little was a main player in London’s restaurant scene during the 1980s, but moved to Australia permanently in 2018, where he oversaw pop-up restaurant Little Bistro in Sydney’s Hotel CBD.
In his stinging attack on the local food scene he singled out Australia’s bacon, describing it as “not worth eating”, and said our fruit and vegetables were “at best British supermarket standard”.
He also lamented the lack of game meat, wild mushrooms and flat fish.
Sheridan Randall, 5th November 2019
