Indigenous chef Clayton Donovan is an evangelist for bush food

Clayton Donovan grew up on Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung land on the mid-north coast of New South Wales and is Australia's only Indigenous hatted chef.

His Janning Tree restaurant received hats in the Australian Good Food Guide four years running before Donovan closed the doors in February to focus his attention on pop-up restaurants and workshops.

For Donovan every week is like NAIDOC week as he fuses bush foods, his Indigenous culture and modern cuisine in his pop-up restaurants.

PHOTO: Australia's only Indigenous hatted chef Clayton Donovan
(702 ABC Sydney: John Donegan)

"Now in my professional career to be able to connect [bush food] to the contemporary sense of food I'm interested in and include it in all the different fusions of food is really exciting," he said.

"I find it really important to make these foods more of a hero like they are in my heart."

When he was just four years old Clayton would go foraging with his Aunty Jess around their home in the Nambucca Valley.

Learning about bush tucker from his aunties and grandmother, Donovan's passion for cooking came from his mother.

"My mum cooked really, really well," he said, explaining that it was his extended family who got him out and into the bush.

"I was one of those kids who needed to be outside, so the easiest thing was to connect me to the bush culture, the food, and my belly," he laughed.

"They'd take me out the back and we'd go foraging for different food, different berries."

One of five children, Donovan grew up surfing and fishing with his siblings, and always enjoyed learning about his family heritage and culture.

"I just took it a bit overboard and it became an obsession," he said.

Donovan sees the fusion of flavours as a form of art.

"I'm really fascinated by the different flavours, the nutritional value of different foods, the uniqueness of what we've got in our backyard," he said.

In some ways Donovan is an evangelist for Indigenous ingredients as he travels the country opening pop-up restaurants and giving demonstrations.

"At the moment Australia is my whole restaurant and that's great," he said.

"I enjoy seeing the enthusiasm of people who have had this food around them all their lives but never tasted it.

"People have heard of these different myrtles and bush tomatoes, but when they taste it you see the look on their faces as they are amazed by the flavours.

"They're Australian ingredients that we have all around us."

Every day he learns about new ingredients from around Australia as information is passed by word-of-mouth, and he is introduced to local varieties of bush tucker as he travels the country demonstrating his passion.

"The other day a friend showed me an orange berry from the Northern Rivers and I'd never had it in my life ... it was amazing," he said.

The understanding of bush food culture was handed down to Donovan as a lesson in survival rather than as a culinary exercise.

"I was told 'if you're ever stuck in the bush you can eat this or this or this'," he said.

The 41-year-old father of two young children now enjoys sharing his passion for food with his children.

"Logan is only 10 but he loves food, he loves different cultures and his palette is really good," Donovan said.

"Cooking is one of the oldest rituals we've got and it brings families together.

"Our kitchen is the true heart and soul of our house, and it's really important for us to connect to the kids with our food."

Donovan spends rare time off mentoring in schools where he reminds children that to pursue their dreams they must be stubborn.

"Don't forget you taught yourself to walk so you can do anything you want," he said.

Source: ABC News, John Donegan, July 9^th 2015