In his case the ingredients he talks about are native Australian. He is a celebrated Australian pastry chef who has lived in Sydney all his life.
The owned Blackstar Bakery whose signature strawberry watermelon cake became known as "the most Instagrammed cake in the world".
Having sold the bakery to work on other projects, he now runs an artisan cake shop and cafe, and has released Modern Australian Baking, a book described as a "masterclass" in using native ingredients to create pastries, breads and cakes.
The describes it as a "love story to the only land I have known". While his parents came from Indonesia, he was born in Australia and grew up "with a typical Australian psyche".
Having no indigenous ancestry, Thé does not claim to understand the connection indigenous Australians feel to their land, but as his own connection to the land he lives on deepens, he has become aware the modern idea of oneself as separate from the land, "the master of all I survey", is a dated one.
"Once we begin to accept our place within - not separate from - our environment, what we eat takes on a different significance."
While not advocating for a return to the days before industrial-scale farming, The believes people increasingly want to be connected to food in a way that is real; to be told we cannot have strawberries all year round.
"I believe we should eat in a way that connects us to the land. For the last 200 years or so, much of humanity has been acting like an excited teenager with their first pay cheque, hungrily overconsuming the land’s riches. It is only in recent years that we have begun to correct ourselves, slowly returning to a way of eating that respects, nurtures and preserves our environment."
As a society, Australia has largely restricted itself to the European-centric palate of its predecessors while ignoring the plethora of amazing flavours and ingredients their land has to offer, he says.
He hopes people will learn to make use of native Australian ingredients in their everyday lives, in particular in baking, and that they will become more commonplace to the point Australians will reach for lemon myrtle instead of vanilla.
"It’s about baking with an understanding of the climate and the land of this particular country, and the people who cook on it, alongside the unique ingredients they use. And it’s about doing things in a way that is in harmony with the land and the quiet joy this brings."
However, he admits working as a pastry chef in the Australian summer can be immensely frustrating and involves a lot of short bursts in and out of a cool room.
"When everything is going well, dough is supple and compliant, but it quickly becomes a greasy mess if pushed past its temperature limits.
"The temperature during Australia’s colder months is pastry paradise."
He includes a handy guide for native ingredients, some of which are available in New Zealand specialty shops and some of which are not.
He has suggested substitutions if you cannot find the native ingredients in his recipes.
THE BOOK
This is an edited extract from Modern Australian Baking by Christopher Thé, published by Hardie Grant Books. Photography by Chris Chen.
Banana bread with miso, macadamia and seaweed
Sometimes, in order to elevate an item, you need to think outside the box. The caramel miso buttercream and seaweed flakes make this version of banana bread an umami hit.
Although this recipe is relatively foolproof, you’ll achieve the best results using overripe bananas, which can be kept frozen and defrosted when needed.
Take care with the caramel: make sure the sugar is a deep, dark colour before adding the butter to ensure a less sweet and pleasantly bitter finish. Serve with nasturtium leaves and flowers, or whatever edible flower is in season.
Makes one 20×10cm loaf
Serves 6
Equipment
20×10cm loaf (bar) tin
Ingredients
½ quantity cinnamon myrtle sugar
Banana bread
150g (1 cup) self-raising flour
220g brown sugar
5g ground cinnamon
3g (1 teaspoon) ground cloves
3g (1 teaspoon) ground nutmeg
55g (approx. 1) whole egg
60g full-cream (whole) milk
100g butter, melted
200g ripe bananas, mashed
Caramel miso buttercream
110g caster (superfine) sugar
100g thick (double/heavy) cream
25g white miso paste
150g butter, softened
120g icing (confectioner’s) sugar
To garnish
dried red seaweed flakes
toasted macadamia nut pieces
nasturtiums or other edible flowers
Substitutions
macadamia nuts with almonds
Method
Preheat the oven to 160˚C. Grease and line the loaf tin.
To make the banana bread, sift the self-raising flour into a large bowl, add the sugar and spices and mix well. Add the egg, milk, half the melted butter, the banana and vanilla. Stir with a wooden spoon until just combined the mix should not be completely smooth and still have lumps of banana visible.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Immediately brush the loaf with the remaining melted butter and sprinkle with the cinnamon myrtle sugar.
For the caramel miso buttercream, add the caster sugar to a saucepan with 60g of water and brush the side of the pan with water until there are no sugar crystals above the water line. Bring to the boil over a high heat and allow to go to a light caramel colour. Turn off the heat and stand by with the cream while the caramel continues to cook to a deep brown colour. This should take about 10 minutes.
Add the cream and whisk to combine. Add the miso paste and whisk until incorporated, then pour into a heatproof container and refrigerate until cool. Add the butter and half the icing sugar to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until light.
Slowly pour in the miso caramel while whisking, then add the remaining icing sugar until the desired consistency is achieved. Transfer to a piping (icing) bag fitted with a plain 8mm nozzle.
To serve, cut a slice of banana bread and lay it on a plate. Pipe on small dots of miso caramel buttercream, then sprinkle with dried red seaweed flakes. Garnish with toasted macadamia nut pieces and nasturtiums, or whatever flowers are in season.
Flowering wattleseed biscuits
I know the end of winter is near when the sides of the highway are suddenly dotted with the bright-yellow pompoms of Australia’s national floral emblem, the golden wattle.
The flowers of this species are edible, but I don’t find them as fresh or delicious as fennel flowers, which look similar but are far more pleasant to eat. Wattleseed, on the other hand, is wonderfully nutty, making it ideal for crunchy biscuits.
Makes 10 biscuits
Wattleseed biscuits
160g (⅔ cup) butter, softened
80g icing (confectioners) sugar, sifted
20g (approx 1) egg yolk
240g plain (all-purpose) flour
20g ground wattleseed
Lemon icing
75g (½ cup) icing (confectioners) sugar, sifted
40g lemon juice
50g fennel flowers (3-5 per biscuit)
Substitutions
Wattleseed with caraway seed
Method
Cream the butter and sugar together until light. Add the egg yolk, mix well, then blend in the flour and wattleseed. Roll the dough into a log 5cm in diameter, wrap in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge until firm.
Preheat the oven to 180˚C.
Cut the roll into 1cm thick discs and transfer to a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until the biscuits have turned golden brown at the edges.
For the icing, mix the sugar and lemon juice in a bowl then spread over the biscuits with a palette knife or the back of a spoon. Top with fennel flowers to resemble wattle. Leave to set for 1 hour.
Cinnamon myrtle sugar
Ingredients
5 g cinnamon myrtle leaves
100g caster (superfine) sugar
20g ground cinnamon
Substitutions
Cinnamon myrtle with bay leaf
Method
To make the cinnamon myrtle sugar, grind the cinnamon myrtle leaves to a powder in a spice grinder. Add to a bowl with the sugar and cinnamon and mix together well.
Upside-down quince and quandong polenta cake
Astringent green apple-esque quinces undergo an amazing transformation when cooked slowly, turning an alluring deep red and filling your kitchen with a sweet yet fresh aroma.
In this recipe, the quinces are cooked in a low oven overnight and then made into an upside-down cake with the quandongs, which add acidity and complexity.
Makes 1×23cm cake
Ingredients
100g apricot jam, for glazing
Overnight quinces
750g caster (superfine) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthways and
seeds scraped
1 cinnamon stick
3 cinnamon myrtle leaves
4 quinces
Caramel
125g caster (superfine) sugar
50g butter
50g quandongs, soaked in orange juice overnight
Batter
225g butter, softened and diced
225g caster (superfine) sugar
2g (½ tsp) ground cinnamon myrtle
75g (½ cup) gluten-free plain (all-purpose)
flour
75g (½ cup) polenta
10g baking powder
150g almond meal
180g full-cream (whole) milk
Substitutions
Quandongs with dried cranberries
Method
For the overnight quinces, add 1 litre (4 cups) water and the sugar to a pot large enough to hold all the quince. Add the vanilla seeds and bean to the pot with the cinnamon stick and cinnamon myrtle leaves and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Peel the quinces and reserve the skins. Working one quince at a time, cut into segments about 3cm thick. Using a small, serrated knife, cut the core and seeds from each segment (set them aside) and immediately plunge the quince into the cooled syrup. Repeat with the remaining quinces.
Lay a large piece of muslin (cheesecloth) over the quinces and add the reserved skins, cores and seeds on top. This will keep the quinces submerged and add pectin to the syrup. Place the pot over a low heat and warm until almost boiling, then remove and transfer to an ovenproof dish. Bake for at least 6 hours, or overnight, at 130°C .
The next day, check to see how your quinces have progressed. If a deeper colour is required, increase the heat to 150˚C and continue baking until the desired colour is reached. Keep in mind the colour will deepen further when the cake is baking.
Remove the quince from the oven and allow to cool. Discard the cheesecloth with the skins and cores. Strain the quinces from their liquid. Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper.
To make the caramel, add the sugar to a saucepan with 75g water and mix well. Brush the side of the pan with water until no grains of sugar remain above the waterline. Place over a high heat and cook to an amber-coloured caramel, then turn off the heat and whisk in the butter to emulsify the caramel. Pour into the prepared tin.
Strain the quandongs from the orange juice - they should have swelled in size. Arrange the quinces in the bottom of the cake tin on top of the caramel, then use the quandongs to fill any gaps.
Preheat the oven to 160˚C .
For the polenta cake batter, add the butter and sugar to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and whip until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between additions.
Sift the dry ingredients together and fold into the mix, alternating with the milk to loosen the batter. Pour on top of the quinces and use a palette knife to smooth the surface flat. Bake for 50 minutes. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 20 minutes. Carefully flip the cake on to a cake platter and slowly pull the cake tin off. The fruit should come away easily (if any of the fruit has stuck to the tin, carefully move it back into place).
