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Exploring our people, places and produce: Ochre

Trailblazing mod-Oz diner has been delivering its stylish take on indigenous ingredients in Cairns for two decades.

Diana Jenkins

Local influence: Twice-cooked pork belly with a seared Queensland scallop.
Local influence: Twice-cooked pork belly with a seared Queensland scallop.Supplied

If the mention of native Australian ingredients makes you think of Crocodile Dundee and kitsch "bush tucker" references from last century, it's high time to reacquaint yourself with the concept - and Craig Squires is just the man to do some present day knife-wielding. Chef owner of the Cairns institution Ochre, Squires has been perfecting the use of native flora and fauna in his menus of modern Australian cuisine for the past 20 years. It's no wonder claims of trailblazing by other chefs leave him feeling a little bemused.

"I've been using bush foods for 25 years," he says. "There are some 'name' chefs using natives now and sort of claiming this great ambassadorship of using native foods, which makes me laugh a bit ... We've been doing it for a long time."

Squires is quick to acknowledge that belated industry recognition of bush ingredients – including quandongs, pepper leaf, bush tomatoes, wattle seed, lemon myrtle, lemon aspen and much more – is great for the long-term viability of this burgeoning niche market.

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"It's good there are more people using it," he concedes, "because it'll make the industry more sustainable."

Greater demand might shift suppliers' thinking in new directions too, moving "more toward farming rather than gathering or native harvesting, which has been the main source of bush foods: harvesting them from the wild. If demand increases, supply will tighten up, and hopefully more people will see the opportunities for farming."

With the current "Favourites" menu featuring the restaurant's signature dish of salt and native pepper leaf crocodile and prawn, as well as such mouth-watering offerings as tempura Gulf bugs on lemongrass with green papaya salad and sweet chilli lemon myrtle, and twice-cooked pork belly with a seared Queensland scallop, Davidson plum jam and cauliflower puree, it's clear Ochre isn't trading on any witchetty grub gimmickry to make its case. It's a refined offering for the discerning diner, a legacy of care and imagination spanning more than two decades – not to mention several continents, as Squires regularly takes his native Australian taste sensations on tour.

Reacquaint yourself with bush tucker at Ochre in Cairns.
Reacquaint yourself with bush tucker at Ochre in Cairns.Supplied

Squires characterises the region's dominant seasons not just as wet and dry but as "mango and no mango"; the mangoes are out October to April and Ochre's menu changes to suit, delivering lighter dishes more appropriate to the steamy conditions. It's a consideration prompting combinations with origins far beyond our shores, Squires adds: "Bush ingredients like northern tamarind marry really well into tropical south-east Asian cuisines." With mango season looming, and access to "the greatest range of regional produce in the country", Ochre's latest menu invites diners to swelter in style.

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Swelter in style with Ochre favourites

  • Salt and native pepper leaf crocodile and prawn
  • Tempura Gulf bugs on lemongrass with green papaya salad and sweet chilli lemon myrtle
  • Twice-cooked pork belly with a seared Queensland scallop
  • Davidson plum jam and cauliflower puree
Ochre's Craig Squires has worked with indigenous foods for 25 years.
Ochre's Craig Squires has worked with indigenous foods for 25 years.Supplied

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