The taste of luxury: Australia learns to love abalone and black truffle

In the super premium food space, Australia has real form. Our image of clean, green and trustworthy producers plays well in Asian, European and American markets.

But the hunger for the best of Australian produce is encouraging our homegrown chefs to look at what we have and celebrate it on Australian plates. It's a story beyond just good growing; of ingenuity paired with the Australian environment.

On the outskirts of Augusta, at Western Australia's south-western tip, legions of "Abitats" – patented concrete structures – are destined to form an artificial reef on the seabed at nearby Flinders Bay.

Second-generation abalone diver Brad Adams pioneered – through Ocean Grown Abalone – taking greenlip spats from an onshore hatchery and ranching them in near-wild conditions. Ranch manager and diver Mark Wall says at any one time there could be more than 2 million abalone on the ocean lease of 413 hectares. Two kilometres out to sea and about 22 metres down, the abalone are in the current, the water pushing through and keeping the abalone fed naturally.

Australia is one of the largest suppliers of wild abalone in the world, with a reputation for consistency and reliability, says Sydney-based seafood guru John Susman. The ranching, he says, is a really exciting proposition. The Japanese market appreciates the point of difference, he says. The ranched shellfish experience feed and water conditions that may "give them a wild flavour and texture that's kind of unique… it's appreciated in a culinary as much as a visual sense [in Asia]".

Seth James, a one-time sous chef of Andrew McConnell, is now at the helm of Wills Domain, WA's highest-scoring restaurant in the Good Food Guide 2019.

Two years ago at WA food festival Gourmet Escape, James introduced Dominque Crenn, of Michelin three-starred Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, to WA abalone. She loved the product but had her own ideas about how to treat them, says James.

Speak to most abalone divers and chefs and they'll tell you a quick hard crack with a piece of timber, or even a stone, is the trick to making them tender. Crenn's method: administering hundreds of taps, leaving them super tender, "but then, she's maybe got the staff at home to go down that route", James says wryly.

Melbourne-based chef Scott Pickett of Estelle Bistro is convinced of their quality. "When I first used ranched abalone years ago, I didn't believe how tender it could be. I remember as a kid we'd get our bag quota of wild abalone, beat the hell out of it and stick it on the barbecue."

At Estelle, however, he's inclined to braise them overnight in duck stock, what he describes as a kind of "surf and turf".

As premium products go, few can beat black truffles. From the Southern Forests of Western Australia, to northern Tasmania and the Canberra region, there's a winter scene that unfolds: a dog, nose close to the ground, makes its way down rows of oak and hazelnut trees, a handler marking the ground in response to canine cues; then the gentle uncovering of Tuber melanosporum, filling the cold air with its enticing musk.

While truffles are cultivated in pockets around the country, it is the former timber town of Manjimup, south of Perth, that's claimed the international reputation.

"Export figures suggest that 93 per cent of Australian exports of truffle come from the Southern Forests," says grower Gavin Booth, of Australian Truffle Traders, who distributes much of his harvest and that of other small growers globally. He believes WA contributes up to 15 per cent of the world's black truffle production.

Globetrotting chef Mark Best (late of Sydney's three-hatted Marque), says the take up of Australian truffle, in Michelin two- and three-starred restaurants such as Thomas Keller's French Laundry in California's Napa Valley, has led to them being valued more highly overseas than they are at home.

Here, few chefs truly understand how to use truffles, says Best, instead adopting the approach, "Here's something I make normally but with truffle shaved on it; please pay more."

But things are gradually changing, especially among those who have had experience outside Australia.

Pickett talks of using them fresh over warm dishes, in sauces and even fermenting truffles for out-of-season use. He follows the Australian growing cycle, using the early season product from WA, before switching to Tasmanian, and then Victorian and Canberra region, to round out the short winter season.

So how do Australian truffles rate against the European product?

I speak to Pierre Koffmann, a giant among chefs.

He held three Michelin stars at London's La Tante Claire and was instrumental in the rise of many, including Marco Pierre White. If there's a truth to be told, then Koffmann, with decades of olfactory memory, has it.

"I'm very impressed by the quality," he says. "In Europe we have lots of rubbish truffle, where they look good but don't taste of a lot.

"I would put Australian top; they are doing very well. You have to say that is a beautiful product."

Details

Two Oceans Abalone greenlip abalone are available in Sydney at Peter's Fish Market and Nicholas Seafoods at the Sydney Fish Markets, and in Melbourne at DK Live Seafoods, Footscray.

Australian Truffle Traders supplies Quay, Bennelong, Capriccio Osteria and Lucios restaurants in Sydney. It doesn't supply Melbourne, but Scott Pickett (Matilda 159, Estelle Bistro) and Guy Grossi (Grossi Florentino) both use Manjimup truffles.