Find fusion cuisine in Camberwell Junction

Fusion cuisine blends two or more cooking traditions together to discover new flavour and texture combinations and push the boundaries of modern cooking.

Food fusion can bring together cuisines from different countries, regions or subregions like South-East Asia to create new culinary offerings.

Popular fusion cuisines include Tex-Mex, which brings together cuisines from Texas and Mexico, and pacific rim cuisine, which is influenced by cuisines from Hawaii, Japan, and eastern Asia.

Chefs and cooks also experiment by creating dishes belonging to one culture with the flavours and ingredients of a different culture.

Japanese celebrity chef and restauranteur Nobu Matsuhisa rose to fame for combining traditional Japanese dishes with Peruvian ingredients in a style of cooking known as Nikkei.

His signature dish, black cod in miso, and Nikkei delicacies became sensations, helping him expand his restaurant business around the world.

Then there are food mash-ups like the cronut, a croissant-doughnut pastry invented in New York, and the turducken, which is a chicken inside a duck, inside a turkey.

The history of fusion cuisine

Food fusion has occurred organically for hundreds of years thanks to immigration, trade, and less peaceful developments.

Take pasta, for example. While pasta is a hallmark of Italian cuisine, many believe this tasty staple is a descendent of ancient Chinese noodles.

However, restaurants and chefs have been actively experimenting with fusion cuisine as we know it today since the 1970s.

Austrian-American chef and restauranteur Wolfgang Puck is one of the biggest names in fusion cuisine, testing the boundaries with combinations like buffalo chicken spring rolls and ‘designer pizzas’ made with smoked salmon, crème fraiche, and caviar.

In Australia and the US, fusion cuisine has had more of an impact due to their relatively short histories and lack of culinary traditions compared to the rest of the world.

European fusion

A new style of international cuisine was born out of France in the 1960s and ‘70s, known as nouvelle cuisine.

This game-changing cooking style emphasised lightness and freshness over the richness and heaviness of traditional French cuisine.

Nouvelle cuisine inspired new thinking and culinary innovation that supported the growth of fusion cuisine around the world.

In Europe, there are also fusion cuisines made up of culinary customs of neighbouring countries such as France and Belgium.

Some examples of French-Belgian cuisine are magret de canard aux cerises, which is a duck breast dish with cherry sauce, as well as carbonnade de boeuf à la flamande, a Flemish beef stew.

Asian fusion

Asian fusion cuisine combines the culinary traditions of various Asian countries, with Asian fusion restaurants growing in popularity around the world.

Take Filipino cuisine, which blends the different cuisines of Spain, China and the US with native ingredients and culinary customs.

In the Philippines, pancit palabok incorporates native smoked fish flakes, sauce made with annatto seeds from Mexico, and rice noodles and tofu from China.

Malaysian cooking is another example of fusion cuisine, mixing Malay, Javanese, Chinese and Indian traditions, in addition to British, Thai, and Dutch culinary influences.

For example, Malaysian seafood laksa and Singapore fried noodles draw flavours and influences from numerous cuisines.

Australian fusion

Modern Australian cooking is a form of fusion cuisine, drawing on the variety of cooking styles that have immigrated to the country over the years.

While much of Australian cooking was steeped in the country’s colonial past, waves of immigration from the Mediterranean and Asian regions introduced new cuisines after the Second World War.

Known as contemporary Australian cuisine or Mod Oz, this style of cooking often creates different cuisines with local produce.

Examples include roast barramundi with green curry, Chinese broccoli and snake beans, as well as smashed avocado on toast with edamame, dukkah, and chilli.

Find fusion cuisine, including modern Australian food, in Camberwell Junction