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

To enter a brave new world of flavours, visit Infuse in Camberwell.

Following renovations and a complete overhaul, the restaurant reopened in October 2016 to offer food lovers a culinary experience that pushes the boundaries of traditional cooking.

With more than 15 years’ experience cooking a range of Asian cuisines, Infuse’s co-owner and chef Mick Huang saw an opportunity to blend authentic Asian flavours with a western touch. He runs the business with Greg Lee, who has also played a key role in designing the dishes and creating the concept of the restaurant.

Although Huang trained to prepare and cook Asian cuisine in traditional ways, he was always keen to experiment in the kitchen.

“I was looking for a different concept. I noticed that some incredible Asian food was not being embraced in western cultures, especially when it came to dining out,” he said.

“So, I decided to fuse the traditional flavours of Asian cuisine with modern, westernised cooking techniques and presentation.”

One example is Infuse’s pork belly dish. Huang said pork belly would traditionally be marinated and roasted in an oven when cooked in Asia, but he has adopted the popular westernised method of slow-cooking the meat. He then brings in Asian elements like Chinese five-spice and Vietnamese-inspired rice crisps and adds another western touch – apple puree. The result is a delightful fusion of flavour.

Huang said he had to experiment a lot in the kitchen when developing recipes to ensure the combination of different flavours, cooking techniques and presentation worked.

“We can’t follow a traditional recipe because we’re trying to do something different,” he said.

“It’s about finding the balance in the flavour. I’m always asking: do we have to balance sweet with sour flavours? Do I need to add some crunchy texture? We’re always thinking about ways to balance a dish while keeping it interesting.”

A one-stop eatery

Infuse not only blends the flavours on their menu, it also combines a café environment with restaurant-quality food and a bar menu to match.

The eatery is almost round-the-clock and is an ideal choice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Guests can pop in for a quick breakfast of coffee and a toastie, call in for a light lunchtime salad, or take their time to enjoy a long and slow dinner with multiple courses. The restaurant is an option for evening drinks too, with an extensive beer, wine and cocktail list on offer.

The breakfast menu leans more towards a westernised meal – expect smashed avocado on toast, buttermilk pancakes and eggs your way – while flavours become more interesting for lunch and dinner.

One of the restaurant’s most popular lunch and dinner dishes is the Atlantic salmon with grain salad and miso caramel, as well as the seared tuna salad (pictured, above) which incorporates fresh ingredients like cos lettuce and mango.

“The tuna salad has got that sashimi taste but then it’s seared on the outside. And the peanut sauce, which is slightly sour, has a distinct Asian flavour,” Huang said.

A place to feel at home

Venue manager Amy Zhang said Infuse was focused on giving customers a friendly and local experience.

Some of the restaurant’s staff members have been around for years, serving at the site when it was run under previous businesses, and have cultivated a loyal relationship with regular visitors.

“We want to offer that local quality and give people a reason to keep coming back. We want to make people feel like they’re at home when they visit Infuse,” Zhang said.

Offering quality customer service is also a strong focus for Infuse.

With front-of-house staff working closely with those in the kitchen, “there’s no tip-toeing around what customers want”, Zhang said.

This close communication among the team means that dishes can be easily altered to a customer’s preference, and the menu is a direct reflection of what the people want.

“A lot of our specials are a result of customer feedback,” Zhang said.

“We’ve had a lot of people ask for dishes like porridge for breakfast and soups for lunch, so we pass that on to the chefs who then develop specials around what the customers want.”

But it’s about more than the food at Infuse.

The small dishes and sharing plates for dinner, in particular, encourages people to enjoy a relaxed atmosphere and gradually order food while they sip on a glass of wine. It’s all about appreciating the dining experience in your own time, Zhang said.

“For us, coming from an Asian background, eating is all about a sharing experience. We really encourage that sharing element and bringing people together over food,” she said.

“The infusion element is going beyond the food, it’s part of the experience as well.”

Visit the restaurant

Infuse

2 Burke Avenue, Camberwell (next to Coles entrance at The Well)

Phone: (03) 9813 1333.