Cultural Influences on Australian Cuisine and Food Hierarchy

Introduction

Australia is one of seven continents and constitutes most of the Pacific region, both in terms of size and population (Compton & Warren 2008, p. 126). Indigenous peoples have long shaped Australian food culture, and immigrants arriving from other parts of the world have continued to transform it. The multicultural influx of people settling in Australia from around the globe greatly influences contemporary Australian cuisine.

Cultural Influences on Australian Cuisine

The objective of this paper is to discuss cultural cuisine in Australia. The paper draws on cultural capital theory and the theory of social differentiation to examine how cuisine has been used to establish hierarchy in Australia.

Culture encompasses the social norms, customs, morals, beliefs, and traits that guide people's conduct within a society. Food culture, on the other hand, is the ensemble of shared knowledge, attitudes, and practices that people bring to selecting, preparing, and eating food. It exhibits, to some degree, order, symbolism, and continuity (Bannerman, 2011, p. 58). Australia has a diverse culture reflecting the values and traditions of its people. Millions of migrants who have settled in Australia since the Second World War have greatly influenced the country's cultural orientation.

The influx of people from different national backgrounds has greatly influenced Australian cuisine, making Australia one of the most culinarily diverse nations in the world. For over 40,000 years, Australian cuisine was dominated by indigenous food. Indigenous Australians led a nomadic lifestyle as gatherers and hunters, moving from place to place in search of food. Before the arrival of migrants, indigenous settlers had already developed a satisfactory cuisine well adapted to the local environment (Bannerman, 2011). Staple foods of the indigenous people included Australian flora and fauna such as seafood and kangaroo meat. Other foods widely eaten by indigenous people included wallaby, emu, lizard, Bogong moth, snakes, and witchetty grubs, as well as fruits, bush berries, and honey.

In 1788, European settlers arrived in Australia through Sydney Harbour. British settlers were unable to adjust to indigenous food and therefore introduced British agricultural practices, producing Western fresh produce. After initial difficulties, they were able to produce an abundance of fresh goods. The British also introduced sheep and cattle grazing for the production of beef and mutton. For more than 200 years, the cultures of diverse peoples moving into Australia from around the world have broadened contemporary Australian cuisine.

When the British settled in Australia, they brought food customs and recipes with them. Some dishes still evident in Australia today include shepherd's pie, cottage pie, roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, Cornish pasties, and apple pie (Compton & Warren 2008, p. 127). Even today, European cuisine remains present in the Australian menu, and many people still follow the British tradition of a hot Christmas meal with plum pudding and brandy custard for dessert (Compton & Warren 2008, p. 127).

In the mid-1800s, during the gold rushes, many people immigrated to Australia with the intent of making their fortune. Most were from China and Britain, and after the gold rushes, many Chinese settlers remained in Australia and became market gardeners. Market gardeners played important roles in meeting Australian food needs, and by the end of the nineteenth century, labor-intensive farming had become synonymous with the Chinese community in many Australian towns and cities.

Present-Day Australian Cuisine

After the Second World War, the Australian government introduced a subsidized immigration scheme to increase the population, and many people migrated from Italy, Greece, and Britain. This influx of people with different national origins brought diverse cultures, customs, and food patterns to Australia. For example, immigrants from Italy and Greece introduced spaghetti bolognese and souvlaki. During the 1970s, migration from Asian and African countries increased, with many people arriving from Vietnam, Cambodia, China, and the Middle East — a development that had a significant impact on Australian customs and food patterns. Globalization and the development of information and communication technology (ICT) have also had a strong impact on Australian cuisine. There are now varieties of diverse food in Australia originating from many parts of the world, including the influence of Thai cuisine, with ingredients such as curry pastes, vermicelli, and lemongrass becoming readily available (Compton & Warren 2008, p. 127).

With the influx of people from different cultures, Australia now boasts one of the most extraordinary assortments of food ingredients in the world. During the British colonial period, settlers established a strong Anglo-Celtic style of cooking. Subsequent multicultural immigration from Asia and Mediterranean regions gave Australia a sophisticated and diverse food culture. Alongside Anglo-Celtic cuisine, the food traditions of Germany, China, Italy, Greece, Thailand, Vietnam, Lebanon, and Malaysia have all had a strong impact on modern Australian cuisine.

There are wide varieties of foods across Australian cities. Examples include prosciutto in Western Australia, chèvre in Queensland, and Brie and cold-pressed olive oil in South Australia. In Victoria, one finds assorted cuisines such as balsamic vinegars, while snails and milk-fed lamb are available in New South Wales. Much of the cuisine in the Northern Territory features mud crabs and smoked salmon. Australian cuisine as a whole draws from a collage of culinary influences.

Many factors contribute to the success of Australian culinary culture. A diversity of microclimates supports the production of mangoes, custard apples, strawberries, coffee beans, and citrus fruits. Lush coastal landscapes are suited to the production of farmhouse cheeses, and native forests yield honey with exceptional flavor and fragrance. Australia's vast coastline also yields succulent crayfish, oysters, and tuna. In temperate regions, a wide range of vegetables are widely consumed. In urban areas, fresh food is available at large scale through supermarkets, hypermarkets, and grocery stores. Spring brings Australian produce such as cabbage, mushrooms, leek, cauliflower, spinach, beetroot, artichoke, rhubarb, and peas, while summer yields eggplant, tomato, squash, cucumber, capsicum, and zucchini.

With this variety of available produce, many Australian chefs are quick to experiment with ingredients, drawing cross-cultural inspiration for modern Australian cooking. Over the past thirty years, Australia has become one of the most ethnically diverse nations on earth, and the current generation of chefs has brought their cultural heritage into the restaurant kitchen (Compton & Warren 2008, p. 130). Recently, two Australian chefs were awarded Michelin stars — the ultimate accolade in the culinary world — at London restaurants. The impact of British tradition is still reflected in Australian cuisine through the enduring popularity of meat pies, roast dinners, and fish and chips. In metropolitan centers, nouvelle cuisine and haute cuisine are also well established. Globalization has further diversified options, with organic, kosher, biodynamic, and halal foods becoming widely available, alongside a revival of interest in bush foods. More recently, Indian, American, French, Japanese, and Spanish cuisines have also found a significant presence in Australia.

Conclusion

Bannerman (2011) supports this argument by noting that cuisine and class have been clearly established in Australia. The author follows Goody's (1982) model of differentiated cuisines, which holds that differentiated societies produce differentiated cuisines. According to this model, it is primarily the upper class in Australian society who possess the resources and dispositions to develop and consume high-class cuisines. In Australia, stratified cuisines have been developed as the exclusive prerogative of a small, educated elite (Bannerman, 2011, p. 56).

Consumption data support this argument. Research shows significant differences in consumption levels between upper and lower social classes for certain foods in Australia. Ground coffee and tonic water, for example, are consumed in larger proportions by the upper class and in smaller proportions by the lower class. Conversely, a smaller percentage of the upper class consumes potato chips — a common and inexpensive food — while higher percentages of the lower class do so. The general pattern holds that the more expensive a food item, the more its consumption increases among the upper class and the less it is consumed by the lower class. By contrast, foods such as instant coffee and luncheon meat show no statistically significant difference across social strata, suggesting that price and cultural association are key drivers of class-based food consumption patterns.

This paper has discussed cultural cuisine in Australia. The multicultural influx from different parts of the world has had a significant impact on Australian cuisine. British settlers introduced beef and sheep meat; after the gold rushes, Chinese immigrants introduced market gardening; and successive waves of migrants from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East each contributed new ingredients, techniques, and culinary traditions. The theory of social differentiation and cultural capital theory together explain how food in Australia has come to function as a means of establishing social hierarchy and conveying social information, with consumption patterns clearly reflecting social class distinctions.

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