mindy woods is a chef highlighting the native flavours of australia

For any MasterChef super-fans out there, it’s a safe bet that you’re already aware of Mindy Woods’ cooking prowess. Originally starring in the fourth season in 2012 and placing fourth, then returning to season 12 earlier this year, Mindy has also been a culinary powerhouse outside of the show by representing Australia at the 2021 World Food Expo in Dubai as well as starting her own restaurant in Byron Bay, Karkalla, named after the Indigenous name for Australian pig face (which is a lot nicer, we reckon).

We recently sat down with Mindy to discuss her career, some of her favourite ingredients to use in her cooking, and what she’s been up to since her days on the cult-classic TV show. 

Howdy Mindy! Tell us a bit about yourself. Hello! I am a chef, restaurateur and a proud Bundjalung woman of the Widjabul Wia-bul clan.

When did you first realise that cooking is your passion? From the get-go, it began when I was a little girl hanging around my dad. He's a trained chef, and I remember being in the kitchen and being so enchanted. I feel like I love food even more now because I love how food connects people together and telling stories over the dinner table has always been such a tradition in my family.

Talk to us about native ingredients and why they mean so much to you. One of my earliest memories includes walking in Country with my big extended family up on the North Coast. My mum, my auntie, and I would spend all day picking natural ingredients across all the beautiful beaches in our region. I’ve always felt such a strong connection to food and how it connects to my culture. It helped my love for cooking and food flourish, and it made me realise just how important native ingredients and dishes are for not only First Nations people but for all Australians in order to get a real sense of this Country and a real sense of belonging. I love Australia because we are multicultural, and that brings all the beautiful different foods from all over the world. What we fail to recognise, however, is that the oldest living civilisation also has some delicious recipes to share and I wish that Aboriginal dishes were more well-known.

What are some of your favourite ingredients that you like to use? Oh, so many! What a lot of people might not know is that macadamias are actually native to Australia, so it’s a shame that only a small part of our natural ingredients are enjoyed and people might not even realise they’re native. We also have so many beautiful fruits like dooja or Australian round lime, finger lime, quandong, Davidson’s plum and so many more. And then, of course, we have Warrigal Greens, lemon myrtle, mountain pepper, and an abundance of seafood, too. I wish these ingredients were more accessible and well-known to everyday Australians.

What’s your favourite meal to cook? I love to integrate native ingredients into well-known dishes, which just goes to show how adaptable these ingredients are. I also love to make curries, since I spent a part of my childhood growing up in Malaysia. I really fell in love with Southeast Asian cooking, and so I use things such as lemon myrtle to help merge the two cuisines.

What was it like talking to Julie Zemiro in Great Australian Walks about native ingredients? It was lovely chatting to Julie. I remember we were picking native karkulla – also known as Australian pig face – since it's got the most beautiful flavour that we use to season our meat because it's got a really nice and salty quality about it. It was incredible to connect not only with the ancient knowledge from First Nations people but also to the modern audience on how useful the plants around you can be in cooking.

What do you hope people will take away from talking about native ingredients? I hope people become inspired to go out and start looking for the ingredients I talk about. I also hope that people consider growing them at home, because that way you can make ingredients that are native to Country that also taste excellent, and they're going to help increase biodiversity in your own backyard. My hope is they're going to have a sense of belonging to this beautiful Country. I really want all Australians to feel a sense of belonging.

Talk to me about your experiences on MasterChef Australia, what inspired you to return to the screen? So, I guess it was a bit of a new platform for me to try and show off my skills! It’s such a huge opportunity and it's got such an international presence. It allowed me to show off Indigenous ingredients and food, and connect culture to a much wider audience.

What’s on the horizon for you? At the moment, I'm really excited to be working on products of native ingredients so that all Australians can begin to access them, and I especially want our communities to have access to them. I believe our Country has a food identity and I really want more people to embrace it.