Influence of Chinese Migration on Australia's Meat and Seafood Cuisine

Running head: PROFESSIONAL COOKERY
PROFESSIONAL COOKERY
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Part A
Historical event in Australia influencing the Australia’s meat and seafood cuisine
Food cultures of Australia had changed in past 40 years. In 1980, when Australia opened
the gates for the Asian migrants, many of the Chinese and the Thai migrants started to earn their
living by preparing Chinese cuisines (Wahlqvist, 2002). And virtually every town or the suburbs
have Chinese restaurants. Asian food was introduced to Australia at the time of gold rush in
1800. The Chinese prospectors yearned for tastes of China and opening a restaurant was felt to
be far better option than panning for gold (Wahlqvist, 2002). These events subsequently changed
the tastes and the methods of preparation of meat and sea food as at that time most of the
restaurants trends were based on the immigration pattern.
How the event has affected Australia’s meat and seafood cuisine
The meat, fish and the sea food cuisine are the native food of Australia that bears the
history of the aboriginals. The fishing zone of the Australia is considered to be the third largest in
the world and allows for a bountiful access to sea food influencing the Australian seafood. The
application of the different types of spices and sauces of Chinese origin has made the Australian
seafood and meat ever more delicious.
Some of the traditional food that have stormed the Australian market, but are of Chinese
origin are- fried rice, tofu and tea.
The cooking techniques that has been adopted from the Chinese method of cooking are
stir-frying, where the ingredients are cooked in high heat for a short period of time and the edible
oil are used as the heat conductor. Another method of cooking that has been introduced from

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Chinese cuisine is braising, which refers to addition of ingredients and seasonings in a saucepan
or wok, boiled with some water at the same time. Where the cooking method of “steaming” is
invented in China where it is used for steaming the dumplings and the buns in northern china.
Zhu cooking was also introduced in the Australian way of cooking, where the moist heat is used
where an immersion is required to transmit the heat. Some of the cooking equipment used in
Australian cuisine are of Chinese origin, such as Chinese spatula, that is mainly used for the stir
frying. Bamboo steamer is an innovative cooking equipment that is circular and have a slotted
bottom, allowing the steam to penetrate the food. It has the additional advantage of steaming
more than one layer of food.
Impact on environment and politics
Although Australia is a country that is rich in resources, but the migration of the Chinese has
imposed an effect on the environment of Australia. Migration has caused overpopulation of the
cities, leading to more consumption of energy. Overpopulation have led to environmental
pollution due to the consumption of resources. Competition for education and employment also
took place due to the immigration.
The Chinese migration was stopped from the year 1901 as per the White Australian policy,
but the chefs were granted with the exemption ad from 1934, the Chinese traders were allowed to
bring the non-relative worker chefs from china. Some of the typical dishes that came with
Chinese migration were the sweet and sour pork, black beans and the beef, with fried rice.
Four specific dishes that has been introduced in Australia due to Chinese migration are as
follows:-
 Sweet and sour pork

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 Peking duck
 Mongolian Beef
 Fried rice
Changes in serving style
 China is the home town for the chopsticks, the use of chopsticks has been introduced as a
tableware even in Australia. Chinese have invented the chopsticks based on the idea that
instruments for killing should not be used in the kitchens.
 A Lazy Susan is a circular rotating plate that is usually placed at the center of the table
for sharing large number of dishes among the diners. This concept has been take from
Chinese cuisine.