7 Restaurants to try Weird and Wonderful Ingredients

Pigface? Barbounia? Heirloom squash? These innovative chefs are searching out new ingredient and making them delicious.

Moxhe, Bronte

Belgian-born chef David Coumont has embraced the weird ingredients of his adopted home at Moxhe, particularly lesser-known seafood including barbounia, rosy jobfish and scampi caviar. He also bakes his bread using the ancient grain, khorasan, also known as kamut.
65B Macpherson Street, Bronte, NSW; (02) 8937 0886

Wasabi, Noosa Heads

One of Queensland’s most perennially celebrated restaurants, Wasabi boasts its own kitchen garden that grows a rainbow of exotic Japanese edible plants including seri leaf, shiso seed, Hakkanou (Japanese menthol), Ashitaba (tomorrow leaf), Japanese prickly ash and more.
2 Quamby Place, Noosa Heads, Queensland; (07) 5449 2443

Africola, Adelaide

Chef Duncan Welgemoed harvests South Australian kelp from beaches near his restaurant, which he then dehydrates and grinds to a powder or toasts to serve with his South African-style grills.
4 East Terrace, South Australia; (08) 8223 3885

Wildflower, Perth

The menu at Wildflower changes with the traditional calendar of the local Noongar people. Native ingredients are a staple of this inventive menu including bottlebrush and Geraldton wax.
Corner St Georges Terrace and Barrack Street, Perth, Western Australia; (08) 6168 7855

Firedoor, Sydney

There’s not much chef Lennox Hastie won’t pop on the charcoal but his focus is always on fresh, tasty and delicious. In winter, he looks for heirloom squashes and gourds such as Galeux d’Eysines squash roast up beautifully over the flames.
23-33 Mary Street, Sydney, NSW; (02) 8204 0800

Saint Peter, Paddington

Not only does chef Josh Niland like his customers to try unusual species such as mirror dory and Mooloolaba broadbill but in the name of both sustainability and deliciousness he’ll also whip up some fish offal, including fish liver pate and even fish eyes.
388 Oxford Street, Paddington, NSW

Polperro, Red Hill

Michael Demagistris, who earned his cooking stripes at Noma in Copenhagen, likes to create unique pairings on the plate: barramundi with pigface (a hot-pink native succulent) and smoked bone broth or wallaby tartare with cured duck yolk and baby cucumbers.
150 Red Hill, Red Hill, Victoria; (03) 5989 2471