When the founder of Indigenous Cultural Adventures Gerald Power was approached by the owner of the Antica Australis Italian restaurant in Carcoar to co-develop a menu based on indigenous foods, the answer was simple.
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"I said 'too easy'," laughed Mr Power.
"I grew up in northern Queensland and at the time we were living with all these Italian migrants who came out after the war. So this event is really special for me because we both get to show off the foods from two very old cultures," he said.
Antica Australis owner Kelly Picarazzi said that she and her chef partner Paolo Picarazzi could recognise the similarities between how both cultures work with what the land has to offer.
One dish in particular, braised Wallaby shanks, initially had Mr Picarazzi slightly concerned as he'd never cooked with it before, but after the first trial, the pair are hooked.
"We had a trial last weekend where he marinated the meat in saltbush and native pepperberry and cooked it with bush tomato and some truffle infused local honey," Mrs Picarazzi said.
"This has always been Paolo's vision for Antica Australis wanting to experiment with Australian bush tucker foods and his traditional southern Italian recipes.
"They cook a lot with rabbit where Paolo comes from so we're doing rabbit on paperbark which gives the meat a really lovely smoky flavour,"
In true foraging style, the saltbush and pepperberry in the Wallaby dish were found by Mr Power on one of his regular road trips.
"They're all growing along the side of the road around Condobolin which is also where we get our quandongs for the dessert," he said.
In detail that dessert is roasted wattleseed and macadamia waffles with Lilli Pilli cream and poached quandongs.
Initially the Picarazzis planned on only having 25 people in their restaurant, but demand has seen those tickets already purchased, and now they're extending across the road to the Carcoar School of Arts and adding more tickets.
Mrs Picarazzi said the matching wine was also based on the southern Italian style.
"The wines are all organic wines from local winemaker, Antonio D'Onise," she said.
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