By Leigh O’Connor.
Mindy Woods’ love of food started from a very young age and comprises some of her very first memories – family life centred around bringing people together through food.
Fast forward to 2023 and this proud Bundjalung woman of the Widjabul Wia Bul clan has taken this love to a new level becoming the Australian Good Food Guide’s first indigenous female Chef Hat winner with her restaurant Karkalla coming in at 13 Hats.
This Byron Bay dining destination on Fletcher Street features locally sourced seasonal produce and native indigenous ingredients, alongside native-infused cocktails and Australian wines.
"At Karkalla we take ancient ingredients, the world’s oldest foods and create them into modern flavours,” Mindy tells AGFG. "Karkalla is not just a dining experience, it is a cultural experience that offers our guests a true taste of the country and an opportunity to connect with the world’s oldest surviving civilisation.”
Growing up, this dual MasterChef contestant spent weekends and holidays surrounded by friends, neighbours and her large extended family, gathering and preparing food to enjoy together.
"I was often under the feet of my father Gary, a trained Chef, around the family kitchen. Holidays were mostly spent between my father’s birthplace in Charleville and the Northern Rivers, my mother’s ancestral lands.
"My first memory of native food is along Patches Beach, where my Nan showed us how to pipi, gather coastal succulents and crack oysters from seaside rock pools.
"We were just children playing and having fun in the sun, but those memories and connection to Country and culture my Nan gifted to us would serve to pivot and drive my ambition to embrace and protect native food and its connection to our First Nations culture far into the future."
Pursuing a career in physiotherapy, Mindy pushed that aside in 2012 to chase her ultimate dream of a career in food, with the launchpad being Series Four of MasterChef Australia. After a fourth-place finish, she has gone on to immerse herself in the industry and returned to the television kitchen last year in the Fans v Favourites series.
"My two MasterChef experiences were very different for many reasons. My first experience was incredible and inspiring and reinforced that I was meant to and must pursue a career in food; my second taught me about resilience and my responsibility to be true to myself, my culture and my food.”
In 2019, Mindy returned to Country to follow her dreams of opening her own venue in Byron, fuelled by a desire to create opportunities for indigenous and non-indigenous people to connect with Aboriginal culture through food.
"Featuring locally sourced, seasonal produce and native indigenous ingredients, Karkalla is a nod to my heritage as a proud First Nations woman,” she says.
"I believe food is the centre of any great culture and to experience a culture, you must experience its food. I love that hospitality helps me connect people to our rich and ancient culture and the greatest pleasure in the world – food.”
Mindy shares her recipe for one of the most popular menu items at Karkalla – crispy saltbush with kutjera (bush tomato) and lemon.
"Our food was not just an ingredient our old people took from Country - it was a way they formed a relationship with their land. Our food often has three to four cultural uses and our crispy saltbush helps us share that story with our guests.”
Saltbush is a food source, medicine and a cultural tool for helping control and stop the spread of fire.
"Our menu and this dish are such great examples of the fact that our culture – the oldest living civilisation on earth – is not only surviving, it is thriving.”
As for the future, Mindy hopes to increase First Nations representation in hospitality and the native food sector.
"Currently, we represent less than 2% within a multi-million dollar international industry, one that is based upon our ancestors’ ancient knowledge and care. This needs a dramatic shift.”
Believe us, you don’t want to argue with her…she is a second-dan black belt in tae kwon do!
AGFG acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, to the Elders past, present and emerging.
