[White text on a black screen reads Kunle Adesua, creative director, Tribal Tastes. In the right hand corner, the logo for Gusto! A culinary history of Victoria appears.
A man in a houndstooth-check jacket stands near an outdoor café.]
Kunle Adesua: When I came to this country and entered the food business, I wanted to produce food the way I’m used to.
[People move through a crowded food market.]
Kunle: Food is eaten in my culture not as a result that you’re hungry or you want to fill your body – it’s a celebration of life itself.
[The front counter of Tribal Tastes market stall displays colourful packaged food and drinks, jars, a basket and dried meat on a rack. Smiling staff serve customers.]
Kunle: So that is why I named my business Tribal Tastes, the taste of the tribe’s people. I came to Australia 17 years ago. And the first public place that I came to after I came here from the airport at night was actually Victoria Market.
[A tram passes Queen Victoria Market. Above the market entrance is a colourful relief of farm animals.
Inside the market, people shop at stalls laden with fruit and vegetables.]
Kunle: The first shop that I went to was an Asian shop that actually sells plantain that we use in our cuisine. And I bought plantain, I bought okra and I was so excited and said, 'Oh, God, this place must be different from Europe.' The cuisine where I grew up and I knew how to do is devoid of dairy and dairy products, wheat and wheat products, sugar and alcohol. We don’t use alcohol in cooking or foods or things like that. No.
[Transparent display boxes and bags are filled with a variety of colourful grains and nuts.
People stroll past fruit and vegetable stalls at Vic Market.]
Kunle: We use grains, different sort of beans, rice and yam, different sort of tubers, cassava and we use millions and millions of green vegetable leaves. We produce food that nurtures, that heals, that … affects your whole being. It takes your whole being to the next level of satisfaction ... living. I don’t eat any farm animals to start with. And the very ... I think the second week I came here, I know where to get wild goat. And I know where to get my kangaroo. And I know where to get my boar, after a month. And I know where to get my hare. The same ... Within three months of my coming to this country, I was able to source everything that I want.
[At the Tribal Tastes market shop, a staff member talks with a customer.]
Kunle: The natural bounty or food, like the bush meat – the kangaroo, the deer, the goat, the wild boar, the camel, the buffalos, they are wasting away there. And these foods have ... This meat have no cholesterol. They have no hormones, they have nothing. They can only nourish your health. They are under-exploited.
[The deli section of the market is bustling with people.]
Kunle: Proud to tell you that 90% of our client in this shop from the day I started are mainstream Anglo-Aussie baby boomers and professionals. They are very, very adventurous and a lot of them are very well-learned.
[A Tribal Tastes customer tastes a sample of dried meat. A staff member talks to him.]
Kunle: And they are looking for something very unique, very ... and very good. And most of our produce are sourced from farmers that actually remove the weeds of their farm by hand, not by Roundup or by any of those things. So I wanted to maintain the purity and the sanctity of this produce.
[People wander past the market stalls. Some stop outside Tribal Tastes. Long strips of dried meat hang on a rack. A basket is piled with dried food. Bottles fill shelves.]
Kunle: The time for hunter-gatherer and harvesting a lot of food and wasting it, is gone. We should look forward to how food can be preserved in the old traditional way that is as old as humanity itself. My favourite dish that I like to cook and I like to eat is pounded yam and egusi soup and bitter leaf with bush meats. It’s very simple and very complex. When I eat that, if I die that day, I fervently believe and intrinsically believe that I’m going to heaven.
[People shop in the fish and meat section of Vic Market.]
Kunle: Australia as a country is very blessed. You can go for pizza, you can go for Vietnamese, you can go for Chinese, you can go ... oh, go to somewhere, Greek restaurant ...
[Seafood is displayed in a shop counter. Chorizo and salami hang from hooks. Bread is stacked in a window display.]
Kunle: This exhibition, I think, is a ... I see it as a celebration of the rich culture of food in this country.
[White credits on a black screen.
Production team:
Senior producer: Andrew Barrie, Lightwell
Production assistant: Fiona McCallum, Lightwell
Editor: Steve McCallum
Direction and camera assistance: Antuong Nguyen
Cinematographer: Gus Kemp
Interviewer: Tracey Judd Iva (Gusto! exhibition curator)
Exhibition manager: Edwina Bartlem
Exhibition coordinator: Eleanor Adams
Kunle Adesua, interviewed at Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne
Concepts and research: Robert Heather, Tracey Judd Iva, Ann Carew, Edwina Bartlem, Anna Corkhill
Special thanks: Rosie Fenech, Tribal Tastes, Queen Victoria Market]
[The logo for Gusto! A culinary history of Victoria appears above the words A State Library of Victoria exhibition, 3 August 2012 – 28 April 2013. slv.vic.gov.au/gusto.
The logos of the State Library of Victoria and State Government of Victoria appear underneath.]
[Three lines of logos appear on a screen.
Sponsored by: City of Melbourne, William Angliss Institute.
Supported by: Markets of Melbourne.
Program partners: Melbourne Food & Wine Festival presented by Bank of Melbourne, Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, The Little Veggie Patch Company and The Sebel Heritage, Yarra Valley.]
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