Mouthwatering contemporary cuisine reflects the country's diverse heritage

Australian gourmets enjoy the best of many worlds. The cuisines of all the countries from which Australia's immigrant population originally came from are well represented by excellent restaurants in all major cities. Modern Australian cuisine fully reflects that heritage. In addition, chefs are blessed with easy access to an abundant supply of high quality natural ingredients, particularly from the sea. This year's San Pellegrino World's 100 Best Restaurants lists four restaurants in Australia, two of them in the top 50. Attica, at No 73, puts Melbourne on the international gourmet map for contemporary cuisine, influenced but not overwhelmed by the techniques of chefs such as Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal. Chef Ben Shewry is from New Zealand, but calls Australia home. The other three entries are all in Sydney, surely one of the great dining towns in the world. Marque, at No 67, features Mark Best's modern French cooking. The legendary Tetsuya's is down 21 places, but still ranks at No 38 and has enjoyed a presence on the list since its inception. Tetsuya Wakuda's Japanese and French-influenced modern Australian cuisine, including his confit of Petuna Ocean Trout, still makes it necessary to book well in advance. Shooting up the list is Peter Gilmore's French influenced Quay, which has risen 19 places to number 27 and has been hailed this year as the Acqua Panna Best Restaurant in Australasia. Hong Kong has its fair share of Australian chefs and restaurants that derive their inspiration from Down Under, a number of which have opened in the past year. One of the most recent is Rocksalt (www.chiram.com.hk) in Stanley, a modern Australian bistro serving an all-day dining menu with a special emphasis on fresh seafood. 'At Rocksalt, each dish has been specially crafted and perfectly seasoned to bring out the flavour within the ingredients,' says executive chef Timothy Maudson. 'The menu offers specialities which are easy to relate to, with a few creative twists to classic dishes for those looking for something different.' One attraction is its range of Australian oysters from Coffin Bay and Bruny Bay, along with daily market special varieties which are paired with a chef's daily special dipping sauce and rock salts. Also, recently opened in SoHo is Coast (www.coast.com.hk) on Hollywood Road, offering contemporary Australian cuisine, including fresh seafood flown in daily from Australia and New Zealand. Other specialities include traditional Australian pies, such as mini-kangaroo and pork pies, lamb shank and chestnut pies, and filling Australian prime beef steaks. Chef Aaron Kearney is from Queensland and trained as an apprentice chef in Tasmania after a stint as a surf lifesaver on Bondi Beach. Melbourne-born-and-raised chef Brian Moore presides over the kitchen at another new restaurant with a heavy emphasis on meat. Steik World Meats (www.epicurean.com.hk) at K11 in Tsim Sha Tsui is a steak specialist offering premium cuts of beef from Argentina, Scotland, the United States and Japan, but Moore also gets plenty of opportunities to work with high quality Australian fare. Specialities include Australian grain-fed, 250-day stockyard beef and marbled Australian wagyu beef. Also offering an Australian take on steak is Wagyu in Wyndham Street (www.casteloconcepts.com), and the Wooloomooloo Steakhouse (www.wooloo-mooloo.com) outlets in Central, Wan Chai, Elements and Tsim Sha Tsui. The latter serve Australian grain-fed beef which has been wet-aged for 26 days, alongside fresh Australian seafood. Not surprisingly, the restaurants also serve the signature Australian dessert - Pavlova. If kangaroo fillets are what you are after, the place to go is Black Stump (www.chiram.com.hk) at Knutsford Terrace, Tsim Sha Tsui, which also serves Australian wagyu beef and grass-fed Gippsland Black Angus beef, Queensland spring lamb and Crystal Bay king prawns. For good old fashioned Aussie meat pies, Ned Kelly's Last Stand on Ashley Road, which has an inexpensive menu of pub grub best washed down with cold Australian beer, remains the place to go. Hong Kong supermarkets and food halls have a range of good Australian produce, including a selection of Australian cheese. The country makes more than 100, many of which are copies of classics from the countries whence Australians' forbears originally came, but which have taken on nuances of their own. There are also a number of fine Australian original cheeses. These include Gippsland Blue, King River Gold, Pokolbin, from the Hunter Valley, and Woodside Cabecou from Adelaide.