Meez on Plus - Catering across the Adelaide Region
Billie Cornthwaite’s love of connecting with and protecting the natural world
began with her childhood on a farm in rural Victoria. She never could have
known the journey these beginnings would take her on - a journey through
university studies in marine biology to the local catering business she now runs.
The key stats:
Year established: 2014
Location: Adelaide’s Southern suburbs
Energy: Mains
Capital: Food, labour, transport and utilities
Labour: 5 casual staff
Production: Event catering, longtable dining experiences, and community education
Suppliers/Inputs: Something Wild, Australian Native Food Co, Warndu, Alpine Game Meats, Wattle We Eat, Crikey Tucker
Markets: Catering for a range of events and convergences ranging from private in-home dining experiences to large-scale festivals and events
Ways to get in touch (include website and socials links):
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meezonplus
Instagram: @ meezonplus
What’s the project, in a nutshell?
For nine years now, Billie and the small, tight-knit team of staff she has cultivated around her have designed and delivered delicious spreads of food for all kinds of events. They range from intimate in-home dining experiences, to weddings, Fringe performances, NAIDOC Weeks and food festivals. They have even catered for groups such as the Australian and UK Space Agencies and NASA.
“I started my business just wanting to cook, wanting to entertain, and wanting to grow my own produce through a paddock to plate kind of ethos. But then I got more and more into bush foods.” Billie explains, discussing her admiration for the rich and long-lived cultural knowledge held in First Nations cultures.
“[Australian Indigenous cultures] are eating different foods, they have been foraging differently, but they have all been using the land the way we should be, not just decimating it and making it uninhabitable. They are working on a seasonal system, and that’s what we all should have been doing.”
Billie brings this passion for education about Indigenous Australian foods to her catering, but also enjoys working within the community and building networks that go beyond that.
“We get our regulars, like our Aboriginal Health Council or our Warriparinga Living Cultural Centre…. We’ve gone to Wirra Wirra Winery and we've talked to their staff about how they can explain what native foods are to people.”
“We try and help out in the schools [with native food gardens] so that we can show them how to use the food from their native bush garden in the kitchen… I'm now about as much front of house and education as I am back of house.” Billie says.
How did this all get started?
“I grew up on a farm in country Victoria,” Billie begins. “A tiny town of about five hundred people. My dad is still a farmer there. So I always knew where my food came from.”
“He would go and slaughter a sheep, but he would always use the whole product. So I always knew that whole paddock to plate concept. We always respected where that food came from.”
“That is absolutely our First Nations ethos as well. You take only what you need, you don’t be greedy. I think that’s a big thing that we miss a lot of the time. Don’t be greedy. Because there’s a lot of food wastage… I think it’s something we can all use in our lives.”
Billie studied and then worked in marine biology for a time, moving from Mildura to Adelaide. When she found work hard to come by with three young daughters however, cooking and catering were a new pathway she decided to explore.
Though she was already exploring the world of catering, her love of native foods wasn’t fully sparked until she connected with the eco classroom and bushfood focus at the school her husband worked at.
“I met Auntie Daphne there, and she and I have been working together for six or seven years. Now we do long tables together and she’s connected me with so many people, but above that, she has taught me so much. I owe her my endless support and respect.”
Billie was then able to steadily grow her knowledge and experience foraging and preparing native foods through online resources, her connections in the local food system, and her relationship with Auntie Daphne, an Aboriginal elder and Kaurna, Latji Latji, Ngarrindjeri woman.
Any tips for those wanting to start something similar?
“Getting a good network around me has definitely helped. I wouldn’t encourage anybody to just go out and forage willy nilly, but I do have some great connections.”
“Just keep Googling. Keep checking out local growers and local native food growers.”
“But also don't be afraid to put yourself out there and contact local communities. That’s never been my downfall, being able to communicate with people. If I look silly then whatever.”
“We’re all trying to educate, so there will always be someone who can help you or point you in the right direction.”
“Without getting into the politics of our First Nations people and the do’s and don’t’s… a lot of people are scared. What should I do? Am I doing the wrong thing? Should I say this? How should I address this? Am I saying too much? Am I being disrespectful? And that’s a fair call.”
“Essentially if you are wanting to learn about our First Nations people… You just need to realise that we are from a greedy culture. Whereas, you always need to give back. To give more back to Indigenous culture, don’t just take take take.”
What’s been the biggest challenge so far?
As Billie explains, there is a delicate balancing act in respectfully introducing the broader community to Indigenous foods and flavours.
“You have to make it accessible… Enticing.” Billie says thoughtfully.
“So if we do crocodile, we make it into a green curry and pump it up with flavours that are familiar to people.”
“If we can just make it a bit more accessible and not as scary then that moves us a step forward… The challenges are still trying to get people to accept [native foods], I guess.”
“It’s all about the education about the foods and how to use them and then bringing them into the kitchen… so to substitute warrigal greens for spinach for example. Instead of spinach and feta you use warrigal and feta. It’s better for you, it’s easier to grow, it’s seasonal and it was here first.”
Billie’s approach to blending flavours is creative and experimental, and bit by bit she has built a comfortable understanding of how to work with the many different tastes that native plants can bring to her dishes.
The infusion of delicious flavours from Australian native foods into Billie’s catering is almost always met with excitement and curiosity, however she is well aware that there’s still a long way to go.
“Some people are just not understanding or not really embracing dreamtime stories… if it’s something different it takes a little while for them to connect with it.”
“It’s just another hurdle, but I think the time is right, right now. This is the biggest NAIDOC I’ve seen in eight years. So that shows that things are moving forward, even though I don’t think the wheels are moving as fast as they should.”
What’s the best part?
“Let’s be honest, there’s not that much money in food. In catering.” Billie laughs.
“I do it because I love it. I do it because I love to teach and because these acts of service make it worthwhile for me. And then we can teach our kids and our grandkids… I think we are all about giving, and that’s why I do it.”
“[In the business] we’re all great mates and would hang out outside of work. We talk about our day during the day, or we talk about things our kids have done. It’s a big family, and I love that. I respect my guys for bringing their stuff to me. We just have a bit of a chinwag as we’re doing the job.”
Why should people support a local food network in South Australia?
“[There’s] so many benefits, I don’t even know where to start. We’ve been lucky enough to work with the Food Embassy, and they are massive in supporting local community and supporting local growers. And I mean local as in my postcode, you know?”
“It’s hard going for [local producers]. I say there’s no money in catering but I’ve got business every single day. These guys are just slogging it out so that we can have local food on our table, and with a local food system designed for our climate that can just keep rolling on… that’s hard work. I don't work as hard as they do, honestly. It’s just amazing what they do.”
“I know my local growers. I can look them in the face and I can see what they’ve done.
I can see their hard work… You know exactly where it comes from, it’s from down the road. These people are passionate about what they do, so you are gonna get the best product that you could possibly get. It’s all about the love they put into it.”
“We don’t want to get a tomato in July, we want to be working seasonally, and these people are all working seasonally. They work bloody hard. I think local food systems are pivotal.”
Tell us about the future – what’s next?
“We’ve always got plans.” Billie laughs. “I guess in the last year Meez On has taken a different direction where now I’m doing a lot of talking and a lot of cooking demonstrations.”
“If anyone wants to learn about native foods I am more than happy for them to just email me or set up a group of friends who want to have a cooking demo.” She says.
“Or we’ve had supper clubs at my house before where we just had some local wines and I’ve cooked up some food and we just have a bit of a chinwag about what’s going on.”
“It’s all just getting that message out there and getting people engaged, and having that experience that makes them feel like they want to learn more. We’re all about that. We’re creating menus, we’re curating long tables for people.”
“Every day there’s something different, so I’m so grateful for that and for all the people around SA who have embraced this.”
“You can make a difference and do something you love and still call it work.” Billie says. “Not that I call my daily slog work. It’s just… who I am.”
